- Meal Planning – One of my favorite quotes is “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”- it’s that simple! A lot of mums spend a good amount of their time each day in the kitchen, reacting to the hunger demands of their family. A lot of time can be saved by taking the time before the week starts take some time to sit down and plan every meal for the week. By doing this you are able to then create a list of all the ingredients you will need and can visit the grocery store armed with that list. There is nothing as time consuming as setting out to cook without any idea what you going to cook only to realize that you don’t even have all the ingredients that you need. Also by creating a menu with as many meals as possible that everyone can eat you limit your time in kitchen. To many mums gets carried away with making everyone’s “preferences”, but its ok to tell you son that “you can have mac and cheese next week , but today everyone is eating spaghetti”.
- Cultivate a Healthy Routine – Routines are very important – not just for yourself but for your whole family- set a time for EVERYTHING – meals, playing, exercise bed, etc. and stick to it! It might seem a bit military but it will help you stay on track and teach you to use your time wisely. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven”. Give each activity it’s time and be consistent. At first your family might resist this change but once they see that you are consistent they will start to respond positively.
- Be Realistic – You don’t need to spend 3 hours at the gym 7 days a week to see results. Take a good look at your current situation, and decide the amount of time that is feasible right now – even if it’s only 15 minutes a day. As your season of life changes you will be able to adjust and do more, or you may even have do less. When I first started out on my journey I was home with a 2 year old and a newborn and I could only spare about 15-20mins a day to exercise at home. When my baby got older and my toddler started pre-school I was able to go to the gym for 1-2 hours 5-6 days a week. Now that I have returned to work full time, I can only spare about an hour every other day at the gym and some mornings at home. As much as I miss my long gym workouts I know that the current season I am in does not allow for that. By being realistic with my time I am not stressing myself trying to find time that really doesn’t exist and I’m using the time that I do have to the fullest.
HELP For Mums – 3 Simple Ways to CREATE Time
Wow! It’s August 1st already!?! I can’t believe that it has been 4 months since I last posted here…ironic since my last post was titled REST, REGROUP, REFOCUS – and that’s exactly what I have been doing! The time off was VERY WELL spent and I am back and ready to bring some new, interesting and relevant content.
The first segment that I will be kicking off in this new era is Healthy Eating Living and Planning (HELP) For Mums, which will be a platform for us to share our struggles and successes on this journey to achieving a healthy lifestyle balance. Whether you’re a stay at home mum or a working mum you will agree that trying to lose weight and/or stay committed to living a healthy lifestyle can be very HARD. However, I hear too many women complaining about why they can’t do it and not enough women proclaiming that they CAN DO IT. Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who give me strength”. Proclaim this verse to yourself each time you feel discouraged or overwhelmed and ask God to help you.
I know that TIME is the biggest obstacle that mothers face. There just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get all our responsibilities done and still have time for things as “trivial” as exercise. The key is to make sure that we are consciously CREATING the time that we need to achieve success.
Here are 3 ways that you can CREATE time;
Dets says
Solid tips! Thanks for this. Welcome back!