Moms are unstoppable. They take care of the kids and their spouses. If that’s not enough, they can work full-time and run the household. Balancing work and family is tough, to say the least.
The flurry of activities surrounding mothers like you seems never ending. It begs the question if you still get enough sleep and rest in between chores. Are you eating right and exercising regularly, as you want your children to do? How do you maintain your health with home, work, and all?
You can’t tend to others’ needs if you have inadvertently neglected yours. Here are tips for caring for yourself and staying healthy for you and the people you love.
- Hydrate
Being on the go means taking water with you. Drinking up provides the following benefits:
- Hydrates your body
- Cleanses your body of toxins and clear impurities
- Staves off cravings
- Provides energy (dehydration equals fatigue)
Your water intake will show in clear and supple skin.
- Meal Prep
Your busy schedule can be a hurdle to mindful eating as you grab whatever is ready and often not nutritious. If you’ve been under stress, it’s inevitable to overindulge in sugar-rich food to make yourself feel better.
Make time during your weekend to prepare meals that you can batch-cook, freeze, and reheat. You can also freeze vegetables for salads and easy-to-prepare dishes. For snacks, you can create batches of uncrustables and stock them in the fridge. Kids can bring PB & J to school, and you can have a sandwich for lunch.
- Exercise with a Different Mind-Set
It is time to set aside pressures that come with exercise (e.g., it has to be intense). This thinking won’t encourage you to return to the gym. Instead, focus on physical activities or routines that will make you happy and motivated. It may pique your interest in exercise if you do it with family or friends.
Dance classes, cardio exercises, and sports—you have plenty of options to stay fit and active. Go easy on your first few days or sessions to avoid overexertion, which can result in injuries and muscle pains. To ease body aches and discomfort, use kinesiology tape as athletes do. These athletic tapes help sore muscles heal fast and, being of elastic material, enable you to engage with your usual tasks.
- Catch Up with Friends
You are happiest when you spend quality time with your family, but it matters to go out and meet with friends on occasion. Free yourself from the dishes and the laundry, and do some serious catching up with the girls.
Go for a spa retreat, have dinner at a newly opened restaurant, or drive hours to see your pals. You deserve a break now and then from the 24-7 duties of being a parent and partner. It can also be an excellent time to talk with your friends about life’s day-to-day struggles and show support for one another.
- Sleep, Sleep, Sleep
When did you last sleep without care? Quality rest is indispensable to a happy and healthy lifestyle. When you sleep at least eight hours, you give your body, including your brain, the time to heal and rest. Thus, you feel refreshed, strong, and possibly more patient with your children’s demands the next day.
How can you sleep better? Turn off your phone, or put it where you can’t reach it. Train your internal clock by practicing sleeping and waking up at the same time every day. If possible, take naps in the early afternoon and not a few hours away from your usual bedtime.
- Cleanse
The body has its ways to dispel or eject toxins that can affect one’s well-being. The process, however, takes time such that you feel sluggish, bloated, and tired. You can assist your body in dealing with the harmful elements through detox.
Detoxing is as natural as getting enough sleep, drinking water, and eating antioxidant-rich foods. There are also detox diets that center on eating fruits and vegetables to cleanse the digestive system. This regimen, aided with herbal supplements and tea, is believed to restore the digestive system to vitality.
Certain supplements target toxins left by substances. Some people take cleansing drinks to get rid of these toxins to reduce the body’s exposure to such pollutants and keep a job. Indeed, companies are strict about the people they want to hire and retain, prompting this form of detox. Clearly, this program is for specific cases, and discretion is recommended.
Accordingly, mothers know best, and your gut tells you to take the necessary actions to maintain or improve your health, ward off disease, and lead a fruitful life.
