I may think that in doing this, I am being a good mom, but in fact, the example I’m setting for my kids of how to take care of themselves is not a healthy one.

It’s common especially among women to put others first, but not taking care of your body will get in the way of you having the life you want. If you are not healthy, you cannot achieve the goals you set for yourself. You also cannot fully enjoy what life has to offer if you can’t participate. Imagine that one of your dreams is to travel to Mexico. Once you get there, you find that you cannot climb the stairs of the Mayan ruins or go snorkelling because you are too out of shape.

Even something as simple as playing outside with your kids or your future grandkids can be something impossible if your health doesn’t allow for it.

While there are many aspects of your health that are out of your control, what I’m advocating for here is taking care of the things that you can control so that even if you suffer from a chronic illness, you can get the best out of life that you can.

Here are 7 ways that you can take care of your body to the best of your ability:

Sleep

Doctors recommend that an adult get an average of 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Although sleep needs are individual and some people do need more rest than others, the effects of chronic sleep deprivation are far-reaching.

Even adults can have trouble sleeping because of sensory issues. Read these tips to drastically improve your sleep.

Sleep deprivation affects our mood, our concentration, our attention, our memory, our ability to fight off infection, our libido, and our judgment. Inadequate sleep can also lead to weight gain, depression, car accidents, potentially fatal errors, and cause serious health problems such as stroke, heart attack or diabetes.

This video demonstrates the importance of sleep and what can happen if we don’t get enough of it. 

Schedule time in your life for sleep. This week, try moving your bedtime back by half an hour.

Hydration

Are you dehydrated? Even mild dehydration can affect your energy level and your mood. Many doctors still recommend that adults drink eight 8oz. glasses of water per day, but that amount may need to be higher or lower depending on other factors such as your level of physical activity and your size. New research suggests taking your weight, dividing it in two and drinking that number in ounces per day.

Start by adding just one extra glass of water a day to what you are already drinking. You may soon see an increase in your energy.

Nutrition

Nutrition is a complicated thing nowadays with food allergies and food intolerances in abundance. What is healthy for your body may not be healthy for someone else’s but there are certain commonalities that I think most people could agree on. Cut down on sugar. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Eat a variety of foods. Maintain good portion control standards for your body in terms of your height and energy level.

Nutrition is not about weight. It’s about health. It’s about fuelling your body with good energy sources so that it can work at its optimum capacity. Having healthy food on hand is half the battle. I find that by making freezer meals ahead so that I don’t have to meal plan and can easily pull out supper every day, I eat less junk.

Cut out one thing that you know is not healthy for your body even if it is a small thing like adding one scoop of sugar into your tea instead of two.

Exercise

Many people think of exercise as just being for weight loss but it does far more than that. It helps combat disease such as high blood pressure, depression, certain types of cancer, stroke, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. It boost certain brain chemicals which leaves you feeling happier and more relaxed than before (this is a very good thing!). Exercise boosts your energy, improves your sex life and helps you get a better sleep.

We make all kinds of excuses as to why we can’t exercise (time, kids, health, etc.), but all of us can do this one simple thing: move more. Park further away. Take the stairs. Dance in your kitchen. Use soup cans to do curls. Play tag with your kids at the park.

I have started exercising by changing three things in my life and it has made all the difference. I have more energy, my clothes fit better, I’ve lost weight, and my strength is noticeably improved. I now go on walks with my neighbour three times a week for 6 km. I do the app Seven which is a 7 minute workout. I take the stairs.

Just choose one small way to move more.

Dental Health

When was the last time you got your teeth cleaned or went for a dental check-up? It’s been over 7 years for me even though I take my kids regularly for dental appointments. Did you know that poor dental health and gum disease have actually been linked to heart disease and lower life expectancy? That is a pretty good reason to take it seriously. You are probably (hopefully) already brushing your teeth a few times a day which is a start.

Start flossing if you don’t already and book a dental appointment for yourself.

Mental Health

Our mental health is just as important as our physical one. No matter how stressful your life is, there are steps that you can take to decrease your body’s stress response and to be doing good self-care. Take a walk, have a visit with a friend, take a candlelit bubble bath with Epsom salts, read a good book, go for a massage, pray, write in a journal, and/or see a counsellor.

If you are the parent of a high needs child and find that the stress from that is affecting you, find other parents in similar circumstances who can understand and support you.

Breathe: Take a few minutes three times a day to sit with your eyes closed and breathe in and out five times slowly.

Appointments

I touched on this point already in the dental care section, but I’d like you now to think about other appointments that you may have put off making for yourself. Do you need to see a doctor for a check-up or a specialist for something that is worrying you? Do you need to see a nutritionalist, physiotherapist, naturopath, chiropractor, or massage therapist?

Make an appointment today that you have been procrastinating about.

Plan of action:

• go to bed half an hour earlier
• drink one extra glass of water each day
• cut one unhealthy thing out of you diet
• move more
• start flossing if you aren’t and book a dental appointment for yourself
• breathe slowly in and out five times with your eyes closed three times a day
• book an appointment with a medical professional

Part of getting the life you want is taking care of your body. It’s the only one you’ve got!

Move towards the life you want to live.

Join me for a free 5 part email series, Little Hearts, Big Worries offering resources and hope for parents.

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When I first started looking at recipes to make my own shea butter cream, I was scared off by how complicated it sounded. Most of the recipes for whipped shea butter included steps for heating/melting and then cooling, while whipping in between. They called for the use of candy thermometers and I knew that there was no way I could add something time consuming and complicated into my already too busy schedule.

I have come up with a method that couldn’t be more simple and it works just as well as the complicated ones. I use two main recipes, one that uses coconut oil and the other without.

Whipped Shea Butter Recipe

Supplies needed:

• 4 oz. unrefined shea butter (use 100% natural)
• 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 6-10 drops vitamin E oil
• 10 or more drops of essential oils in the scent of your choice (lavender is nice)

Directions:

1. Mash the raw shea butter with a fork.
2. Add the olive oil and mash together.
3. Add the drops of vitamin E and essential oils.
4. Beat with an electric mixer on high for 5 full minutes.
5. Store in a glass container with a lid.

Whipped Shea Butter with Coconut Oil Recipe

Supplies needed:

• 4 oz. unrefined shea butter (use 100% natural)
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 6-10 drops vitamin E oil

Directions:

1. Mash the raw shea butter with a fork.
2. Add the coconut oil and mash together.
3. Add the vitamin E drops.
4. Beat with an electric mixer for 5 minutes on high.
5. Store in a glass container with a lid.

For the coconut oil recipe, I don’t bother with a scent because between the coconut oil and shea butter, it is already scented. My kids like both recipes, but one of them prefers the scent of the one without coconut oil.

In the pictures below, you can see how the consistency of the shea butter changes as it is mashed and then whipped.

I feel much better about my kids using a product that is all natural, where I know what went into it. Making my own shea butter products also saves me money.

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I sat on the grass with them and stayed the whole time, being mindful to stay present, to enjoy their chatter, not to rush them, not to check for texts or e-mails on my phone, but actually be in the moment on the grass with my kids (and the bugs)… and thus, I completed the first thing on my Summer Bucket List!

watermelon, peanut butter sandwich, Caramel & Chocolate Chex Mix, macaroni salad, grapes, and cucumbers

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Included in this tray:

-worms and dirt (chocolate pudding, cookie crumbs and gummy worms)
-sandwiches in the shape of watering cans
-yellow peppers in the shape of flowers
-spinach (with a gummy worm thrown in for fun)
-pumpkin seeds
-cheese cut in the shape of carrots

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When I was in the U.S. last week, I picked up a bag of bunny shaped marshmallows and chose to create a themed muffin tin tray around them which proved very easy to do. Who knew there were so many bunny shaped edible delights out there?!

Included in this Easter lunch are:

• carrots (of course!)
• bunny shaped marshmallows
• Annie’s organic cheddar bunny crackers
• Annie’s organic bunny shaped mac and cheese
• bunny fruit gummies (*see note below)
• and Tinkyada gluten free bunny pasta with butter and parmesan.

*Note: fruit gummies are really just the way moms like me feel less guilty about feeding their kids candy because really, isn’t that essentially what “fruit” gummies are?!

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-campfire made with Glutino pretzels (logs), raisins (coal) and fruit roll ups (fire)
-pork and beans
-s’mores goldfish crackers
-trees (broccoli)
-s’mores made with gluten free graham crackers in the microwave
-hot dogs

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the “Hat” – made using banana and strawberry slices on a skewer

Oobleck – made using vanilla pudding dyed green (we couldn’t use pistachio pudding because of Miss Optimism’s nut allergy)

Green Eggs and Ham – it was really hard to get passed the look of the green eggs for the kids and even for me. Apparently, I do not like green eggs and ham; I do not like them Sam-I-Am!

Pink Ink – which is actually strawberry milk

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish – coloured goldfish crackers

You may also want to check out our Dr. Seuss themed party.

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A few week’s ago, we had a birthday party for Snuggle Puppy. I am still a bit confused as to why he wanted an army theme, as it is not something he is interested in in the least, but it was easy to plan.

Food. I planned the food around what Snuggle Puppy likes, so it wasn’t your typical kid food. He likes ethnic food, so I served samosas, pakoras, and bahajis. He is a fan of seafood, so I made crab rangoons. I also made a few other appetizers and veggies.

Instead of cake, I made cupcakes in camouflage wrappers and The Husband and I iced them with three different colours to make them look like camouflage. I added little plastic walkie talkies and other army related items to the tops of some and flags to others.

We had a small cupcake mishap, so there weren’t as many in the end as there had been when we iced them, but there were enough to go around!

Activities. Our daughter, Miss Optimism set up a face painting station and gave willing party guests camouflage faces. Fred and The Husband set up an obstacle course in the backyard and once guests were settled, The Husband put them through “basic training” on the course.

I don’t remember the course exactly, but one at a time, they had to run over, crawl through the tunnel, go up the balance beam, down the slide, over to the climbing wall where they went up that, down something to the other side, through another tunnel, crab walk quite far to the finish where they rode a little car down a ramp.  When everyone was finished the obstacle course (complete with The Husband barking orders at them like a drill sergeant would), they all did a running race. Once their training was complete, they were made honorary soldiers.

Now that they were soldiers, they were given their first mission: to rescue their fellow soldiers who were MIA. Fred had hidden dozens of plastic soldiers in our trees. The kids all enjoyed finding the army men. They were each able to keep any they found.

I also had put some toy army men in two clear plastic cups that I had taped together. The kids could then guess how many army men were in the cups. The one that came the closest got to keep all of them. I forgot to take pictures of these last two activities.

Extras. When party guests first arrived, they were given hats and dog tags that had a place to write their name and rank.  For party favours, each guest was sent home with a bag containing army related items such as plastic compass, binoculars, activity map, soldiers, parachute men, and a few candies in camouflage bags.

a picture of the happy birthday boy with his cousin K. We were blessed with good weather and a great turnout. It was a very fun day!!!

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Cake.  For the cake, I used the Firetruck cake pan by Wilton. I wrote Einstein’s name and age underneath in icing. I was also able to find fireman themed candles such as fire hat and boots that I added on top of the cake.

Food.  For our party, I served chilli because we had learnt on a field trip that firemen tend to make a lot of chilli and spaghetti in the firehall. I also served things like raw veggies and chips.

Decorations. I bought firetruck plates, napkins and cups and used a red plastic fire hat and toy firetrucks as decorations on the table.

Activities.  The kids played “stick the badge on the fire dog” and made a fire truck foam craft that I bought as a kit. We also had little fire house drills. One game we thought of but didn’t have time to do was to pretend that a house (made from a cardboard refrigerator box) was burning (flames made with orange, red, and yellow tissue paper) and have them pretend to put the fire out.

Extras.  I was able to find fireman themed treat bags and filled them with fire chief badges that I found at the Dollar store, candy, and toy fire engines for the party favors.  I was also able to find a fire chief shirt for Einstein to wear at the party.

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