Prioritize your Life

– But I’m Tired

– Benefits of Regular Exercise

– Benefits of Eating Healthy

How to make Exercise a Part of Your Life

– No Time for the Gym?

– Hitting the Gym

Staying Fit: What do you Eat?
– Eating as a Family
– Best Foods for your Plate
As a mother, you devote much of your time to caring for your children, ensuring that they’re always well taken care of, healthy, and as happy as life will allow. But, to be the best mom that you can be it is important that you take time to care for yourself, too! Life as a mom is usually filled with long days and busy nights, with little time for extras thrown into the mix. Exercise, as delightful as it would be, is nothing more than a dream, so you feel. What if you knew that you could exercise even with a busy life with children? What if we told you that it is possible to look your best; feel your best as you tote your toddler on your hip? Exercise keeps you healthy and improves your overall well-being, ensuring that you’re able to spend many more memorable days with the munchkins you call your own.
Along with staying physically active, maintaining healthy eating habits is also vital to your well-being as a mother. You’ve probably heard the old saying ‘you are what you eat’ and the statement is so very true! No, you won’t turn into a banana after indulging in this potassium-rich treat, but you will thrive from the inside out as your body receives the nutrients that helps it be at its best! On the other hand, if your diet consists of frozen entrees and candy and sweets, your body lacks the nutrients that it needs, thus it is incapable of providing you the vital essence of life. Just like the automobile sitting in the garage needs oil, transmission fluid and regular upkeep, your body, too, needs those vital nutrients to thrive.

Prioritize Your Life

Just as you schedule business meetings and parent teacher conferences, somehow scheduling them into your already busy agenda, finding time for exercise and proper diet is important. Once you change your train of thought and understand the importance of fitness, prioritizing these things on your to-do list becomes far easier.

Although some people may consider exercise as an activity that is okay to complete ‘when there is time,’ the truth is that exercise is a key competent to your vitality, your energy, your emotions and feeling, and your overall good health. It isn’t okay to exercise when you feel like it or when there is time because as a mom it is unlikely those opportunities are ever going to present themselves to you. You’ll procrastinate and procrastinate until one day you look in the mirror, unhappy with the woman looking back at you. You’ll lie awake in the bed wishing that you had more energy or that you’d only listened to the doctor when he told you to exercise. Exercise must be a priority in your life. No matter how many tiny fingers and toes you count to sleep each night, you can find 10 -15 minutes each day to devote to exercise, if only you consider it a priority.

The same rule applies to the foods that you’re eating. You must make a conscience decision that you want to be healthy, happy, and at your best, understanding that it all starts with the foods that are on your plate. You must decide that you want to be a positive role model for your children and one that is there to cheer them on for many more happy years to come. If you continue to procrastinate, you’ll never make the changes that are needed to help you thrive. You won’t need to eliminate all of the delicious foods that you love from your diet, but you will need to add those that provide the essentials that keep you at your best day in and day out.
But I’m Tired

You’re going to be tired when you’re caring for extra lives aside from your own. Who wouldn’t want anything more than to hug their pillows tight after a day of chasing little people around? That is a natural feeling but one that you cannot allow to bring you down. As they say, when the going gets tough, you get going! As a mother, you’ll need to put your Supermom cape on every single day. This happens to be one of those occasions. Besides, there is a good chance that you’re tired because you’re not getting the exercise that you need! Sure, chasing the little ones burns a few calories, but it does nothing to tone your body or to keep you in shape. Often it isn’t even beneficial enough to show results!

When you’re tired and worn out from caring for the kids, your career, your relationship and all of life’s other duties, remember that eating right and exercise are that important; it is a priority in life now and must be done. Once you begin moving around and circulating the blood flow in your body, eating healthier foods and eliminating some of the not so good for you foods, those feelings of tiredness are likely going to go away and you’ll feel energized and invigorated! Knowing that you have fans watching from the sidelines should provide the motivation necessary to make these changes.
Benefits of Regular Exercise

As you begin to prioritize your life to include exercise, learning the extraordinary benefits offered by the addition of simple physical activity will certainly make it easier to want to get out there and get going. When you make exercise a regular part of your life, the following are all benefits you can expect to enjoy:
– Help maintain proportionate weight
– Lower your heart rates
– Stronger
– Improve bone strength and reduce risk of conditions such as arthritis and osteoarthritis
– More toned physique
– Improved self-esteem
– Breathe easier
– Enhanced mood
– Eliminate stress
– Experience fewer colds during the year
– Improved skin complexion
– Reduced anxiety
Benefits of Eating Healthy

Choosing to eat healthy is a decision you can proudly make for yourself and your family. Numerous benefits exist for families that eat healthy. Those benefits include:

• When you eat healthy foods, you will feel your best because the body has the adequate vitamins, minerals, and nutrients needed to help you feel great.
• Fewer illnesses.
• Improved health
• Increased energy
• When you’re eating healthy ,you are serving as a positive role model for your children who are looking up to you.
• Eating fresh fruits and vegetables is a great way to reduce costs of feeding the family. You can purchase delicious choices from local farmers markets at great prices, and enjoy yet another benefit since you’re helping keep money in your community.

How to make Exercise a Part of Your Life

Exercise is not optional; it is a necessity to keep you healthy and fit. Once you’ve prioritized your life, add a time slot for exercise to the daily calendar. Aim to exercise five out of seven days of the week for half an hour (or more,) keeping in mind that even 15 minutes of physical activity is better than none. You might be surprised at the many opportunities for you to add physical activity and exercise into your life and will certainly feel better about yourself when you’re doing the right things to prolong your well-being and long life ahead.
No Time for the Gym?

Exercise is a great way to take a step back from the stress and hassles of life and reinvent yourself but if you are unable to find the time to get to the gym, don’t fret. Getting your workout on at the gym is nice, but when you cannot make it in there are still a plethora of ideas for getting the exercise that you want and need.

You can turn almost anything into exercise, whether it is vacuuming the floors in the house, playing tag with the kids, or turning on the Wii and letting the laughter out loud as the sweat (and the competition) heats up. When you use these ideas for exercise, you’re benefiting yourself in more ways than one, since you won’t lose any of the precious time that you have to spend with your kids, and the little ones can join in on your activities and have fun at the same time.

Aside from these entertaining activities providing you with physical fitness when you can’t make it into the gym, there are numerous additional ways for you to exercise at home and outside of the gym.

• Take a walk or jog
• During the summer, cut the lawn using a push mower
• Play a sport with your children
• Ride a bike
• Pull the children on a wagon
• Set your alarm for half an hour earlier than everyone else wakes up to get your exercise in for the day. Working out early in the morning prepares you for an energized, happy day ahead

Hitting the Gym

If you’d love to go to the gym but have the kids with you, don’t allow that to stop you! There are tons of ways to make it to the gym, even with Cheerios spilling from your purse.

• These days more kid-friendly gyms are available than ever before. Take your kids with you and watch them play with other little ones while in the care of a licensed childcare worker as you sweat to the oldies.
• Hire a personal trainer. A personal trainer provides one-on-one exercise, information concerning your overall fitness, motivation, and more, all at the location of your choice. (Yes, the personal trainer can come to your home!)
• Trade exercise time with a friend or a family member. You can still enjoy a day out with the kids using such a method, and both of you benefit. While your friend gets her work out on, take the kids to the park. When it is your turn, they’ll all head out to grab lunch! Everyone wins!

Staying Fit: What do you Eat?

Do not sacrifice your good health by eating the wrong foods. No matter how much you exercise or dream of getting fit, you will be unable to do so until you are eating right. The best way to ensure that you, as well as the kids, are eating right is to sit down at the table and enjoy your meals together. Even toddlers benefit from eating meals together as a family and older children certainly enjoy the chance to sit down and talk about their day with the people they trust the most.
Eating as a Family

When you have soccer practice to attend, a business meeting, laundry, and homework left on the agenda at 4:00 p.m., planning a stop at a fast food restaurant is oftentimes the first thought. But, reevaluate this decision. Eating together as a family provides numerous benefits that enable you to succeed with your fitness goals.

• A study conducted in 2000 reported that 9 – 14 year-olds that ate dinner with their family made better food choices.
• Eating at home provides the chance to control portions. Studies indicate that most children and adults eat two to three times more food per sitting than they should. You can prevent overeating when you’re all at the table together.
• Families that eat together have happier, healthier, overall more productive children, according to The University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health.

Best Foods for your Plate

Sometimes moms find it difficult to prepare a meal that is both healthy and enjoyable to little ones (or other members of the family for that matter.) When your children eat healthy from the start, they’ll love the foods that you put on their plate because they’ve not been corrupted to the fast food false nutrition flavors or the cavity-laden sugary sweets. If you parent a picky eater, put your creativity to work and sneaking healthy choices into their favorite foods is simple. It is okay to allow your child the occasional junk food or fast food offering, but the majority of their meals should include items from the following list. By choosing the following foods to feed your family, you can ensure that fitness is always the top priority that you desire for it to be.

• Green Beans
• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Beets
• Sweet Potatoes
• Apples
• Red Peppers/ Bell Peppers
• Bananas
• Kiwi
• Oranges
• Carrots
• Brussels Sprouts
• Leafy Greens
• Lemons
• Cucumbers
• Dark Chocolate
• Fish or Seafood (limit consumption to once or twice per week)
• Strawberries
• Avocado
• Honeydew
• Nuts (Peanuts, cashews)
• Lean meats (Chicken, lamb)
• Brown Rice
• Kidney Beans
• Yogurt
• Coconut Oil
• Olive Oil

Find cookbooks with kid-friendly recipes using the foods above and prepare them for your family. If your kids are old enough, throw on the kid-size apron and allow them the chance to help prepare the meals. They’ll feel all grown up and will certainly be eager to taste their creations.

Do keep in mind that the list of healthy foods above is only a small sampling of the foods that you can eat to maintain great fitness. Also remember that there are a variety of cooking options for these foods, enabling you to enjoy a variety of tastes any day of the week.

Conclusion

Remember, when it is a priority on your list of things to-do, exercising and eating healthy become far easier than you ever imagined possible. While life is busy, there is always time to think about fitness, exercise, and eating healthy, especially when there are little ones looking up to you. Today is the best day to start making changes. Stop procrastinating and discover for yourself how fantastic life can be when you’re fit, healthy, and at your best.