Since becoming a mum in June 2017, I have tried my hardest to be fit, healthy and well because my son needs me. But in all reality, some days it’s just too bloody hard! But that’s just it! – Give yourself a day to feel like crap, eat chocolate but then the next morning when you wake up, go for a walk in your back yard, do a Pilates class (youtube is free, so there’s not really any excuse), or hook in and do an abt class at home. There are so many different things you can do at home regarding your fitness, and there are heaps you can do with the kids!
One thing I found with myself is that my head needed to be in a good place before I would even consider working out at home. I started following a heap of health & wellness blogs and over time, condensed my list to the ones I felt related to me the most. Below is a list of the ones I have stuck with through my journey:-
As a mum of three kids, a physiotherapist and fitness and health author, Rosemary Marchese completely lives and breathes the pressures faced by mums every day. But she also knows that busy mums can also be fit mums. We are busy and she doesn’t set out to change that.
On this website they consider ‘busy’ to be positive – they say that by being busy we are ‘fully engaged’ in life. Instead, this website has been designed to empower and inspire you to get active and lead a healthy lifestyle that suits you, at whatever time period you are at in YOUR life.
Firstly Healthy Mummy is about healthy and REALISTIC weight loss and healthy living. It is not about trying to achieve a 6 pack – but about empowering mums to learn about healthy food, healthy living and doing it in a supportive environment.
Being a mum is HARD WORK and the team at Healthy Mummy totally GET IT! And this understanding and empathy shines through in the recipes, the exercises, the products and the amount of budget and family friendly products available. The two biggest products are the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge and the Healthy Mummy Smoothies.
There are also LOTS of other products – over 52 books, supplements, singlets, active range, snack bars and lots more which cover Healthy Kids products and Healthy Pregnancy products. Plus they have over 130 Healthy Mummy Consultants who are working mums themselves. At Healthy Mummy, they are passionate about ensuring that The Healthy Mummy network offers 24/7 support in a safe, non judgemental and supportive environment.
The aim of the The Healthy Mummy focus is to educate mums how they can make small changes to their life to become healthier and also show them how they can change their life to a healthy one for them and their family
Honest mum was founded in 2010 and became a multi-award winning parenting and lifestyle blog, Honest Mum®, a space where Vicki Psarias shares her passions: family life, food, fashion, film, tech, business and travel.
As a former director, Vicki set up her blog while on maternity leave as way to help her rediscover her voice and regain confidence after suffering a traumatic birth. Blogging and vlogging soon became her full-time career taking her work from mostly behind the camera to firmly in front. You might have seen Vicki on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, BBC Breakfast, Lorraine, Channel 5 News or SKY News.
Heather Dessinger started Mommypotamus, she has three children that she birthed in water in her living room, she’s not a doctor or certified nutritionist. There are no special letters behind her name. She’s just a mom that’s passionate about nourishing her family in every way possible.
Heather wasn’t always this way, though. Her along with husband Daniel were junk food fiends when they got married. Part of every dinner came from a box or takeout, and they were fine with that. But years of eating MSG, genetically modified foods, and hormone “enhanced” meat took its toll. About two years after they said their vows – just when they were thinking about starting a family – Heather developed a debilitating autoimmune disorder.
Blood tests also revealed that years of low-fat dieting had lowered her cholesterol to nearly undetectable levels – lower than those long distance runners who don’t get periods. Cholesterol is necessary for producing the hormones that sustain a pregnancy, Heather was told. “Don’t get pregnant, you’re not strong enough to carry a baby to term” were her exact words. Fine, then. She went home and drank 8 oz of oil straight up. (Do not ever do this! You will puke for 10 hours.)
She wanted cholesterol. She wanted a baby. She wanted my horrible acne, acid reflux, anxiety and chronic exhaustion to just GO AWAY. She wanted all of those things and more, but what she really NEEDED was real food.
So, with Nourishing Traditions in hand, Heather hacked away at her old food habits until every single one was gone. No one else she knew was eating this way and she kind of felt like the unabomber while concocting ferments in her kitchen. Heather said “it was frustrating, but oh-so-worth-it.”
Through nutrition and laser therapy she recovered my health, got pregnant, carried her baby not only to term but to the very last day of the forty second week, nursed for two years, got pregnant AGAIN, continued to nurse through her pregnancy, had another baby at 41 weeks. Heather now had a three year old and a one year old and had been continually nursing for 46 months straight. That’s a far cry from not being able to carry a baby to term!
Of course, that was just the beginning of the journey! The best part has been figuring out how to nourish her vibrantly healthy, energetic children and writing about it on her blog.
It began as a single blog with a tongue-in-cheek play on a Queen song. Today, the Fit Bottomed World, run by Jennipher Walters and Kristen Seymour (who are certified fitness professionals but also just everyday regular women), is an online phenomenon reaching millions of women (and men!) each month. And, of course, the focus is always on the idea that fit bottoms come in all shapes and sizes — and that you’re more than the number on the scale.
True pioneers of the body-positive movement, Jennipher Walters and Erin Whitehead began Fit Bottomed Girls in 2008 as friends looking for a fun, fresh and no-diet approach to being healthy. Months after the site launched, it took off — readers were clearly hungry for something other than “how to lose 10 pounds in 10 minutes and get the perfect man.” Infusing their own experiences (both failures and successes) they created a community of “FBGs” — welcoming everyone in, including writer Kristen Seymour, who would later become a business partner.
From there, the Fit Bottomed Girls expanded into new verticals and products to serve its growing readership, including Fit Bottomed Mamas, Fit Bottomed Eats, a book, Fit Bottomed Zen, a podcast and the online course Love Your Body. Love Your Life.In 2017, Erin left the company to pursue other interests and focus on her family, while the Fit Bottomed World expanded into more speaking engagements, retreats, and brand consulting.
Jenn and Erin also continue to work with major brands such as Brooks Running, Marshall’s and Pure Protein on campaigns and other influencer projects that are fully aligned with the Fit Bottomed Girls’ mission. In fact, Jenn and Kristen were named as one of The 100 Most Influential People in Health and Fitness by Greatist in 2016 and 2017, and were listed as one of the best healthy living bloggers of 2018 and 2019 by Healthline. And the one thing that will never, ever change is the company’s mission to continue to let women (and men!) know that you simply can’t hate yourself healthy.
Claire Eastham has been writing her blog, We’re All Mad Here, for five years in an attempt to help people realize that social anxiety is more common than many believe. The name of the blog was also used as the title for her book, published in 2016, that acts as a “no nonsense guide to living with social anxiety.”
Both her blog and book provide a thoroughly well-written and personal account of life with social anxiety and panic attacks, doing so with liberal smatterings of humor and wit.
The success of her blog has resulted not only in a best-selling book, but it has been a launchpad for Claire’s work as a public speaker and mental health advocate. Aside from her blog, Claire’s writing can be found across the web, while she has made plenty of appearances on TV and radio.
Claire Eastham founder of We’re all mad here blog
Comments
2 responses to “Mummies – looking after yourself easier said than done…”
It sure is never easy looking after yourself as a Mum. Especially when you have little cherubs to look after. But what I’ve notice when I don’t look after myself, I start feeling tired and seem to be more snappy with my kids.
Same Anna! I find it easier to push myself to look after myself just that little bit, it makes everyone’s lives easier!