A summary of why self-care is important for yourself and your family.
Meet Gabriel and Emilia. My pride and joy. The loves of my life. The light in my eyes. The most amazing gifts that I’ve been given. I love them with every fiber of my being and would do anything for them.
But sometimes, I need a break from them y’all!
The truth is, life isn’t easy and perfect all the time. Sometimes it is and all the stars align and everything falls in your favor. Other times, its a hot mess and a damn miracle that I was able to change out of my pajamas that day.
It’s hard. Being a parent is a hard. Being a stay at home parent or a working parent is really hard. Being a single parent is on another level and there is no other group of people that I admire more than single parents. I honestly don’t know how you do it and I can’t give you enough credit for making it all work. Major props to all the single parents out there!
As much as we love our children, I firmly believe that taking care of ourselves first should be a priority. Self-care should be a number one priority. Easier said than done right? Because as moms, our kids’ health, well-being and happiness comes first before everything else. But, if we are not taking care of ourselves, how can we take care of others to the best of our ability? We can’t. Fact is, it’s easy to let yourself go; especially right after having a baby. I fell victim to this when my daughter was born in January. We’ve all been there. All I wanted to do was be with her all day, hold her, smell her, kiss her. The thought of exercising, getting a pedicure, or even taking a walk by myself didn’t cross my mind. How could I leave her for 5 minutes??!!! Well, fast forward to a couple of months later and I was depressed, sad, emotional, unhealthy, and not performing at my best in all aspects of my life. I knew I had to make a change if I was going to be the best version of myself for my family.
The first thing I did was decide to get healthier. I cleaned out our kitchen and got rid of all the crap lying around and replaced it with organic, fresh, natural food. I eliminated certain types of food from my diet such as dairy and sugar and reduced my carb intake. I also started every morning by drinking one glass of warm lemon water. Soon I started noticing that I was feeling better physically, was less bloated and was gaining more energy.
I was eating better but needed motivation to work out. Like I said earlier, I didn’t want to leave my baby girl for one second! And I sure as hell was not going to leave her to go to the gym. I’m not a huge fan of gyms and I didn’t want to pay the costly fees associated with spin classes (which I love by the way!) so instead I signed up for my first marathon. At this time, I was about 3 months post-partum, had about 40+ pounds of weight to lose and was never a runner my whole life. In fact, I hated running. But I knew I needed to do something that was going to motivate me to work out and train. I had less than 3 months to train for the 5k and needed to get my ass in gear.
Not dying during the marathon was my motivation.
Well I didn’t die and successfully crossed the finish line. I even got addicted to running. Darn those endorphins! Now I try to run at least 3 times per week and to be honest with you, I still sometimes hate it! But I sure do love the feeling I have afterwards. Running has become therapeutic for me and now when I fall into a rut and go days without running, my energy levels and overall mood is greatly affected. I don’t run far and for too long. I try to do 3 miles a few times a week and sometimes I don’t hit that goal but thats OK. The fact that I got out of my pajamas, put on workout clothes and got out of the house to exercise and do something for myself is a huge accomplishment! This is a big improvement on my self-care.
My kids and husband reap the rewards because mom comes home energized and confident which equals happiness for all!
I’m now 7 months postpartum and I’ve lost around 25 pounds since giving birth. I say “around 25 pounds” because I try not to step on the scale too often. I find that when I would get on the scale, I’d sometimes be disappointed if I didn’t lose as much that week or even worse, gained a pound or two! What’s more important to me is how I look and feel in my clothes and if I’m confident wearing them. I still have many more pounds to go before I hit my goal weight but I know in time it will happen.
Now lets talk about getting pampered. There is no other person on this planet deserving of a massage or a mani and pedi than a Mom. We cook, clean, carry our babies all day, change diapers, wipe away tears, do endless amounts of laundry, take them to the park, take them to the library, take them to play dates, drop them off at school, pick them up at school, etc… and we’re doing it all on 5 hours of sleep every night (if we’re lucky). We deserve that massage. If you’re a mom and you can relate, I want you to book a massage as soon as you finish reading this post!
Rowell, the thoughtful man that he is won a spa gift certificate at his work function and gave it to me to use. I immediately booked a 1 hour massage and let me tell you…. that hour was heaven! Mind you, I was thinking about the kids the whole time and the endless to-do list I have waiting for me but still, it was MY time. I left feeling rejuvenated and relaxed and promised myself that I would do this more often. Same goes for manis and pedis. It’s such a treat going into a nail salon and having someone else cater to you instead of the other way around. And can I just say, there is nothing like a trip to the hair salon for a fresh cut and color to make you feel like a brand new woman again!
From my personal experience, when I take the time to focus on taking care of ME, I’m a happier person all together. I enjoy the little things more and have more patience when things don’t go as planned (as they usually don’t). My kids have a mom who will get on the floor and play with them or run around with them at the park. My husband comes home from a busy day at work to a calm and happy household.
The importance of self-care is huge. When you take care of yourself, you’re taking care of your whole family.
And a little rosè doesn’t hurt either.
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