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The Importance of Exercise & Self Care For Mom

Self-care has been a huge buzzword and you can’t get online without seeing it.  I’m sure you’re like me and know that it plays an important role in your life, but self care for mom is so important.

But the big questions – do you actually do self-care for yourself?

If you’re a mom your answer is probably the same as mine — not as much as I should.

We are busy.  Running our house, taking care of our family and working.  I mean some days there really isn’t time for us.

Find the Time For Self-Care For Busy Moms

Over the last week, I’ve been exercising.  I’ve been absolutely loving the alone time that it gives me.  Exercise is important and I’ve made excuses why I couldn’t do it – my main one is my son, he’s nine and you really don’t get a good cardio workout with him in tow.  His legs aren’t as long when we ride bikes and when we go hiking he likes to explore.

I made the decision to stop making excuses and take my bike out in the morning before he wakes up.  I know that I’m fortunate that there is someone in the house so that I can leave my son here while I do this.

By riding my bike daily it accomplishes a few things.  The best thing is that it wakes me up and energizes me for the rest of the day.  I’m getting a good 20 to 30 minutes of exercise and it gives me alone time where I’m not working.  In the past I loved biking.  I’m still in the “oh this is miserable” stage, but I haven’t been listening to myself.  I keep reminding myself that it’ll get easier the more that I do it.

Biking is definitely self-care.

What Self-Care Is

Every woman should practice self-care otherwise we’ll burn out, get overwhelmed and feel stressed all the time.

So what exactly is self-care?  It an attitude or action that results in positive emotional, mental, physical, environmental and spiritual health.  But this isn’t like other parts of your life where you find answers from a professional.  With self-care, you do it yourself.

Don’t discount exercise – it is an important part of self-care.

Improved Cognitive Function

Since I’ve been riding my bike over the last 8 days, I’ve noticed that I’ve been able to focus better.  It seems as I get older and have more responsibility I often have brain fog.  Some days I’m not as productive as others.

Exercise has helped with this.  I’ve been able to focus on my tasks once I get home.  This means that the time I’ve taken to exercise actually help me get more done in less time.

Did you know that a study done at the University of British Columbia found that those who do exercises that increase the heart rate have bigger hippocampus than those who don’t? The hippocampus is the part of that controls memory and learning.

These benefits come from the ability of exercise to reduce insulin resistance and promote the growth of cells and new blood vessels in the brain. Middle age exercise has been found to reduce the onset of dementia in older adults.

Since my grandma had dementia for many years – it’s in my best interest to take preventative measures now.

Improves Self Confidence

Over the years I’ve started to feel like a frumpy mom.  This type of mindset doesn’t help with self-confidence, but being confident in yourself is a huge part of proper self-care. If you’re confident, you’ll feel happier and more satisfied with your life.

Exercise can actually improve self-confidence. How?  Because it makes you feel better physically. When you feel better physically, your emotional health improves. You become more confident in taking on new challenges and overcoming them.

Plus exercise helps you look better and this is one reason I started exercising.  I don’t want to look like a frumpy mom, I want to look like a sexy mature woman.

I know for a fact that when I  like how I look – my self-esteem in myself goes up.  This is just a fact.

I’ve got a friend who started exercising six days a week.  In the last five months, she has lost 45 pounds.  I can tell by her Facebook posts that she feels amazing.  Her face is glowing, she is always smiling and she is posting more pictures of herself.

So as you can see exercise is an important aspect of self-care.

Even though it is hard to find the time to exercise – you cannot afford to ignore it if you want to live a healthy and fulfilling life.  It really doesn’t take much to make a HUGE difference – 20 to 30 minutes of simple exercises such as walking, riding a bicycle, yoga, swimming and running.

I totally get it.  A lot of pressure is put on us as mom’s but make yourself a priority because you’re worth it.

Have a great day!

~April

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