How Eating Well and Moving My Body Makes Me a Better Mommy

I am a mommy who works full-time, runs a household (with help from the Hubs), and is in the process of changing my health habits to release my excess weight. I am choosing to work on myself to become a better mom.

I am not saying that my mommy skills are bottom of the barrel. I am saying that I know that there are things that I have decided to change about myself to become a better me, one of which is to release my excess weight. I want to be able to run around for endless hours after my very active 6-year-old and 2-year-old children. I don’t want to say “no” whenever my kiddies want me to play with them outside, inside, or wherever. I don’t want my kids to think that physical activity is an occasional occurrence or something not mandatory to engage in every day. I want my kids to know that being physical and eating colorful foods are part of everyday life. 

I have always dabbled in the workout/fitness life on and off from my late teens on. My favorite thing to do my senior year in high school after I got home was to take my Walkman with my cassette tape full of songs recorded off of the radio (yes, I am dating myself here, but I want you to get the mental picture), and head out on my walk towards Glen Island. I would walk the entire perimeter of the island and walk back home. All in all, my walk was approximately 45 minutes door-to-door. Of course, this was not a leisurely walk. I power-walked the whole time I was by the water – that was my HIIT (high-intensity interval training) section.

When I got home, drenched in sweat, I always felt accomplished. I felt so grateful for the exercise, the fresh air, the pulsation of my favorite songs within my head, and the time I had with my body to strengthen it. When I went away to college, I again went to the gym from time to time in spurts, if you will. But, my eating habits completely dominated anything else, basically canceling out any semblance of healthy eating that was occurring (I was in college…If you went away to college, you might know of two popular things that happened all the time – late-night dining – pizza and wings, anyone? And you know, the occasional drink…wink, wink). 

Fast forward to the present day. My weight is not the same as it was in my high school years (although I would love it if it were), and the weight does not “fall off” now as easily as it did when I was in my teens. My eating habits are on the mend. I plan my meals to focus more on lean proteins, produce, and whole grains.

I am making time to schedule my workout sessions (similar to when you plan your outings with friends). I schedule cardio-focused days, weights-focused (different muscles, different days), and days that mixed cardio and weights. All this while factoring in my full-time position, being a mommy to my kids, being a fantastic wife to my Hubs, and all the activities in between.

I do have to confess this whole thing is very new to me and is a work in progress. I have fallen off of the wagon many times. But I keep going. I keep going because I know that dedicating my time and energy to bettering my health physically and emotionally will greatly improve all of my relationships. It will greatly enhance my energy to handle all of my responsibilities. It will enable me to handle anything new thrown at me to juggle. 

Eating better and moving my body is making me a better mommy because it teaches me to make the best choices I can with what I have. I want to focus on my workouts to see progression in my body as a result and choose what I want to fuel my body with to have my body run as efficiently as possible on good foods. These two important choices that I make daily help me make better choices with my children in educating them, making them grow emotionally and physically, and choosing what things are best for them. These choices helped me run my household better and, more recently, focus on specific goals to make our household a better one. 

How do you make healthy choices in your life?