How I Combine Being a Mom and Taking Care of My Health  

I make exercise happen no matter what, even if it means going for a 16-mile training run before anyone else gets up. The kids, my husband and I also run races together as a family and are generally very active. Colorado is an amazing place to raise kids because there is so much support to get outside and be healthy. 

Three Health & Fitness Tips for Busy Moms

1. Make a customized exercise plan for each week. This helps you to work in your exercise around child-centered commitments that are always changing. Once you've got your plan, put it somewhere visible and make a promise to stick to it.
2. Don't put yourself last. Make health and fitness your priority. Your kids learn by watching you. Let them know you respect yourself enough to take time to be the healthiest mom you can be.
3. Plan meals. Keep them simple, yet healthy, with the fewest ingredients as possible. Make your list for the week, list your upcoming dinners on a whiteboard, dog ear your recipes. If you have meals planned and the ingredients in the house, you'll be less likely to go out to eat or take short cuts like frozen pizza, etc.
   

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How I Combine Being a Mom and Taking Care of My Health  

Motherhood is a balancing act! It is all about making sure I take time for myself so that I have that much more to give to my kids! I make my health a priority. It isn't just about staying fit so I can look good physically. Taking care of my health means so much more than putting time into working out as an athlete/runner. I put time and energy into eating right, being emotionally balanced, feeding my spiritual life and taking time to reflect and learn. So much goes into "taking care of our health." We are complicated beings that need to fill many parts of US so that we can be the best Mother, Wife, Friend, Athlete, etc. By taking the time to be physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally healthy, I am setting an example for my family. I am showing my kids what living a healthy lifestyle looks like. And I am involving them in the process. Combining Motherhood and taking care of my health is an essential part of living. There are so many ways for us to merge these two parts of our life. Just a couple of ideas:

• Involve our children in home workouts like Jillian Michaels or floor yoga. Kids love this!
• Encouraging our kids to express their thoughts, set goals for themselves, and get involved with sports and activities.
• Find opportunities to walk or jog instead of drive. We have a double stroller and my oldest can ride her bike so we take advantage of this when it isn't raining her in Portland, Oregon. We run/ride to preschool, the elementary school, and the library.
• Share our health and fitness goals with our children and allow them to see us striving to be active, eat well, and set health and fitness as a priority.

Three Health & Fitness Tips for Busy Moms

In addition to the tips I suggested above, here are three more for setting yourself up for success:

1. Set goals for your life in the areas of fitness and health. Post these goals where you can see them.  One suggestion is to also create a vision collage with your goals in mind...something to inspire and motivate you when you see it.  I put mine on my bathroom mirror. You can read more about this in my post about  Vision Collages and how I sometimes use my Athleta catalogs for inspiration. You might also try keeping track of your goals and progress in a journal.  One type of journal that I keep is a running journal when I am training for something. You can see how I started mine and read about some ideas for what you can include in a journal like this here.
2. Carve out a time that is just for YOU to be active, focus on your goals, reflect through writing, read or do something that relates to your health (physical, emotional, spiritual, etc.) and helps you feel more balanced. This time is precious!
3. Fill our kitchens with healthy snacks. It is so easy to grab the "fillers" when we have them in our house.  But if we have apples, bananas, peppers, almonds, whole wheat bread, etc. on hand then it is easy to feed ourselves and our kids healthy foods. 

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"Mom. Student. Marathoner. Fitness instructor. Coach. Triathlete wanna-be. Lousy housewife. Friend. Dreamer. Absolutely convinced exercise will save the world. Life is always an adventure!"