Being a busy mum can make it feel like your weight loss goals are put in the ‘no time, too hard’ basket, and it’s hard to prioritise yourself when you’ve got a million other things to think about. So, I’m here to give you the guidance, tips and tricks necessary to re-establish your goals and help you achieve your weight loss success!
Plan with military precision
You need to be prepared and organised in advance.
Preparation means you will be able to eventually cope with having no time, no space, no bandwidth to do anything except what’s directly in front of you. Get a calendar and/or diary and track exactly what demands you have on your time and when each week. Look for the gaps, or see if you can make gaps by working through the points below. Block into those gaps food prep, exercise, and sleep/downtime.
You’re a busy mum but these are the pillars for weight loss success. So, put them into your plans, and stick to it!
Plan multiple plans
Kids make life chaotic, so you need to have multiple plans in order to respond to the changing circumstances.
Plan A might be to run laps of the sports ground while the kids are at little athletics. But a Plan B is necessary when the kids come down with a cold and can’t leave the house, so you might watch one of my workout DVDs while they are having a mid-morning sleep. Plan A might be tasty Barbequed Prawns with Salsa but it’s likely you run out of time to buy the prawns, so Plan B is to defrost the frozen serves of Penang Chicken Curry when you get home instead. You meal prepped and froze them last week in anticipation of running out of time to shop this week. Because you were prepared!
Multi-task like a Mumma
When the kids are napping, you nap. When the kids are having tummy time you’re doing push-ups, bridges and bear crawls. While the kids are at their weekend sport, you’re running laps around the sports ground. While you’re vacuuming, you’re lunging, while you’re brushing your teeth, you’re wall sitting. You’re using your slow cooker/pressure cooker to cook in bulk to prep or freeze, and you’re thinking to yourself, how can I incorporate leftovers into another meal to save money and time?
Recruit the troops
We can’t do mum life on our own, and nor should we have to!
Lean on your partner, your parents, your friends to help you keep everything running smoothly so you can have time to do your thing (food prepping, exercising, sleeping). Arrange for grandma to mind the kids while you nip to the gym for a class; delegate dad duties that include getting the groceries each week so you have time to food prep your main meals; create a friend roster where one babysits all the kids for a night while the other gets an early night and catch up on quality sleep.
All these things add up so you’re hitting good nutrition, good exercise and good sleep as consistently as possible – all which set you up for weight loss success.
Remember, the key to weight loss is to keep showing up for yourself.
You’re a busy mum, but keep doing what you can, when you can, as consistently as you can! Every little action counts, and when you count them all up, over time you can reach your goals. You’ve got this, Mummas!
