7 Reasons Why Moms Need to Take Care of Themselves
Self care for mothers, is often overlooked. With all the demands in a mothers' daily routine and chaotic schedule - today's parent will typically forgo even the most basic self care items. Setting aside 5-10 minutes of time to practice self-care ideas and quiet time can be instrumental to the overall health and wellness of a mother.
Let’s face it, as mothers, we’re worrying so much about everyone else that you always get left behind. You’re the last to eat, the last to get exercise, and the last to bed.
You spend countless hours taking care of the little ones around you that often times, you forget to take care of yourself.
No one else is going to take care of you, you need to take it upon yourself to live a healthy lifestyle so you can be there for your family.
Luckily you are not alone in achieving this goal, there are also many other mothers that are incorporating different self-care options in their busy schedules.
A great way to reassess how you are taking care of your self-care goals, is to start with a journal. Journaling will help bring clarity, and allow you to figure out where you should start on your self-care journey. Here is a page you can download for free, for some ideas on self-care.
What Happens When You Don’t Take Care of Yourself
If you don’t take care of yourself, there’s a chance that along with your health and wellness, other things that depend on you, will also start to faulter. Despite your busy life, you have to make sure you take care of yourself always, otherwise:
Your House Will Fall Apart
The house won’t take care of itself. Who will feed your toddler food they don’t want to eat? Who’s going to pick up all of those Lego pieces on the floor before you trip over them, or cook a meal the kids complain about? You’re the center of the home, you’re running a well-oiled machine, or at least trying to keep it from falling apart. If you don’t take care of yourself, the whole command center shuts down.
Your Spouse Will Revolt
My husband is not a fan of eating canned soup or instant noodles for dinner every night of the week. He would prefer to have a clear path to the bed at the end of a long day that isn’t covered in a minefield of clutter. He wants to spend his downtime enjoying the company of his wife.
All of these things are not going to happen if you’re sick or have fallen asleep with the toddler at 8 p.m. from exhaustion.
You Need Energy to Take Care of Everyone
As a mom, you wear many hats. Mothers have so many tasks from driving to appointments, preparing meals, giving baths to fighting monsters, and kissing boo boos. You can’t mom well, when you’re feeling down.
Around the clock caregiving can be exhausting if you don’t take time to take a break.
You Need Sleep to Function
People often overlook sleep because they think it might a couple of late nights won’t affect them negatively, but then it becomes a habit – and now they are in a negative loop of sleep patterns.
If you have interrupted sleep, or laess than 8 hours a night – there’s a likelihood that you won’t perform to the best of your abilities the next day, or feel your best. If I get less than 7 hours of sleep, my family needs to watch out the next day. My patience runs low and all too often my grouchiness is not welcomed.
You Need to Keep From Getting Dehydrated
Yes, water, not coffee or soda, but actual water can be a huge health benefit to you and it’s easy to prep. Why we go out of our way to find juice or tea or anything else that isn’t water is a wonder. It’s not sweet, there’s no flavor but it will work wonders for you if you can get 8 glasses a day. Put down the coffee and grab a glass of water first to get your day started right.
The Kids Will Take Over The House
When I’m down and out due to sickness, my kids take over. They pull out the video games and the teenager runs to the store so he can get some fries and a frozen pizza. No one asks for anything; they just hope I stay asleep and they go all out on-screen time. You fall asleep to the sounds of Peppa Pig on the TV and Minecraft zombies on the computer. It’s heaven for the kids but good luck asking them to do any homework or get any cleaning done. They sense your weakness and take full advantage of it.
You Kids Will Outrun You in the Grocery Store
Have you seen how fast preschoolers can run in a grocery store if they really want to get away from you? I was in the grocery store looking at dish soap while my son rammed our cart into the shelves and my preschooler almost took down one of their cardboard displays.
That’s the day my hubby vowed never to take us all to the grocery store again, he prefers to shop alone. Can you blame him?
Making a Realistic Plan For Self-Care
Let’s face it moms, you need to be the one to decide that you need to do more for yourself. Drink that water, get 8 hours of sleep, find a hobby to calm yourself and get outside for a walk or a run.
Really taking care of yourself involves actually looking at aspects of your life where you can make improvements. Carving out amounts of time for your mental health, not drinking that (dehydrating) cup of coffee, and getting to bed at night for an adequate amount of sleep are just some steps to taking care of yourself.
Look at Your Current Self-Care Practices
What areas of your life do you need to focus on, and maybe change, in order to maintain your health and wellbeing? Initially, figuring this out could be a little harder then it appears but with some clarity, guidance, and awareness – you could certainly change your outlook.
Using a workbook – like this Self-Care Workbook and Journal, could help you determine what areas of your life need more attention, and where you should start when it comes to your self-care practices. There is also a free printable page of this 50 Self-Care Ideas at the bottom of this blog-post for you to use.
Eat a Nutritious Diet
Another aspect that is often overlooked from our lives, is partaking in a healthy diet. We are told and told again – that having a healthy diet is integral to optimal bodily functions. But we often will find ourselves also partaking in easier options like fast food, foods that are convenient, or just an overall poor diet because we don’t know any better.
This Mindful Eating Journal has been designed to help us reassess our eating habits for better habits, nutrition, and overall nourishment.
Consider Other Options
If you aren’t getting your daily vitamins from your diet, consider taking a supplement or getting Drip IV therapy. This treatment can help boost your energy levels and support a healthy immune system so you can keep up with your daily schedule.
I’ve personally joined a health club that does this exact thing, It’s part of the new wave of functional medicine and helps with various ailments from acute dehydrated to improved vitamin and mineral uptake.
Getting Some Exercise
You need to get out of the house and get active. It is said that most diseases are likely to be a result of stagnant energy. Movement is important for your heart health, for your endurance, for your range, flexibility, durability. Consider hitting the gym and/or just getting out to walk for at least 30 min.
If you decide that you’ll just work out whenever you feel motivated at home, you know how it goes. There are so many excuses not to do it, you don’t have the right shoes, your jogging pants are dirty, you’ll start tomorrow because it’s too late today.
It never happens. You need to make that choice to start doing things right for yourself today.
What are you doing to take care of yourself? Let me know if the comments below.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Fit4Less. The opinions and text are all mine.
Try a relaxing DIY project like this DIY Lavender Candle. Perfect stress reliever!
More DIY Ideas
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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Fit4Less. The opinions and text are all mine.
