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How can you be fit, active and healthy while in your home caring for children?
Eating healthy and getting enough exercise can be difficult when you are a stay-at-home-mom. Most of your day is spent playing with your kids, doing housework and just finding the energy to get through the day. Proper diet and exercise will give you more energy to get through your day, but how do you get started? Incorporate your kids into your workout. It sets a great example for them later in life. If you have older children that are in school, do your exercise routine after everyone else leaves. Weekends can be a time for you to go walking or biking together as a family. If you have younger children that cannot keep up with you as you walk put them in the stroller and head on out, or allow them to ride bikes as you walk. Babies can participate in your workout with you. Lie on the floor and lift your baby up over your chest then lower your baby to your chest as you would if you were doing a bench press. Give your baby a kiss on the tummy each time you lower the baby down. She'll love it. Yoga is good for everyone, and children are flexible enough to easily do many of the routines. Kids like to mimic mom and what she is doing, so allow the kids to join you in yoga. You may find benefits such as your child sleeping better, or having a longer attention span and less hyperactivity. Healthy nutrition begins early in life and your kids will model what they see you do. If your kids are reluctant to try new recipes, start with small changes in your cooking. Try switching regular pasta for whole wheat, refrigerator biscuits for wholegrain rolls, white rice for brown rice and so on. Plan out your menu before you go grocery shopping. This will guarantee that you have all the ingredients you need to make the healthy recipes that you have planned and avoid going for quick fixes like pizza. Don't buy things that you don't want to eat. If ice cream is a weakness for you, do not buy it unless it’s a low fat ice cream or sorbet that fits into your plan, or keep snacks for your family that you will not be tempted to eat. If you don’t like coffee ice cream, but your husband does, it is a safe thing to keep in the house, otherwise only keep snacks that fit into your plan. Have the “three bite rule” in your house. If you are making a new recipe or trying a new food, allow your child to try three bites of the food before saying they don’t like it or refusing to eat it. Children’s tastes change as they age. You can also hide foods that your child may not like in other foods. Discuss weight loss and healthy eating with your children. If they are watching you lose weight, they may begin to wonder if they need to lose weight as well. Tell your children that kids are supposed to gain weight because they would look really funny if they only got taller but never weighed more than they did when they were born. Reiterate that you need to lose weight because you didn't always make healthy choices when you ate, but that if they make healthy choices when they eat they won't have to worry about losing weight like you do. If these changes seem overwhelming, try making one change at a time and add a new habit each week. You will soon develop a new healthy lifestyle and see positive changes in your body and in your energy level.
The copyright of the article Nutrition for the Stay-At-Home-Mom in Balancing Meals is owned by Kelly Killian. Permission to republish Nutrition for the Stay-At-Home-Mom in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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