September 3, 2016

The Balancing Act of Motherhood and How It Impacts Self-Care

by Michael Hughes

A couple weeks ago, my pregnant wife was feeling run down and tired after a long work week. Trying to be the caring husband, I remembered she’d been wanting to go see “Bad Moms” in theaters but ironically all her “mom friends” either were preoccupied with their newborns or were too busy with their kids to go with her. So I took her and we laughed through the movie and realized how truly tame and manageable our roles are pre-baby. 

I’ve thought about some of the things that struck me about the “mom culture” in America since watching that movie and it’s prompted this message. But from years of training busy, working and stay at home parents, I’ve observed the following trends:

1. Mom guilt is real
2. Dads also still experience guilt being away from their families
3. New parents are most likely to cancel their gym memberships
4. The balancing act gets chaotic for some moms in summer, when juggling too many kid activities and camps means sacrificing their gym memberships for a couple months

These observations seem to align with recent studies, naming time and guilt as the two biggest reasons why parents do not exercise as much as they may want to. 

It is not my intention to be one more voice “shoulding” on hard working families trying their best to do it all. Instead, I’d love to encourage those parents who have made a commitment to their health that your sessions are not one more thing taking from you, it’s a time you’ve carved out to invest in your health. This is not selfish, this is selfless. Check out some of the benefits of exercise and consider how investing in yourself benefits your family:

Benefits of regular exercise

• Reduces your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes, and obesity
• Keeps joints, tendons, and ligaments flexible, which makes it easier to move around
• Reduces some effects of aging, especially the discomfort of osteoarthritis
• Contributes to mental well-being
• Helps relieve depression, stress, and anxiety
• Increases your energy and endurance
• Helps you sleep better
• Helps you maintain a normal weight by increasing your metabolism (the rate you burn calories)

This list showcases the range of benefits your exercise program brings into your home life. Simply exercising can be revolutionizing to your self-love, self-care, health, confidence, emotional and mental wellbeing and allow you to role model that you cannot serve others without first taking care of yourself.

If I retained one thing from the movie “Bad Moms” is that freeing yourself from the confines of insane expectations moms have internalized creates peace, relief and gives moms permission to enjoy life rather than “do life.” We know surrounding yourself with an uplifting, positive community helps with this and we hope you know that in Gymnazo we daily strive to make the hour you spend here one of the best hours of your day. It is our goal always to care about you, invest into you and help you hit your individual goals. You are worth it and you deserve it, no matter what society may say. Investing into yourself is investing into the well being of those closest to you.

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