Blogging from the Heart

Let’s start the 2009 with a goal to put our own health and wellness high on our priority list. I know as a mom it is easy to put our own needs on the back burner as we put of family, friends, jobs and other commitments first and feel like we never have time for ourselves.

I know from personal experience this usually does not end well. When we are physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted we can’t do the best for anyone or anything in our lives. We start to lose who we are. Self care is very important in order to care for others. I am very guilty of “letting myself go” and ending up burnt out, exhausted, and frustrated. So my goal for 2009 is to work on my own health and wellness to better myself and be the best for those around me.

To me complete health and wellness is not just weight loss. It is a balance between physical heath, mental health, and emotional health. So my goals this year are reflective in each of these areas.

I have long term goals that I would like to meet in the next 6 months. However, some of these goals are fairly big, so in order to stay on task and feel successful I will have short term goals each month that are measurable and help me meet my long term goals.

I invite anyone who wishes to take this journey with me. I have set up a private group (just message me for an invite) on Facebook to help all who want to take the challenge, record their goals, track their progress, and find/offer support. I will also include resources and information on health and wellness.

My Long Term goals
Physical Health:

* Lose 8lbs by June 2009
* Lose 10 inches by June 2009
* Re-strengthen core and increase overall body toning
* Be able to easily talk through a 75 minute cardio dance class
* Increase flexibility
* Try to maintain a healthy, well balanced diet

Mental Health:

* Decrease stress factors
* Be more organized in both home and work life
* Continue to work on anxiety issues
* Find balance between work and family

Emotional Wellness:

* Have a small amount of “me time” daily
* Continue to work on increasing intimacy with husband
* Increase amount of uninterrupted time with my children each day
* Find more time for friends

Short term goals for January 2009
Physical Health:

* Eat 3 servings of vegetables daily
* Drink 8 glasses of water daily
* Do cardio workout for minimum 30 minutes 4 times per week
* Do strength and toning for minimum of 30 minutes 2 times per week
* Stretch for minimum of 10 min 5 times per week

Mental Health

* Go to bed by 11pm each night
* Stick with morning routine during week days
* Make list of projects to finish each week but no “add ons”
* No work between 5-8pm daily (Family time)

Emotional Health:

* Spend 10 minutes each day by myself doing something for me
* Go on at least one date with husband without kids
* Go on at least one date with girlfriends without kids
* Set aside on hour each day during the day to give 100%of attention to kids (no answering work calls, emails, internet, ect)

I will continue to post my own progress on here as well! Hopefully it will help keep me accountable ;)

Start 2009 by putting yourself first and joining our challenge!

I am sure many of my friends and family are running around today trying to get all the last minute preparations done for tomorrow festivities. It is so easy for us to get caught up in the frenzy of having a perfect Christmas, enough gifts for the kids, the yummiest meals, and beautiful decorations that we forget to breathe and take a moment to reflect on what this season is all about. Luckily I have had a few moments over the last few days that have reminded me what is important this time of year, and really all year.

On Sunday night before putting Bria to bed I asked her what the best and worst part of her day was (something I try to do every night as I find these simple questions really help keep me in tune into her life and feelings). She told me the best part of her day was “reading and playing with the Dora book with Mommy!”. Now this may not seem like an inspirational moment but in the context of our weekend it was a great reminder to me as to what is truly important in our children’s lives. Saturday and Sunday night we had been to Christmas parties full of goodies and gifts, to put it bluntly Bria had been very spoiled by family and friends. I thought for sure the best part of her day would have been getting her new sparkly, pink, princess Barbie or one of the other many gifts she received. But the moment my 2.5 year old daughter decided was the best part of her day was a few simple minutes of undivided attention and affection from her mom (something that in her world right now is not as often as she would probaby like with a new baby sister in the house).

This simple declaration on Bria’s part really made me sit back and realize that the best gift I could give her over the next few days wasn’t a huge pile of gifts under the tree from Santa or an immaculately clean and decorated house. No, the best Christmas gift I could give my daughter was time and attention. So this Christmas Eve, while my house is untidy and my gifts are humbly wrapped, I am hoping the Christmas memories Bria has are ones of playing and enjoying each other and feeling loved.

Another moment of reflection happened this morning while I was checking out Facebook while nursing Malia (what nursing moms did before the invention of laptops and the internet is a mystery LOL). I came across a post from a friend who is spending the year over in Africa on a Choral exchange. His post outlined he events of the past 24 hours, depicting how the apartment complex he had been staying in was ambushed by armed robbers, who knocked out the guard and stormed his apartment with guns and weapons. Although he was attacked and many of his personal possessions stolen, he survived the attack with the most precious gift we all have, life.

I cannot begin to understand how scary those moments must have been for him. I feel so blessed to be living in a country where I at all times feel safe in my home and do not live in fear. Where I have the security of living in a beautiful community, where I can take my children to the park, or go for walks after dark, without the need of armed guards or electrical fences. These are things that I at times take for granted and events like those my friend endured make me realize how truly lucky I am.

So please take the time these next few days among the gifts, decorations, travels,and dinners to truly sit back and reflect on what the true gifts in our lives are, the things that cannot be bought on sale or packaged in pretty bows. Take the time to let those you love know how you feel and give thanks for all the blessings in our lives. Once the paper and tinsel are gone, these are the gifts that we carry with us through our days and lives.

Happy Holidays!

Although we are constantly hearing about how things like the internet are a big culprit for our increasingly sedentary culture I do believe that used appropriately this technology can actually be a great aid in helping to improve our overall health, fitness and wellness.

One gem that I came across over 3 years ago is the website www.babyfit.com. Babyfit (brought to you by the creators of www.sparkpeople.com) is an online community and resource center created for women who are trying to conceive, pregnant, or post partum. This site boasts nutrition and fitness plans and trackers (all of which are customizable to your current situation and goals), great articles on a wide variety of health and wellness issues pertaining to women, pregnancy, babies/children, and parenting, a team of resident experts in a variety of areas (nutrition, fitness, etc) who are available to answer your questions or concerns, and a great online community featuring a variety of message boards and mommy teams. The best part is this very comprehensive website is it is 100% free!

With both my pregnancies and post partum I have been able to use the online tools to help me plan and track my nutritional needs and design a fitness plan to help me have a healthy pregnancy (I will admit I was far more successful with that the second time around, but life is about improvement right?).

The first time the site really helped me lose the 40lbs I gained during pregnancy plus 10 more, in a healthy way, to be in the best shape of my life! During my second pregnancy I really committed to the program from the beginning and this, combined with my active lifestyle, enabled me to keep my weight gain to 20 lbs and at two weeks post partum only have 5 more lbs to lose!

Babyfit has also helped me in terms of my own professional development as the articles and resources on post natal fitness, nutrition and even mental health and well-being have been great to pass along to clients. I am also currently working on getting my Pre and Post Natal Fitness certification through Comprehensive Fitness Consulting, LLC, the company of Babyfit’s Resident Maternal Fitness Expert.

But for me the most beneficial thing Babyfit provided was the connections and friendships I have made in their online community. I first joined in October of 2006 after finding out I was pregnant with Bria and found a message board for other moms due May 2006. As a first time mom with no friends who were currently pregnant or even starting to think about having a family, it was great to have a place to go and chat, cry, vent, and laugh with other women who were going through the same thing. Morning sickness, weight gain, doctors appointments, ultrasounds, cravings, labor symptoms, anything and everything you can think of was talked about on that board. After we had our babies many of us continued to use the board as a place to talk about our babies. I soon began to see many of these women as my close friends and still chat on a private message board with a small group of them to this day. Although we come from places all over the world our pregnancies and children have kept us together and now our conversations are much more personal and stray from the “baby talk” we started with. I also joined the November 2008 board this past pregnancy and am greatly enjoying the virtual friendships I have made the second time around.

Not only have I made virtual connections through Babyfit but I also found some great friends in my area. One friend in particular, I met during my pregnancy with Bria and we would meet to go on weekly walks to help with our fitness goals. We had our daughters weeks apart and since have become very close friends (and so have our girls). In fact we both ended up pregnant at the same time again, so it was great to share our pregnancies again both online and off. I am hoping our newest little bundles will be as good of friends as our daughters!

So take the time to check out this fabulous website (or their sister site www.sparkpeople.com if you are not pregnant or post partum). Pass it on to friends, family members, or colleagues. You never know what inspiring resources or friendships you might find!

Oh, and www.babyfit.com did not in any way pay for this great, long endorsement! LOL! Just wanted to pass along a great, free resource and pay it forward ;)