As a mother, it’s important to care for yourself. After all, you only have one body, so it’s crucial to take care of it so you can stay strong and healthy for your family. While it might feel intimidating to switch up all of your health habits, it really shouldn’t be. You can incorporate one habit at a time and take baby steps until your lifestyle has completely shifted.
Ways for moms to live a healthy lifestyle include:
Use Natural Remedies
For your health, it’s a good idea to try to solve your issues in natural ways instead of leaning on over-the-counter drugs or other unstudied chemicals. Unnatural and unstudied drugs may end up leading to negative side effects. One example is the popular contraceptive injection Depo-Provera. Spinal tumors and brain tumors have been linked with this medication.
When it’s practical and feasible to do so, stick with natural remedies as your first line of defense. Of course, make sure to have a dialogue with your doctor about anything you include in your lifestyle. So if they suggest a prescription medication, you can ask them if there are any natural alternatives. If not and they urge you to take the medication, you should trust their advice.
Improve Your Diet
You need to pay attention to what you eat. You don’t need to eat bland or boring food to eat healthy. Healthy food can actually mean fun and fresh flavors, appetizing, colorful plates, and new ingredients that you’ve never tried.
Try eating fresh, whole food as much as you can. Even when you don’t have the time to cook at home, look at ingredients in packaged foods you purchase.
You should particularly pay attention to carbohydrate and sugar content, especially regarding “low-fat” foods. Consider vegetarian or whole-grain alternatives which are more nutritious and less processed. As an example, healthy alternatives to pasta and rice include cauliflower rice, quinoa and faro. Add spices and herbs to add flavor and make healthy foods interesting.
Eat more fiber. Fiber is found in foods which are plant-based, such as seeds, nuts, whole grains, fruits, legumes and vegetables. Women who eat fiber-rich diets have a higher chance of living longer, avoiding chronic illness and maintaining lower body weights.
If possible, you may want to prepare nutritious meals in advance at the beginning of your week.
Stay Hydrated
It’s important to stay hydrated for your physical and mental well-being.. Hydration keeps you feeling more energized and satisfied throughout your day. To help with hydration, keep a water bottle on you and sip from it throughout your day. Consider a water bottle that has time markers on it in order to keep you motivated to drink more water.
Minimize Social Media Time
It can be fun to stay connected with family and friends, keeping up with their lives using social media. However, social media can be a distraction which takes up a lot of time and take away from the attention you can give to your family.
In addition, depression and anxiety can occur when you begin comparing your life with carefully curated imagery on TikTok or Instagram. It can also have adverse effects that lead to potential social media addiction for you or your kids. This is part of the reason some parents are suing meta.
Excessive social media use can distract from what’s important and contribute to stress. By setting boundaries, you can free up time for healthier activities like resting, cooking or exercising.
You can:
- Avoid using social media close to your bedtime, as this can interfere with your sleep
- Set time limits for social media use
- Set rules to check social media one or two times per day
- Turn your notifications off
Do Mini Workouts
You may struggle to find 30 minutes per day to do exercise. If this is the case, try breaking up your exercise into three 10 minute increments per day.
Consider utilizing resistance bands in order to do quick home strength exercises. You can do squats or pushups while you wait for foods to cook. Consider taking your child to the park. Your child can burn off energy and you can fit in quick workouts while you watch your child.
Bob Duncan is the lead writer and partner on ConversationsWithBianca.com. A passionate parent, he’s always excited to dive into the conversation about anything from parenting, food & drink, travel, to gifts & more!