Working outside the home

To those moms who work outside the home, either because they want to or have to, it can be very stressful to manage all the requirements for work as well as her household.  If you take on too much, it can be very stressful, so plan ahead and organize your time.  This will help to utilize the hours in the day in the best possible way.  Plus, everyone will know what to expect.

Weight loss tip

Cutting back on portion sizes along with consuming the recommended daily serving of fruits and vegetables goes a long way in losing and/or maintaining weight.

Hungry between meals?  Have a variety of fruits and veggies already cut up and ready to grab and eat.  

Cost Saving Ideas -- Part 3

If you are not favorable to the idea of a garden, don’t have a place to do it, or just don’t want to put in the time and effort there is another alternative: PLAN ahead.  That’s right!  Plan out your meals: what you will eat for the month.  If a month is too daunting, start with a week.  Then take your menu and use it to make a grocery list.  Don’t deviate from it and you’ll meet your budget.  

Need ideas for a menu?  Try making each day of the week a different theme, for example: Sundays are casseroles, Mondays are soups, Tuesdays are grill, Wednesday are ethnic, Thursday are breakfast foods, Fridays are crock pot, and Saturdays are leftovers or quick fix things.

GO HERE to help with budgeting      

Groceries online

Cost Saving Ideas -- Part 2
A way to save money and eat healthy, is to grow, preserve, and prepare your own or utilize a local farmer’s market.  If you have any grassy area available to use, and you don’t need a huge space, you can plant a small garden.  Include the things you like the most or are most expensive for you to purchase.  The cost of seeds and/or plants is very minimal compared to the amount of product you’ll get from it.

If you have no idea how to even go about putting out a garden or preserving, do a quick search or ask around.  

However, if you don't have the time or just don't want to exert the energy GO HERE to get ideas, plan ahead and utilize a grocery delivery service.

Cost Saving Ideas -- Part 1

A few ideas to think about:  Do you live in an area with favorable climate?  Near a park or sidewalks?  You can go outside to exercise—take a walk, get fresh air and rejuvenate.  If you don’t live in a year-round climate friendly area, check into a treadmill if you have the space.  People usually have them sitting around and begging someone to come take it off of their hands.

You can do other exercises too.  When you clean, focus on the muscle groups you are using.  Think about it, you are doing the same repetitive motion over and over again; make it worth your time!  While you cook and put dishes/laundry away do squats, lifts, etc.  There are ways to exercise in the everyday things we do, you just have to think about it and be intentional.

Expenses

Ever feel like you just don’t have enough money?  Do you stress about it?  This stress and worry is unhealthy and causes us to gain weight and/or have problems losing weight.  It is not cheap to live a healthy lifestyle.  There are expenses to lose or maintain weight if we haven’t been the healthiest; the good food (fresh produce and homemade things) is more expensive and more time consuming to make than the bad stuff; and to exercise regularly, we often need that motivation to go so we purchase gym memberships.

Good news:  Eating right, exercising and leading a healthy lifestyle doesn't have to be pricey.  There are things you can do at home for FREE; that’s right I said FREE.  You can also utilize online budgeting resources HERE or earn a little extra cash with no cost to you.  GO HERE for more information.  

Examples to our Kids

This day and age it is so easy to stay busy with work, activities and commitments especially as our children get older.  This equates to often being on the go and usually not making healthy choices.  Moms (and Dads) are the ones who set and example for their children, so it is important for us to model the habits for health and wellness as well as for life that we want our children to follow.

There are many factors that constitute our degree of healthiness such as our diet and weight, whether we work outside the home, how many activities we are involved in, our stress levels, mind, emotions and our beliefs.

I will explore each of these a little more in the posts to follow.