Being a mom is a full-time job. It’s a profound responsibility that requires an endless amount of work and patience. This can make a task like losing weight seem almost impossible. That said, unhealthy shortcuts aren’t the answer.
For example, you might be tempted to go on an extreme juice cleanse, engage in long periods of fasting, or even take a dangerous weight-loss drug like Ozempic. But there are better, more natural ways to lose weight.
With some mindful planning, you can lose weight while staying healthy for your family.
Here are six tips when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off.
- Plan Your Meals
Analyzing your diet is a smart thing to do. You should track the amount of food you eat and compare the amount of food you eat with the amount of food that you should be eating.
Schedule your meals two or even three days in advance. If you give yourself structure by doing this, you will set yourself on a path to success.
You should consider the use of an app which does meal planning. Apps like these can calculate the amount of calories you should eat every day and base this amount on your weight loss goal, your height and your weight.
Figure out methods to keep eating the foods you like and not restricting yourself while still keeping a caloric deficit. Find creative ways to tweak the foods you like so those foods can be healthier.
Losing weight is possible while you still eat the foods you like. For example, if you have a craving for cake but can’t find a way to fit those calories in for the day, plan tomorrow’s meals out, figuring out a way to fit that cake into your caloric limit for tomorrow. Be intelligent about planning your meals and realize that the food you really like can always be eaten tomorrow.
- Avoid Eating Naked Carbs and Refined Grains
Some weight loss methods require a lot of time or planning, but this simple method does not.
It is important to make sure your blood sugar levels are balanced when you are attempting to lose weight. One way to balance blood sugar levels is to avoid refined grains like refined flour or white rice.
You should consider eating brown rice instead of white rice. If you choose to do this, cook your brown rice in lots of excess water as if it is pasta. When you cook rice like this, when you end up draining the water out, you end up draining around 60 percent of the rice’s arsenic out with the water.
You should also consider replacing any refined flour you eat with whole wheat flour.
Another thing you should consider is making sure that whenever you eat carbs, you eat them with protein, fiber and/or fat. Ways to do this include:
- Adding turkey and/or avocado to your toast
- Adding some banana to your protein shakes
- Making sure to eat some nuts when you eat some fruit
By avoiding refined grains and avoiding naked carbs, you will absorb carbs more slowly. This will help you avoid big insulin spikes which can lead to hunger, cravings, lethargy and mood swings.
- Don’t Try to Be Perfect – Just Be Consistent
Perhaps the best method of weight loss is adopting healthy habits that you stay with long-term. Habits become habits through consistency.
It is vital that the goals you set for yourself are realistic. For example, it may not be realistic to set a goal of eating all of your meals at home. It may not be realistic to set a goal of exercising six days every week.
When people first start diets, they’re often tempted to go 100 percent right off the bat. Being ambitious isn’t a terrible thing. However, when you set impossible goals for yourself, it can lead to bad habits such as binge eating.
When you set fitness goals or nutrition goals, you should start with attainable, small goals, gradually building upon these goals. It might be realistic to exercise three days per week rather than six. You might enjoy regularly eating out with a partner or friends, so it might be realistic to eat 80 percent of meals in your home rather than 100 percent.
Better results will come from creating plans that are reasonable to adhere to, plans that are reasonable to live with, instead of choosing plans which set you up to fail right off the bat.
- Eat an Adequate Amount of Protein
To meet your protein needs, it’s beneficial to consume a variety of protein-rich foods. These can include lean meats, fish, beef jerky, poultry, dairy products, eggs, legumes, nuts, seeds, and nut butters such as almond, peanut, and cashew butter. These healthy products are particularly useful for adding a protein boost to meals and snacks in a tasty and convenient way.
Protein contains compounds known as amino acids. These compounds are essential as they support loss of weight, growth of muscle and healthy human bodies. You’re full for longer when you eat protein, and this helps you avoid cravings which may lead to eating too much.
If you don’t eat enough protein while trying to follow a weight loss protocol, you’ll end up losing muscle and fat. This will lead to your metabolic rate slowing down. This, in turn, will make it more difficult to lose weight.
If you desire results, you are going to have to eat an adequate amount of protein.
The amount of protein you should eat is .7 grams to 1 gram per body weight pound every day.
Common foods and the amounts of protein in them include:
- One egg: 6 grams
- Four ounces of tofu: 9 grams
- Four ounces of cooked chicken: 35 grams
While out grocery shopping, think about ways to sneak protein into your food consumption, such as yogurt, jerky, protein powder, turkey, cheese, etc.
- Dedicate “Me Time” to Exercise
Those who obtain new equipment for exercise are often determined to extract every penny from their purchase. They end up overdoing themselves and ending up on a pace that’s unsustainable. Instead, you should simply make sure that your “me time” is dedicated to exercise.
Moms have a lot of responsibility, so they often don’t have a lot of “me time.” Because of this, it’s important to dedicate the little amount of “me time” you do have to exercise.
You need to have the discipline to commit yourself to exercising during the little “me time” you have. This is important – it’s about your health. So much of your time is spent on your children, your partner, your job, etc. Commit to dedicating your time you have to yourself to improving yourself.
You may end up enjoying exercise and how exercise makes you feel. If so, this should be your motivation, instead of feeling like the food you eat needs to be “earned.”
Remember: you’re not exercising to be thin. You’re exercising so you can be healthy and strong for your children.
- Detail Your Journey on Social Media
You might help others if you chronicle your journey towards weight loss on social media. You might help others out a great deal if you can help them discover how to maintain a caloric deficit while they are still capable of enjoying foods they love like cookies or ice cream.
There’s an additional reason to consider detailing your weight loss journey on a social media site, though: you will feel like you are being held accountable if other people on the internet are watching you and what you end up eating. If your friends and family are watching what you eat, this will motivate you to keep up with a diet.
Conclusion
It isn’t always easy for moms to lose weight. Between taking care of the kids, going to work and other day-to-day responsibilities, you can have almost no time left over. But with some thoughtful planning, you can lose weight while staying healthy.
I’m not a mom but I have a busy schedule and that was really helpful.