Homeschool mama self-care means we consider our needs, including what our bodies need.
What a better time of year than to consider what we need for our homeschool mom nutrition.
So, what do you think when I say those words? Homeschool mom nutrition.
The New Year’s resolutions that most North Americans point to every single year, the “lose weight and get in shape” resolution, I gave up years ago.
Here’s why.
First, because I’m resistant to the North Americanized version of the perfect image. I’m as valuable as any human being, in size six pants or size twelve.
And I don’t have to be publicly admired to know it.
Secondly, I was steeped in unhealthy body image issues as a child. I grew up listening to messages that said I was valuable because I was tall, thin, blond and pretty.
“You should be a model,” I heard.
When I gained weight in my twenties, people noticed. It wasn’t profound weight gain, just “throw me off the pedestal” weight gain.
Food became my coping mechanism through my twenties, and I don’t even want to analyze my pregnant/nursing years…I was just hungry.
I did gain too much weight. And after my fourth and final child was born, I decided it was no longer an option to huff and puff as I went up and down the second-story stairs.
My goal in homeschool mom nutrition: I choose to get healthier.
I became active. And despite still not being a size six, I am more active these days than I have ever been.
However, I’ve still struggled to make the right food choices.
I’ve told myself: I’m not obese. I can eat my lays potato chips and drink gin and tonic with my hubby. Christmas Eve prime rib dinner and New Year’s Day vereneke and farmer sausage with sour cream is a tradition. I can enjoy my baked brie and cream buns for Christmas breakfast and Sweet Georgia Browns on Christmas Day.
I can forget nutritious dietary habits for the holidays. Carpe eatem.
My pendulum often swings too far.
Carpe diem can’t always apply to nutrition choices.
A few years ago, my husband planned a New Year’s Eve outing, just the two of us. I really wanted to hang together as a family: fun food, of course: cheese fondue, chocolate fondue, and those chex chocolate icing sugar snacks and some fun activities: minute-to-win it games, dancing, and watching the ball drop.
Instead, my husband and I went to emerg for gallbladder pain. I exercised regularly and live an active life, but my body was not meant to eat what I had been eating.
Here was my story on moving towards eating better.
It’s New Year’s again. How many have written “gonna lose weight this year” on their resolution list again?
A few. (It also happens to be cholecystectomy season…removal of the gallbladder for overeating high fat food, for real).
I’m not adding “lose weight” to this year’s resolution.
Instead, I will continue to work towards a more nutritious approach.
On the top of my list is to be a whole lot more moderate in eating anything in moderation.
- I can eat more green smoothies to start my mornings.
- I can include an apple a day (with a few almonds).
- I can limit my sweet treat to after dinner only.
- I can choose more sauté vegetables with eggs for breakfast, instead of toast.
- I can choose soup or salad at lunch, instead of sandwiches.
- I can choose leaner meats like chicken, turkey or fish, instead of beef.
- I can choose packaged foods for special occasions.
- I can choose to bring food along instead of finding myself at a fast-food drive-thru.
- Or I can choose to preorder at healthier food restaurants before I leave for over-dinner activities.
- I can choose to include less meat in weekly diet. More beans, lentils, and eggs.
- I can enjoy unconventional grains like buckwheat, quinoa, and chia…oh, and steal cut oats, of course.
- I can keep pre-cut carrots, celery, and cucumbers and homemade hummus in the fridge at all times.
- I can eat salted, pepper-flaked avocadoes with rice crackers as a bedtime snack.
- I can tote a water bottle with me, instead of a coffee cup.
- I can keep green olives or super garlicky pickles in the fridge instead of potato chip distractions.
This year, I can be loving myself through eating well.
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Teresa Wiedrick
I help homeschool mamas shed what’s not working in their homeschool & life, so they can show up authentically, purposefully, and confidently in their homeschool & life.
