Kids Making You Fat? How to Not Be “That” MOM

Yesterday I spoke with a single mom who desperately wants to lose 45 lbs. She is only 32 years old with a 3 year old child. She talked about not wanting to be “that mom.” The mom who just lays on the couch while her child plays because she is too weak and tired to play with him. The mom who misses out on events because she is too embarrassed to go out in public. The mom with health problems and joint problems.

Then she talked about her struggles with getting healthier and losing the weight. Year after year she has battled this same war within. What can she do to make this year different? How can she make progress in her weight loss and move to a healthier and happier life instead of adding more pounds this year?

At this stage in her life the biggest struggle that she expressed to me is the “guilt factor” (her words). She works as a teacher all day and puts her son in day care while she is at work. She then feels guilty taking more time out of the day away from her son to go and exercise for 30 minutes.

She is living in guilt! She feels guilt for not exercising and not being the person she wants to be. She feels guilty if she takes time to exercise.

She is definitely not alone in this struggle. Moms juggling children, work, and mommy time live with this same guilt. I ask new subscribers to my blog to email me their #1 Health/Fitness struggle so that I can write about these struggles on my blog. Several moms have emailed me that this too is their #1 obstacle to getting healthier and fitter.

How can this 33 year old mom move forward to her best life this year without continuing to be stuck or going backwards another year? Guilt is certainly not going to move her forward. It will surely move her further from her goals.

Her son is only 3 years old so she will be in mommy mode for many years. Where will she be when her son is 18 years old if she continues on her current path? Where will her weight, health, self-love, and confidence be? And what message would continuing to procrastinate and neglect her own health send to her child? How will her health choices affect his health choices?

Here is where she is starting to create a new path for this next year: She is creating a progress plan for the year. She is simply identifying & writing down 3 small steps she can work into each day to improve her health. She will share it with an accountability coach and get to work with these little changes.

If you want to take this challenge with this young mom grab a piece of paper and write down 3 action steps you can take to improve your health this year. Once you know your action steps get started on your journey. These can be very small and very simple steps. It may be that you do 10 jumping jacks each day while your child is napping. Maybe you start your day with 16 ounces of water. You could take the stairs at work instead of the elevator. Just pick 3 simple things to get you started. Anyone can do this even if you are not a parent.

Guilt has a way of disappearing as we get healthier and happier. And one positive leads to another positive. We can get started making positive changes or stay where we are letting each year pass us by as we get further from our health and fitness goals. When it comes to our health and fitness – the longer we put off taking care of our bodies the more weight we gain year after year, and the weaker and cruddier we feel. When we feel weak and tired it gets that much harder to climb out of that dark hole and get to a brighter place.

As ladies and moms let’s map out our positive progress plan, be proud of our choices, stop living in guilt, and take a BIG step closer to our best life.

If you need more help putting together a plan for getting your body back while being a parent I definitely recommend that you check out this book from my buddy & Nutrition Guru Mark MacDonald. His book is Why Kids Make You Fat & How to Get Your Body Back.

In this video I ask Mark about his book and how it can help parents. And in case you didn’t notice this dude is HYPED UP on energy! Must be the food!