Life is manic.
You’re a busy mum, and there are ALWAYS thing you need to do, people you need to help.
Everyone else comes first – before you in the pecking line are the kids, your partner, your parents, his parents, the dog, the cat, the goldfish.
You’re woken up early by kids who are up and about at 5am because it’s light outside.
You spend all day sorting the children out, taking them to school, looking after the one who’s too young to go to school, trying to do some work, picking them up from school, entertaining them, cooking them dinner, sorting them out for the next day, putting them to bed. Then you finally get to sort out your own dinner, collapse on the sofa, and by that time you’re knackered and it’s nearly time for bed.
In that manic day you need to find time to eat healthy, not eat too much, exercise, not snack on biscuits, drink enough water, and have some form of social interactions with people other than small children and your partner. And then maybe spend a bit of time with your partner too when he finally gets home from work.
Its no wonder so many mums struggle to lose their baby weight or end up just gradually finding themselves more and more out of shape.
Gaining pounds. Losing confidence. Feeling tired and snappy or hormonal and hiding your body under bigger, frumpier clothes.
I know what it’s like because I work almost exclusively with mums who’ve spent years putting everyone else first.
The trouble with doing that is that as you slip further down the pecking order, you slip further away from being the best version of YOU that you can be.
You end up just showing the world the tired, run down, out of shape, low-confidence version of you.
Which isn’t really you at all.
The REAL you is someone you need to rediscover before it’s too late.
You deserve to feel energised, fit, healthy, confident, and proud of yourself and your body.
When you feel like that, you’re able to give more to others and still have plenty left for you too.
It’s like the well-known saying about fitting your own oxygen mask first. If you’re always helping everyone else before yourself, you’re going to run out of oxygen and be no good to anyone. Fit your own mask first, and then you’re in a position to help and be much more effective.
You only get one body and you only get one life. I see a lot of women spending years of precious life neglecting their amazing body, then struggling for more precious years beating themselves up about it and trying to get it back.
You ARE good enough and deserving of being put first every now and again. In fact, on a regular basis.
You deserve to spend time on you, to get your mind and body in the best possible shape so you can enjoy YOUR life as well as help everyone else enjoy theirs.
But how do you do that, with 101 things vying for your attention?
One of the biggest things you can do is simplify as much as possible.
Everyone works best with their own individual approach, and that’s what I help my clients with. We need to cut out as much unnecessary stuff as we can.
If you’re trying to lose weight to reclaim your body and feel confident, the most simple way of looking at this is that you need to burn off more calories, and take in less.
Don’t worry about if you’re doing the BEST type of exercise, just be more active where you can.
Weights training is incredibly effective (not to mention fun, satisfying and empowering) for women wanting to lose body fat. I’d highly encourage you to try this if you can.
But any additional exercise is good – classes, swimming, cycling, dancing, anything.
One of the best things you can do is to walk more. Walk whenever you can. Park further away, take the stairs not the lift. Get a fitbit that tells you how many steps you’ve done and buzzes on your wrist if you haven’t moved enough every hour. Aim for at least 10,000 steps a day.
With food, don’t worry about completely cutting out processed foods, buying organic and preparing
things from scratch. You’re busy and you have a lot of things to spend money on.
The main things you need to look at are reducing your calorie consumption, getting enough protein (this will help you stay full, recover better from exercise and encourage your body to burn fat rather than muscle), and getting your nutrients from some fruit and lots of veg.
A small amount of healthy fats (think half avocado / tablespoon of oil / small portion of salmon / 2 eggs / very small handful of nuts) 2-3 times per day will provide your body with the fuel it needs to keep your hormones healthy too.
To reduce calories, try any amount of these ideas —
– Eating from a smaller plate to reduce portion size
– Drinking a glass of water before a meal and when you think you might be hungry. If part of your ‘hunger’ is thirst, this will nullify that feeling and help you eat less
– Swapping out half of your evening carbs (potato / pasta / rice etc) for more vegetables
– Swapping rice for cauliflower rice (can buy ready-made sachets)
– Choosing low fat dairy products rather than full fat
– Having some low fat plain greek yogurt with berries for a high protein low sugar snack
– Swapping daytime snacks for a protein shake
– Getting more protein in your main meals (eggs, meat, fish, greek yogurt, lentils) so that you are fuller for longer and snack less
– Eat natural foods where you can but don’t be afraid to buy more convenient ready-made things when you need to either. Snacks like nakd bars and protein bars can be really helpful, and you can buy pre-made pots of porridge with protein powder in for a really quick breakfast when you’re in a massive rush.
My Healthy Recipe Ebook has lots of meal ideas for when you need something quick, super easy and with no faffing around, plus things you can cook up in batches to eat through the week.
Be aware of choices you make when out for food –
– opt for dishes that contain meat or fish that is baked or grilled rather than fried
– go for tomato based sauces rather than creamy or cheesy ones
– swap chips for a salad (or jacket potato if you really want some carbs)
Also be aware of drinking your calories – lattes, ‘full fat’ coke, wine, juices, smoothies, all add up
– Swap wine for a slimline gin and tonic.
– Drink water or squash instead of juice or smoothies
– Opt for low calorie hot chocolate sachets (options or cadbury highlights) rather than standard hot chocolates.
Loads of little swaps can be made to add up to a substantial drop in calorie intake.
Combine this with more exercise, in a form you enjoy, and you swing the pendulum towards weight loss in a way that’s easy and doesn’t add more stress to your day.
Just doing that in itself will help you feel better in mind and body.
There’s loads more I can suggest, but I’ve rambled on enough for now.
Thank you if you’ve read this far, and I hope it helped.
Just comment below or email hayley@performanceproject.co.uk if you have any questions 🙂