Five Things Every Work-at-Home Mom Needs to Stay Fit and Fab

• Tweet
• 
• Buffer

• Tweet

Exercise with Baby!

This is a guest post by Dustin Maher of Fit Moms for Life:

While this post focuses on work at home mothers, parents all over need to realize putting your health first will teach your children to do the same. Most parents want their kids to take care of themselves when it comes to health and wellbeing – we must lead by example!

Here are five tips to staying Fit and Fabulous while working from home:

1. Everyday is Gym Day

Dress as if you’re going to be at the gym all day! Wear comfortable (but not shabby!) clothes so you can take advantage of every opportunity to fit in a quick workout whenever time allows.

 During the day take a break between work projects and run the stairs a few laps, do pushups, squats, and lunges. Exercise with the kids by taking them on walks or bike rides. Use whatever time you do have to your best advantage – everything counts!

Integrate outside chores into fun activities for the kids:

• Rake the leaves and see who can get the biggest pile.
• Pick up tree branches and have your kids count them as they pick them up.
• See who can get the most weeds from your flower or vegetable garden.
• Or, see who can sweep the driveway the fastest.

Integrate those push-ups, squats, and lunges while doing these activities. Having daily fitness activities as a WAHM is a terrific way to teach your kids the importance of health.

Keeping your kids active will not only help maintain their weight, but also help with sleep, reduce hyperactivity, improve their immunity, and help balance their emotions.

2. Variety Reduces Boredom

To stay fit, it is important to participate in a variety of activities. You can always head out the door for an hour of “me time” when hubby gets home. Include biking, swimming, dancing, yoga, pilates, jogging, or any other activities you like.

Kids love to mirror their parents, so they’d be entertained with any type of exercising. If you have a baby or toddler, you can use their body weight for floor exercises and I guarantee they will enjoy themselves!

Another easy way to incorporate exercise into your daily routine is through household chores and add some lunges or push-ups in between. Gardening and house cleaning provide great opportunities to work off those extra calories as well.

 Even while you sit at the desk and work, keep a mindset of health and fitness and it will make a HUGE difference to how you feel and look.

3. Follow a Nutrition Plan

Eat real food! Planning your daily diet is useful not only to reduce stress during the day, but also a way to introduce your children to whole foods.

Starting a home garden is a great way to teach children where real living food comes from.

Read food labels.  Studies show fructose corn syrup, MSG, and artificial sweeteners as the culprit to many illnesses today. Eliminate processed food as much as possible.

Notice how your body and emotions feel after eating foods with dyes, preservatives, and artificial enhancers versus a home cooked meal with fruits, vegetables, and natural spices.

Make a game out of each meal. Teach your children about nutrition. Share how processed foods are dead foods that have very little nutritional value and that living food offers beneficial vitamins and minerals. Ask them what benefits or harm the foods they are eating have on their body; by eating consciously, you will find your family has more energy and feels healthier mentally and physically. 

4. Prioritize to Find Balance

Finding balance can be one of the most difficult things to achieve.

Very few people have complete balance in their lives. You can be wealthy, have poor family communication, and be out of shape. You can have wonderful family relationships, be healthy, but struggle financially. Or, you might be in amazing physical health, but lack a spiritual grounding or solid relationships.

It is pretty easy to achieve what you desire if it becomes your main focus in life. But a one sided focus will not equally distribute energy in other important areas. Prioritizing what is most important to you and equally distributing your energy in these areas creates balance.

While juggling a work-at-home lifestyle with home management and parenting can leave you feeling overwhelmed, take some time out each week to review and reassess your priorities and check if you’re devoting enough time and energy to them equally.  

5. Focus on Emotional Health

Mental stability contributes to the cycle of health for your body and emotions. Exercise reduces stress and quiets moods.

Emotional health is the ability to choose and control emotional reaction. When emotion is controlled through calming your “mind chatter”, particularly in negative situations, we avoid engaging in self-destructive behavioral patterns such as frustration, resentment, or feeling victimized by circumstances.

Emotional reactions are an internal option produced by our thinking and beliefs. Positive thought requires self-discipline, determination, and personal choice. Emotional health nourishes our interest in life and our work as mothers and professionals, simultaneously influencing our interest to care for our physical body through fitness and nutrition.

There is no better way to fulfill your purpose as a work-at-home mother than knowing you are teaching your children valuable and healthy information that will allow them to grow into healthy and happy adults while creating good health for yourself and leading a professionally enriching life.

How do you stay fit and fabulous as a work-at-home mom?

If you enjoyed this, I have a free gift to give you at www.dustinmaherfitness.com. It is a free report called, How To Fit Into Your Skinny Jeans and Still Have Room Left Over.

You might also want to check out some of my home workout DVDs programs that have helped thousands of moms from around the world.

About Dustin Maher:

 I am Dustin Maher, America’s Trainer to The Moms. I am a leading expert on getting moms in shape. I have appeared 88 times on local and national TV, appeared in many magazines, and newspapers and been on over 25 radio shows.

I have a blog (www.dustinmaherfitness.com) that receives over 1,000 visitors per day and an active mailing list of 6,000 people. I run 11 fitness bootcamp locations in Madison, Wisconsin, and have sold over 10,000 fitness DVDs.

My mission is to reach one million moms by the end of 2015 with the support they need to change their mindset, eat better, exercise effectively, and be part of fit families and communities so they can transform their bodies and their lives.

Photo By: Neeta Lind