Category: Healthy Living - Form Fit

How to get a better night's sleep as a busy mom

10/21/2021

We are a society that has become overcommitted and overstimulated, we don't get enough down time or sleep time. 51% of moms are getting less sleep then they need and it is killing us. We need to take more care of our sleep time. It is a time for cell renewal and rejuvenation, allows us to manage our stress hormones, gut health, weight gain, reduces chronic disease development, cognitive functioning and our overall safety.

If you aren't getting enough sleep you are increasing your risk of disease, did you know that one week of poor sleep decreases your immune system function for up to a year.

So if you are unsure about whether or not you are struggling with sleep, I want you to think about these 3 things.

Do you have trouble falling or staying asleep more than 3 days a week
Struggle to fall asleep for more than 30 min, or if you wake up in the middle of the night are you up for more than 30 min.
Does this happen for 3 weeks or longer.

Us mama's our hormones will be affected, grehlin will go up which will have you craving more sweet and carbs and leptin will go down which is the hormone that helps you to feel full. (Go deeper in our master class in the membership portal).

5 things to help you get a better night sleep:

1. The lighting with electronics and dim the lights in the house

2. create a routine (weekend warriors-you are messing up your sleep clock as it takes 4 days for your body to get back on track).

3. Breathing techniques to really let your body know that it is time to relax and calm down.

4. Consume alchohol at least 3 hours prior to bed as it will mess up your sleep cycle.

5. Try to go to bed before 10pm, 2 reasons-your skin senses and processes light so even if you are sleeping your hormones are starting to be affected and for each hour before midnight you go to sleep you can count that as an extra hour of sleep.

If you are struggling to get the mind to stop racing in the evening I recommend Ashwaganda helps to relieve depression, anxiety, and stress to help with this or Melatonin- hormone of darkness doesn't help you to sleep, it just tells your body it's time to sleep

Wishing you a good night's sleep this week and if you are ready to dive in deeper to your personal and family health journey along with understanding and supporting your hormones involved in sleep, you will want to join our Membership program.

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kids in the kitchen

6/16/2021

Having your children help in the kitchen is one of the best ways for them to become adventures eaters. The more they are surrounded by different foods and interacting with them through the cooking process the more likely they are to actually try the foods being set down in front of them at the dinner table, and this can be started at a very young age. It is also a great way for them to work on skills that are needed in life.

Here are some ideas to help you to get your children involved in the kitchen.

Toddler- get a Learning Tower so they can join you at the counter and help pour pre-measured ingredients into mixing bowls. Don't want to spend the money on a Learning Tower, set them at your dining room table with a bowl filled with some spices and have them mix them, it's always fun to have them smell each of them before they put them into the bowl and even allowing them to taste them if they are curious. Let them snap the ends off of green beans and asparagus as this is always a fun thing for them at this age. Even pulling the silk off of corn can be done at this age. Let them also put the finishing touches on the food by sprinkling a little bit of salt and pepper on everything before it goes into the oven or onto the cook top.

Ages 4-8 - This is a great age for them to begin learning how to whisk and stir batters. have them practice cutting up fruit and vegetables with a small pairing knife (my daughter always loved chopping the tops off of the strawberries), tearing the lettuce to go into the salad and tossing all of the ingredients together, setting the table, clearing the table, and learning how to unload the dishwasher.

Ages 9-12 - Great age for them to start becoming more involved with helping in the kitchen and starting to cook basic meals independently. There are many subscription services that send a box each month to kids that include recipes and a fun kitchen utensil, we love Kidstir for this. You can also have them find recipes in cookbooks or online they want to try. Once they pick it out have them write out the ingredients they need from the store. Once you have everything be on the sidelines ready to assist as needed.

Ages 12+ - they should be able to independently make easy meals for themselves including making a sandwich, eggs, pasta, and macaroni and cheese. Have them help make the side dishes or even give them a night to be head chef! As they get older and more comfortable then the recipes can become more complex.

The key is to make it fun, don't act as if it is a chore for them to do or you will automatically get push back from them. We have found that watching cooking/baking competitions help our children to get into the kitchen more. My children love doing competitions in the summer where they each make a dessert, we have the grandparents over for dinner, and then we all judge which one was the best. Now that they are older we have started to place each one in charge of dinner one night a week; this is fun for them as they are in complete control with what is being served, the preparation of the meal, and then the adults do the clean up.

Have you gotten your children in the kitchen?

5 reasons to make family meal time happen

6/8/2021

Sitting down to a family meal some days seems impossible. Families today run in multiple directions most nights of the week but there are many great benefits to making the time to have family meals.

Here are five reasons why making family mealtime a priority should be at the top of your list.
Creates connection
As kids get older they naturally pull away from their parents and families as they develop their own identities but this is the time when it’s crucial to create those opportunities to connect with them. Sharing daily events, both good and bad, helps them connect to siblings and parents and encourages them to share their own advice and experiences
Improves mental health
Studies have shown that sharing a family meal improves mental health. Mealtime gives an uninterrupted time for kids and parents to bond and interact face to face. A study by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University found that the more often a family eats together the less likely a child will smoke, drink or use drugs. Make sure when eating together you all disconnect from electronics. Turn off your phones and TVs and be present to get the full benefits of family mealtimes.
Healthier meals, better nutrition
The CASA study also found kids eat healthier when they are sitting down at the table. They tend to eat more fruits and vegetables and drink less soda. Getting kids involved in food preparation also teaches them how to cook which is a life skill they’ll need as well as gives you more time to connect.
Saves money and time
The cost of a home cooked meal averages $4.31. Going out to a restaurant will cost significantly more time and money. The time it takes to drive to a restaurant, order and wait for your food and drive home will not only cost you more time but also about $20.37 more. There are clear cost and time advantages to eating at home around the dinner table. One way to get excited about changing your habits is to take the money you save eating at home instead of a restaurant and put it in a savings account that you’ll use for a family fun outing!
Teaches table manners
We all want our children to be well behaved especially when they go to places other than our dinner table. Sitting down together gives you the opportunity to demonstrate good table manners while also teaching kids what good table manners are. No elbows on the table, use your napkin and say please and thank you. All things that children learn when we model the behavior and reinforce it at the table.

Grab our Free healthy family guide

Children & Exercise

5/25/2021

Children have been greatly impacted by 2020 with one of the biggest problems being their sedentary lifestyle. In a world where they already were sitting more, 2020 put almost a complete stop to movement for our children. The Journal of Nutrition and Physical Activity mentions that only 4.8 of children (5-11) and 0.6 of youth (12-17) were meeting the daily guidelines for daily activity.

They found that the children who were able to get their daily activity in were the ones with parents encouraging them to get outside and play, were getting out and moving with them, or those that had a dog to take out for walks.

Getting out and encouraging your children to move more is one of the greatest things we can do to help raise children that will be healthy and happy. Don't worry about them exercising, just have them get outside and play. The more you can get your children moving it will help to improve blood flow to the organs, especially the brain. More blood flow allows our bodies to make its own internal medicine (called Nitric Oxide) which will help to decrease inflammation. The faster your blood flows through the vessels the more it stimulates them to produce nitric oxide which are the nutrients for the organs.

So how can we get our children to move more?

Allow your house to have more movement spaces for them. Hang a pull up bar in a doorway so that everyone can practice hanging on it when they walk through the door, to help get more movement in while at home.
Get outside yourself and your kids will usually follow suit. Play for a bit with them and then allow them to continue to play on their own.
If they are interested in using weights, feel free to let them use them for fun, but be cautious about having them lift heavier weights prior to Puberty as they need to have proper testosterone levels to help with proper recovery.
Make sure they are moving through different modalities to keep from having overuse injuries occur especially for those that play sports. It's great that they are playing sports but have them practice other sports for fun so that they are moving their bodies in different ways as well.

Ideas for movement in your home:

Go for family walks or bike rides
Create obstacle courses in our outside the house
Floor is lava or dance parties
Hide and Seek
Water balloon tag

Grab our Healthy Family Guide

Ideas for your Morning Routine

5/11/2021

Meditate or Practice Visualization-I like to use the Insight Timer App and will listen to a 5-15 minute guided meditation or visualization to start my day.
Prayer-You can chose to pray yourself or I have recently found the Holy Bible App to be a great one as it provides me with a verse each day, a video of a priest to explain the scripture in his/her own way, a separate blog post/reading, and then a prayer.
Read-if you are in a business or working towards Self-Improvement there are numerous books that I could recommend or just take 10-15 minutes to read a book of your choosing.
Journaling-I personally don't like to journal but have found the 5 minute morning journal to be a good one for gratitude or writing down your 10 dreams each and every day which I heard about through Rachel Hollis.
Breathe-Take 5 minutes while your coffee is brewing to practice deeper breathing like 360 breathing or you can do this during your meditation as well
Workout or Stretch-Get the blood flowing with a quick 5 minute workout or this stretch below

Exercise Tips For The Busy Mom

5/3/2021

It can be really tough to get exercise in every day as a busy mom. You have so many things you have to remember and do that it can be overwhelming to even think of adding one more thing into the mix.

I get it, there are many days I just want to throw in the towel as well and just say I'm going to start tomorrow; but what will that do. It actually takes you one step further away from feeling your best, having more energy, and concurring your day!

So here are 4 things you can begin doing now to help you get more movement in each day; stop worrying about exercise and just move.

4 tips:

Commit to 5 minutes a day to work on consistency
Stack your habits
Get outside with your family
Rethink your exercise to movement instead

You don't need to start off with a 45 minute workout each and every day, but you do need to make sure you are moving every single day; which is why I like to advocate for a 5 minute workout each and everyday. When you have a busy day and you are running around taking the kids from one place to the next, than just squeeze in 5 minutes of a workout to get things started. I promise it will help you to feel better and once you start to feel better you will want to move more.

Another thing you should consider is stacking your habits as this can begin to make big changes as well. There are times each day that you are standing around waiting for something, so use that time effectively. If you are waiting on your coffee to brew-do some squats, shower to heat up-complete counter top pushups, dinner to cook-abs in the kitchen (plank workouts), or while your waiting for your child at dance/soccer/baseball practice-walk around the field or around the area.

Get outside with your family as much as possible. Something about being outside encourages more movement, so go outside for sidewalk chalk and it will turn into hopscotch, throw a ball around, race each other in various ways (turtle race, one legged race, bear crawl race). Life is short, have fun and enjoy yourself.

And for goodness sakes, please stop thinking you have to do a "workout"; movement is just as important so even if you aren't throwing around weights if you are moving and carrying kids/groceries around, cleaning the house, gardening, you are moving and that is key.

If you are struggling with your consistency than I would love for you to join us for our 5 day Fast Fit Challenge or join us over in our FB Community where we offer a different week long challenge each month.

Join the challenge

want to sit on the floor with your kids?

3/22/2021

As a mom we find ourselves on the floor A LOT! Whether it's playing a puzzle or reading a book with them, cleaning up after them, finding something that fell under the couch, or just getting down to their level more we are sitting on the floor quite often and we may start to feel the aches and pains of this. So I wanted to share a few tips with you on how you can sit on the floor more comfortably, how to know when to move, and what is the best way to sit on the floor.

Creating Healthy Habits

3/1/2021

Are you struggling to create healthy habits? If so, what do you feel like your number one excuse is?

For most people it has a lot to do with TIME! You don't have the time to eat right, do an hour long workout, can't find time to meditate or work on personal development, or stretch at the end of the day.

I get it! Time is your most important asset so I'm happy to hear that you are protecting it and hopefully you are using all of that time currently for all the things that are important in your life, not mindlessly scrolling social media and things like that.

So since you don't have time, I want to help you with creating healthy habits in your life with something I call

Habit Stacking!

Habit stacking (from Atomic Habits by James Clear) is adding a new habit to a habit you already have. We have many, many habits that we practice every day without even thinking about it. Things like brushing our teeth, watching TV, going to the bathroom, getting the mail, driving to work and making dinner.

So, I'm going to provide you with some ideas of how you can stack a new Healthy Habit with a habit you are already practicing. WOOHOO!!! Are you excited?

So watch the video below for some of the ideas I share on how to stack your habits and then let me know in the comments below what you have chosen to do.

Drink More Water

1/20/2021

Drinking more water is imperative to our health. It helps our skin look more like a plum and less like a raisin, it allows our organs to run more efficiently, it helps our fascia to glide across the muscles and not get sticky which is huge for you pregnant momma's as you are less likely to tear during delivery when you are more hydrated.

It also has an affect on leaky gut. The cells in your GI Tract should be plump which helps to protect it, when you are dehydrated the cells shrive up and make space for food to get through and enter the bloodstream.

So these are a few reasons why you need to make sure you are getting enough water into your diet daily. Here are 5 tips to help you drink more water

Make sure you go to bed with a glass of water to help ensure you drink water first thing in the morning.
Carry a water bottle with you everywhere
Exercise
Drink some water when you are getting that snack craving around the 4 o'clock hour
Add some electrolytes

5 tips for a better night sleep

11/2/2020

Sleep is imperative for those wanting to live a healthier life. It has been proven that if you are not getting enough sleep you will have increased stress, anxiety, and depression; you will want to snack more through the day; and will hold onto stubborn belly fat due to hormone levels being all over the place.

Therefore it is important for you to practice healthier sleep habits. The 5 that I am recommending are ones that I live by to help me and have helped others as well get a better night sleep just by practicing these as well.

1. Put down your cell phone not only because of the blue light but also because it creates stress and anxiety when you are scrolling "mindlessly" through social media.

2. Create a routine-practice the same routine nightly to help your body and mind know when it is time to start getting ready for sleep.

3. Breathing techniques-boxed breathing to help calm the nervous system.

4. Ashwaganda-this is medicinal herb to helps to relieve depression, anxiety, and stress.

5. Go to sleep earlier in the night, around 10:00pm would be ideal as your skin is able to process light so it is best to work on waking and sleeping with natural light to help your own circadian rhythm.