I don’t usually do this when grocery shopping, but the other day a certain product took me so much by surprise that I stopped, stared, and laughed out loud. (It was little embarrassing considering there were other shoppers nearby.) What was the product?
Organic pancake batter.
“What,” you ask, “is wrong with organic pancake batter?”
Nothing, usually, but this stuff was in a – wait for it – SPRAY CAN! You know – the same kind of can usually filled with processed “cheese” or whipped cream.
Being a camera-happy iPhone owner, I just had to take a picture of it, along with the ingredients list.
In case you can’t read them in the picture, the ingredients are:
And last but not least, that most organic of all ingredients (please note the sarcasm): “propellant.”
Hmm….
No, thank you.
How are you at reading labels? If you’re new to it, there are some food additives you’ll want to keep an eye out for. If any of the following ingredients are on the label you’re reading, you should really just put the product back on the shelf.
Let’s start with that propellant. The ingredient most often used as propellant in the same type of can containing the pancake batter (and whipped cream, etc.), is nitrous oxide. According to Drug-Forum.com, it’s been known to “leave a residue similar to motor oil” in whipped cream chargers, “which can be potentially harmful to the user.” Yum, right? With motor oil residue on your pancakes, who needs syrup?
MSG is next. Short for monosodium glutamate, MSG is a “flavor enhancer” with a nasty reputation for causing allergic reactions. It’s also a known neurotoxin that, once you eat it, never leaves your body. Never. Almost everyone has consumed MSG at one time or another, but the point is to do your best to avoid it from now on, and that includes knowing the sneaky aliases it goes by. According to the site, The Carbohydrate Addict, you may be consuming monosodium glutamate (and free glutamates, which they go into detail about on their site) if you eat foods containing the following:
enzyme modified
anything fermented
anything protein fortified
anything ultra pasteurized
autolyzed yeast
barley malt
broth
bouillon
calcium caseinate
carrageen
flavoring
natural flavoring
gelatin
hydrolyzed oat flour
hydrolyzed vegetable
hydrolyzed protein
malt extract
maltodextrin
natural flavors,
pectin
plant protein extract
potassium glutamate
sodium caseinate
soy protein
soy sauce
stock
textured protein
whey protein
yeast extract
yeast food
Like I said…sneaky. (For further reading on how MSG is often hidden in your food, check out Truth in Labeling. )
Besides propellant and MSG, be on the lookout for the other usual criminals: sugar, high fructose corn syrup, different types of fat, white flour, unnecessary additives, and artificial sweeteners like sucralose (a.k.a. Splenda). Choose to keep natural foods in your cupboards as much as possible and make your own meals instead of eating out (especially at fast food joints). Your family may give you a tough time about it, but eventually – when they realize how good they feel – they’ll thank you!
Need a little help when it comes to knowing what to cook to get your family healthy? Try the Healthy Urban Kitchen Cookbook. You’ll get some helpful bonuses along with these tasty (and did I mention “healthy”?) recipes.
================================================= Sally Dinius is writer-in-chief here at CrazyBusyMama.com, a blog created to inspire and motivate busy mamas everywhere to feel healthy, fit, and in control of their lives. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sdinius, and become a member of the CrazyBusy Mama Facebook fan page by clicking here.
The trend of moms working from home to be near their children has grown in the last couple of years. Now that they have found jobs or businesses to run, they’re starting to realize that working from home is not as easy as they thought it would be. The work they do is hard to separate form their personal lives, which makes it hard to schedule time for work responsibilities and home duties.
The workspace these moms use to do their jobs at ends up being a part of their household, so that makes dividing work and home life even more difficult to do — and one of the motivating reasons for creating my Balancing Work and Family guide. Imagine that your office is a part of the dining room, which also happens to be the room where you eat your meals as a family. How easy is it going to be for you to leave your work life to be with your family when the office is 5 feet away from the dinner table?
The realities of dividing work and personal life can get smudged for work at home moms. When that happens, one’s stress level is sure to rise, which could jeopardize one’s sanity. To prevent your sanity from leaving, you should find ways to ensure that separation takes place between your job/business and your family life.
Assess the current situation. Try to find an area, within your home, to have your office so that it won’t interfere with your family life. The home office needs a room with a door where you can be apart from the rest of the house. A den or a garage can be converted into office space that is exclusive to your business. Some people have resorted to placing their office in the laundry room, just because it has a door! When that is not an option, set up shop in your bedroom to keep it away from the family areas.
Organization is the next step. A messy desk can be a huge distraction when trying to work. Everything needs to have its place. If you worked in an office, your boss would not stand for a messy work space. There’s no difference when you’re office is at home and not at the worksite.
Use inexpensive organizing items, such as baskets with separate compartments to help organize the odds and ends on your desk. You can keep rubber stamps, letters, invoices, pens, pencils, and the like in here. Organization makes finding things much easier, which results in a more relaxed work day.
Keep your business phone separate from the family phone line. When using the same line, you run the risk of your children answering business calls or picking up the phone during a conference call. This causes your professionalism to fly right out the window and takes your customers or employers along with it.
The same goes for the computer. It’s best to keep your business computer separate from what the other family members use, but budgets don’t always allow for this. In that case, make sure that the business/job files and documents can’t be easily accessed by anyone but you. This will help prevent some of the stress that could be brought on by family members stumbling on a client’s important document and accidentally deleting them.
Be sure to use calendars or planners as they are very helpful when trying to keep track of business appointments or deadlines and family appointments. This will lessen the stress of setting up family appointments when you’ve forgotten about business deadlines you have.
Consider hiring a sitter on days you have a lot of work to do. Being a work at home mom gives you the benefit of controlling your own schedule. Having a sitter keeps the kids away from your office and gives you quiet time to focus on your work and gives your kids a chance to have fun without you feeling too guilty.
Mixing business with family in the home setting can be a major source of stress. Keeping the business side of your life organized and separate is crucial to success in keeping your stress levels down and your sanity intact.
==================================================== Get More Help:
Working at home can be extremely rewarding, but it’s challenging. Get the help you need with Real Life Guidance to Balancing Work and Family. It’s your practical guide to tracking your time, setting priorities, learning to say no and achieving that balance you strive for.
An interesting re-think of time management by guest blogger Cindy Dachuk. Enjoy.
If you are anything like me, then you likely find yourself overloaded with more things to do in a day than can possibly be accomplished. We use technology more to stay on top of things, and to keep in touch with everyone, than to free up our time. We try to cram as much as possible into our workday, to be as productive as possible, in the vain hope that perhaps we won’t have to work late or take work home to catch up.
Is it little wonder then that we are always on the search for the latest tool or tip that helps us manage our time more efficiently? After all, that’s the real issue, isn’t it? Not having enough of that precious commodity - time. Or… is it?
Maybe, instead of continuing to work at managing our time and tasks more effectively, we need to reframe our thinking. The issue with time is that it’s finite. No matter how you do the math, there are only 24 hours in a day. Instead of learning to manage your time more efficiently you have to learn manage the Energy you bring to your tasks.
Much of the early research on energy management comes to us from the world of sports, but it is just as applicable to our day-to-day work lives. Heck… to our lives in general! As a professional athlete, it is essential to understand exactly what it takes to achieve consistent, peak performance. Research has shown that though it is important to hone the technical skills each athlete brings to their respective sport, it is essential that they maximize the Energy output in order to increase performance.
We may not be operating our daily lives at the same physical level as professional athletes, but the machines we’re using to accomplish our work (our bodies) are the same. The challenge for us though, is that we are typically asked to ‘perform’ for 8 hours a day, a minimum of 5 days a week, without the benefit of the knowledge or training that athletes receive.
A key training method of elite athletes is known as Periodization, first introduced by the early Greeks. Periodization is the concept of improving performance through balancing periods of activity with periods of rest. Consider your typical work day though. You likely…
- Wake up to an alarm clock blaring at you
- Race through your morning routine to get out the door as quickly as possible to beat the traffic
- Move from one task to another, one meeting to another, with no pause
- Take lunch at your desk so you can continue to work… you wouldn’t want to ‘waste’ time!
- Race home, work tucked under your arm
- Fix dinner - Spend time with the kids (that all-important ‘quality’ time!)
- Squeeze in a little more work
- Collapse in front of the television to ‘vegetate’
- Drag yourself to bed so you can get up tomorrow to do it all again!
Where was the rest, the renewal, in your day? Oh… right… it’s called vacation and it doesn’t come daily, it comes annually! We live in a world where ‘busyness’ is worn like a badge of honour and where renewal and recovery get ignored. However, our ability to be fully engaged at work, to be optimally productive, depends upon our ability to periodically ‘disengage’ successfully.
Building moments of recovery into your work day will enable you to engage in your tasks more fully and passionately. Research has clearly shown that productivity increases when people build in periods of renewal into their work day. Even though they are ‘breaking’ more, they get more done than those choosing to work ‘flat out’. Some of the most creative thinkers (such as daVinci and Einstein) were strong advocates of breaks, to allow their subconscious minds to work out the problem at hand.
I have clients that will not schedule any meeting exceeding 90 minutes in length, without scheduling a break, recognizing the link of our energy levels to our body’s natural Ultradian Rhythms. And… really… most meetings run needlessly long anyway!
Consider breaking your day into 90-120 minute blocks of time. Rather than fighting these natural body rhythms, defer to them instead. A break needn’t be long in duration for it to provide you with enough of a rest for your energy and focus to improve. Potential ideas for workday renewal breaks?
- take a walk
- read a chapter of a book, or listen to one
- listen to music
- do some light stretches
- prepare and eat a light, healthy snack
- work on a puzzle, crossword, sudoku
You get the idea! Whatever activity would work best for you and relieve you of some of the physical and mental stress you’ve experienced so far. Allow your mind to switch gears, take a break from the task at hand, so that it can be more focused when you return. Odds are that the solution to the problem you were stuck on before the break, is waiting for you upon your return!
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About the Author: As the President of the Titan Training Group, Cindy Dachuk has traveled throughout the United States and Canada delivering workshops and training programs, primarily in: Understanding Style Differences, Personality-Based Persuasion, Executive Presence, Personal Branding, Gender Differences, Personal Presentation Skills. Cindy’s work as a Personal Coach has provided her with the opportunity to work with clients on a one-on-one basis, mentoring them in the development of a personal plant of action. Her book, It’s Time Now, is based on her experiences in helping others identify and achieve their life goals. http://www.titantraining.ca
It’s like tradition for me: Every holiday season I order groceries online at least once, sometimes twice. There have been various reasons for doing this, but the biggest and best if getting to skip the crowds.
The store I order from 90% of the time is Safeway. It seems like I’m always getting a coupon in the mail for free delivery, so I’m thinking I may start utilizing their services more. I’ve never had a bad experience with delivery from Safeway.com (you’ll also see links below for Genuardis and Vons, who are in the Safeway “family”).
Give them a try! It’ll save you at least one headache this season.
I’ve been in a good deal of pain for the last three days. It started with my muscles tightening — mostly in my neck and shoulders — then the pain in my head began and gradually became worse. I have, for the most part, been dead to the world since Monday night and good for nothin’ better than sitting around and playing silly games on Facebook. That…and a little blogging. (After years of having these headaches, I know when to cut myself some slack.)
I’m not totally sure why I get tension headaches…could be stress, could be hormones, could be my fibromyalgia (most likely a combination of the three), but I’ve been getting them since I was about 17. If you’re someone who’s also afflicted by headaches, I’ve compiled some tips that have provided relief for me at one time or another. Maybe you’ll find them to be helpful, as well.
1. Accept your limitations. Whether your headaches are classified as tension headaches or migraines (or have another cause), relax and accept that you may not be able to keep up with your daily activities. Kick the guilt out of the room. You can’t help this. (If your headache is due to a hangover, that’s another story….)
2. Rest and delegate. Have hubby or an older child make dinner. If that’s not possible, just announce that tonight is a cereal night. Kids like that once in a while. Do you have babies or toddlers? Have someone help with at least some of their care so that you can rest.
3. Turn on the answering machine and/or set up an automated email response. Friends, family, and clients alike will (hopefully) understand if you honestly can’t work because of a bad headache. So that you don’t have to explain yourself, let your calls go to voicemail and set up an automatic message that goes out to anyone who emails you. Because not everyone understands how devastating a bad headache can be, feel free to just say you’re sick.
4. Take a hot shower. With my tension headaches, I can often hurt all the way down to my hips (I blame this part on my fibromyalgia). A hot shower can work wonders when it comes to loosening up tight, painful muscles. If you’re having trouble standing up without your head pounding, try a bath and add a few drops each of peppermint and lavender essential oils to the bath water. This is also a good time to try stretching out your sore neck and shoulders.
5. Turn up the heat. Because tension headaches have muscular involvement, a hot rice or herbal pack laid over the top of my head or around my neck works wonders for me (heat relaxes muscles). Conversely, inflammation is also involved, so an ice pack can be equally soothing. Trading off between the two can really help. Check out the Thermalon line of heat-cold wraps and pain relieving sprays.
6. Take two and call me in the morning. Excedrin for Tension Headaches sometimes helps me. I say sometimes because it worked the last time I had one of these headaches, but not this time around. Might work for you, though, so it’s worth a try, right? Experiment with other pain relievers to see what your perfect fit is. If nothing works, check with your doctor — you may need something stronger.
7. Rub it out. The best thing I have found for banishing knots in my shoulders (which I always get along with these headaches) is the TheraCane Massager. It’s perfect for working on those sore areas you can’t get to just by reaching over your shoulder with your fingertips. Your affected muscle will want to become inflamed again after you tell it who’s boss, so be keep an ice pack at the ready.
My daughter (my exercise buddy) and I like to work out with videos. We find it keeps us motivated to do an entire workout if we’ve got someone telling us what to do. Knowing it will be over after a set amount of time also helps.
Something else that keeps me working out each day is simply knowing how beneficial exercise really is. One benefit is that it helps you to look better. Case in point: I was interested in quickly losing a few inches around my midsection (contrary to popular belief, the “muffin top” look is not attractive — I know this first hand) and my thighs. I also wanted to shape up my arms, which were definitely in need of…something.
My arms are now becoming more toned, and the inches are melting away. Even more amazing, I can finally see some definition in my abs. Let’s go through the list of benefits together and see if we can’t get you inspired to begin exercising, too:
1. YOU’LL LOSE WEIGHT
For most women, this is the number one reason for beginning a workout routine. What you may not know is that if you don’t break a sweat, you probably won’t lose the weight. “Slow and steady wins the race,” but it doesn’t take off the pounds. You’ve got to get your heart rate up if you want to burn calories and melt away the fat. Walking at a good speed around your neighborhood is a good place to start, then build up to running if that’s possible for you (always check with your doctor before starting a strenuous workout routine). I recommend Billy Blanks’ Tae Bo: Fat Blasting Cardio & Total Body Fat Blasteras a good workout to follow if you want to get fit and trim in a hurry.
2. YOU CAN ACHIEVE TOTAL BODY OR SPOT TONING
If you want to change the shape of your body, you need to work out. Period. Dieting may help you lose some of the weight, but the flabby areas will still be flabby when the weight is gone. The good news is that muscles respond fairly quickly to exercise, and it’s possible to see exciting results within days. The areas most women want to see toned on their bodies are the arms, abs, glutes, and thighs. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I recommend Tae Bo, but if you’re looking for something on the more mellow side, try Pilates.
Again, try to work in some cardio if you’re wanting to tone up. Belly fat and cellulite will be banished much faster if you are moving faster. You can work your abs as much as you want, but if you’re not burning off the fat, no one will see the evidence of your hard work.
3. YOU’LL SLEEP BETTER
You’ll fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly if you’re working your body. Don’t exercise too close to bedtime, though, or the adrenaline produced during your workout might actually keep you awake. I tend to work out later at night, sometimes around 9 or 10, but I’m a night owl, anyway. It’s also when I get the TV.
4. YOU’LL LOOK PURDY
It goes without saying that we look better when we’re toned and trim. That’s what we’re shooting for, after all (besides becoming healthier): to tone our muscles and lose weight. Plus, if you focus on exercises that strengthen your core muscles, you’ll find your posture improving. And if you’ve ever done any people watching, you know that people with good posture come across as more attractive, confident, powerful, and approachable.
5. YOU’LL EAT HEALTHIER
When you begin doing one good thing for your body, you’ll find yourself thinking twice about your other bad habits. Since I started working out, I find I just don’t want the cheesy crackers, donuts, cookies, lunch meats and other no-no’s like I once did. I’m reaching for — and actually wanting — healthy foods like veggies and fruits, whole-grain breads, low-fat cheeses, and the like. I’m also drinking more water.
6. YOU’LL HAVE A STRONGER HEART AND LUNGS
According to the National Institutes for Health, “physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease that you have control over.” Like any muscle, the heart gets weaker when it’s underused and stronger with increased activity. The stronger your heart becomes, the less winded you will feel when climbing a flight of stairs, lifting a heavy package, etc. This is because the heart won’t have to beat as fast during times of exertion. After exertion, the “fit” heart will return to its resting rate much more quickly than the heart of someone who is out of shape.
And with all the deep breathing and increased oxygen intake that goes along with working out, your lungs will become stronger, too.
7. YOU’LL BE ZINGING WITH INCREASED ENERGY
Strange as it sounds, working your body can increase your energy levels over time. People who are inactive and out of shape have weaker bodies than people who stay fit and active. Being in shape — having a stronger body — will give you that extra spark to keep going through each day.
8. YOU’LL FIND YOU HAVE A BRIGHTER OUTLOOK and FEWER STRESS-RELATED SYMPTOMS
I’ve been feeling very stressed out lately, and am finding myself trying to juggle not only my daily responsibilities but also a hefty level of anxiety. Depression, anxiety’s close friend, has been hanging around, too. These two pals were almost unbearable a couple of evenings ago. In the past, I would’ve been tempted to down a couple of teaspoons of Children’s Benedryl to knock myself out for the night. This time, however, I tossed on my exercise clothes, grabbed my dumbbells, and headed for the family room for a good workout. Was the stress gone? No. Anxiety? No. The levels were down, though, and compared to how helpless I’ve been feeling lately, I felt like I’d actually accomplished something. I did feel better (and I slept good, too, after that workout — no Benedryl required).
Researchers have found that at least 30 minutes of exercise can produce the same benefits in a depressed person as taking medication would. But without the drugged, hangover feeling.
Exercise improves our moods by causing the brain to release certain chemicals. These are:
Endorphins. A neurotransmitter that reduces pain and gives you a feeling of well-being. People have even been known to experience feelings of euphoria from endorphins released during exercise.
Serotonin. Another neurotransmitter, it helps to relay information between brain cells. If serotonin levels are low, not only can your mood be adversely affected, but also appetite, memory, how you interract socially, and your ability to learn new things.
Dopamine. A neurotransmitter that is formed from the amino acid tyrosine, dopamine controls the way we experience pleasure and pain. It also has an effect on perception, movement, and emotion, and is necessary to keep the central nervous system working as it should. Imbalances of dopamine and serotonin have been found in people with schizophrenia and bipolar-related psychoses.
Adrenaline. You’ve most likely heard the term “fight or flight” in connection with the hormone adrenaline. When adrenaline is produced by the adrenal gland in our bodies, our heart rates go up, our blood vessels dilate to allow the passage of greater quantities of blood throughout our bodies, and our air passages also dilate to allow the intake of more oxygen. It’s easy to see why adrenaline is needed during a workout: When the heart is able to pump more oxygen-carrying blood to our muscles, we experience periods of greater physical endurance and ability.
9. YOU’LL GET A BOOST IN YOUR METABOLISM
Many of us talk about wanting to speed up our metabolism, but we don’t fully understand what it is. In a nutshell, it’s the body’s process of combining nutrients with oxygen, which provides energy that keeps our bodies functioning. This energy is measured in “calories.”
Normally, our bodies take glucose and turn it into energy. When the glucose runs out, the metabolism process turns to the fat stored in our bodies and turns that into energy. However, if we have too much glucose in our bodies (from overeating — and eating the wrong things, at that), the stored fat is never utilized, and the glucose is turned into even more fat. The metabolism process, then, slows down as the pounds are packed on.
If you want to boost your metabolism, eat the right things (never starve yourself) and go for the cardio workouts, which keep your metabolic rate high for several hours. Weight training is also necessary if you want a higher metabolism: The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’ll burn — even at rest.
10. YOU’LL LOWER YOUR RISK OF DEVELOPING CERTAIN CANCERS Recent studies have shown that vigorous exercise actually reduces the risk of getting certain cancers: ovarian, colorectal, and breast cancers, to be specific. The researchers aren’t sure why that is, but I have a feeling it has something to do with more oxygen being delivered throughout the body during exercise. Cancer thrives in an “anerobic” (oxygen-less) environment, so this may be one reason why exercise “does a body good.” Another possible reason is that obese people have a higher cancer risk than thinner people. Eating more fruits and veggies also plays a part.
For those already diagnosed with cancer, like my husband (multiple myeloma), exercise can also be highly beneficial in combatting the disease. Lonnie’s oncologist suggested he walk as often as he can, for starters.
If you look close enough, there are many parallels in life. For example, I’ve dealt with a condition called fibromyalgia for years. If I eat the wrong things or work on my knees a little too long in the garden, I can literally feel the muscles in my body freezing up like the Tin Man did in The Wizard of Oz.
“Oil,” the Tin Man tried to tell Dorothy, “I need oil.”
“Massage,” I whine to my husband, “I need a massage.”
Let’s take that example and parallel it with our work-at-home careers. I can think of several things that can get “rusty”:
Skills
Knowledge
Business relationships
Personal relationships (family and friends)
Let’s take a quick look at each of these, and the oil needed to keep them “working.”
Rusty Skills: We’ve got to keep our skills up. By trade, I’m a web designer/developer. I realized this morning, however, that my skills had gotten a bit rusty over the past couple of months. I’d forgotten how to write some very simple snippets of code. Anyone who’s a designer or developer knows that if you don’t keep refreshing your memory regarding what you already know, your career will die a slow and painful death.
The Oil: It’s been a couple of months since I last built a web site, but I’m working this weekend on revamping an old site of mine. It was one of the first sites I’d ever built, and oh, wow — is the coding pathetic or what! I’ll be rebuilding it from the ground up: an excellent exercise to refresh and build on my skills. What can you do to refresh your skills?
Rusty Knowledge: Our world is constantly changing. If you work at home, chances are you work online. Talk about something that continually morphs — that’s the Internet! Not keeping up on the latest trends is a guaranteed way to get left in the dust of your competitors. For me, not keeping up on the latest code releases is a bad, bad idea.
The Oil: To succeed online, you must promote your business. To do this, you need to keep up on all the latest social networking sites and strategies. Be careful, though: Everyone and their brother wants to sell you this program or that to teach you how to market yourself. Please…be wise, be shrewd, and tread carefully. I lost track of how many of my Twitter followers lately have sent me direct messages in an attempt to sell me a program that teaches how to get “targeted Twitter traffic.” What?? Do a little research on your own…there’s plenty of free information out there, and you’ll get to keep that dough in your pocket. (Free tip: Sign up at — and use — Twellow, the “Twitter Yellow Pages.”) A good rule of thumb that I’ve heard repeated again and again: If it sounds to good to be true, IT IS.
Social networking aside, do some brainstorming on paper to discover ways you can increase your knowledge, and thereby really boost your career. Should you take a class? Do some online tutorials? Read (current) books by successful people in your line of work? Do this exercise and you’ll be miles ahead of most people in your field.
Rusty Business Relationships: You met so-and-so at a mixer last year, and really would like to utilize her services now. Doggone it, though — you can’t remember her name. You think you got her email address, but lost the napkin it was written on. If you’d stayed in contact, you might have been able to get a good deal on such-and-such now. You win some, you lose some, right?
The Oil: As soon as you make a new business contact, record their information in your online address book. As a back-up, also write it in a notebook that you keep just for that reason, or print out a hard copy of your online contacts. If your business contacts are people you met on Facebook (for example), comment on their updates once in a while. Same thing if you know them on Twitter. Take note: This is for the purpose of building relationships and, possibly, friendships. Never spam your Facebook friends or Twitter followers. (Though you can, of course, mention new blog posts, product reviews, etc. — just don’t forget to be personal first and foremost.)
Rusty Personal Relationships: It’s easy to get so caught up in our work that our personal relationships begin to suffer. I’ve been known to work on a project for an entire day before realizing what time it was. And then I feel horrible, of course, because I’d spent little or no quality time with my kids that day. It can be the same with our friendships: If we can’t remember the last time we saw our friends socially, we know we’re working too hard.
The Oil: Make sure you know what your priorities are. List them on paper and post the list above your desk — or wherever you’ll see it most often. Above your desk is an excellent place to keep it: It will remind you while you’re working that you need to stop for a while and tend to those priorities.
Also, make friends with your timer. Your timer will help you fit as much into your day as possible. You’ll be able to care for your family, tend to your house (or make sure the kids are doing their chores), and get some serious work done on your latest project. Some things really don’t take as long as we think. It’s amazing what can be accomplished in 15 minute bursts.
I hope this has been helpful for you today. If you also have strategies to prevent yourself from becoming rusty in the various areas of your life, please share!
My number one frustration as a work-at-home mom is distraction. I can have the best intentions as far as what I want to accomplish, my planner can be utilized perfectly, and I can even have my “game on” (meaning my mind is sharp and raring to go).
But without fail, a family member will need me or want to talk. If I’m deep in thought about a project, the interruption is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Don’t get me wrong; I love my family and I love having them near. It’s not that they’re being disrespectful or don’t care that I need to work…I believe the real story is that I haven’t made the line in the sand quite clear enough.
It’s healthy — it really is — for the members of our families to learn to respect the times when we need to work without interruption. If we can’t complete a thought in our heads, we’re not going to be able to bring in any money, right? That said, we also need to make sure there’s a balance, and I’ll get to that in just a bit.
I’d like to share with you some tips that have helped me. Some I’ve learned from others, while some I’ve come up with out of sheer desperation.
1. Put on your headphones. You don’t have to really be listening to anything, just ignore whoever’s talking to you, snap your fingers to whatever rhythm you can think of, and bob your head up and down to the “music.”
Or really listen to something, if you can work with background music (or a podcast, etc.). I am, at this very moment, listening to my new favorite singer, Shawn Mullins.
2. Do you have an office or other designated room where you work? Hang up a sign that says, “Do not disturb.” Mary Engelbreit, author and illustrator, has a sign above her studio that reads, “No one gets in to see the wizard…no way, no how.”
3. Get a babysitter. If the babysitter keeps interrupting you, find another. If that doesn’t work, get off-site childcare for at least a few days a week.
4. Get off-site yourself. Go to Starbucks or the library (take those headphones with you, just in case). Wear sunglasses if you think you might be recognized. Dark sunglasses. And a hat.
5. Older children can keep younger ones preoccupied, at least for a little while. However, if you happen to have a clingy toddler who doesn’t want anyone but you…see #4.
6. If they still don’t get it, have a family meeting. Ignore the pouty faces and stick to your guns. But make it an “if, then” meeting. Tell your kids, “If I can work without interruption between (fill in the hours), I’ll play a board game with you (or take you to the park, etc.).”
7. Most importantly…give a little. Kids need their moms, husbands need their wives. Don’t be a work-a-holic, working for too many hours on end. Try to work for a set period each day and spend the rest with those you love…and who love you. Balance is key. If they feel like they’re getting enough time with you, they’ll be less likely to interrupt when you really need to work.
We all have days when the saying “no rest for the weary” really hits home. Funny how that weary person is usually mom, huh? We moms take care of hearth and home, but who takes care of us? We go, go, go from the minute our feet hit the floor, and — most days — keep that pace until our heads hit the pillow each night.
Moms have an incredible capacity to nurture others…but that type of care can really take its toll. If you are a “crazybusy mama,” it is vital that you learn to value yourself as a person and schedule some time just for you.
A car is filled with gas to make it run — we all know that. Eventually the gas runs out and your car won’t move until it’s fueled up again. The same goes for you. Mom time refuels the tank so that you can give to your family as well as yourself in equal measure. Don’t be ashamed to sit for fifteen minutes doing nothing. In the springtime, relaxing in a hammock under a tree is the perfect getaway from the pressures of the day. Reading a book for 30 minutes can also seem like heaven to many moms.
Case in point: As I sit here writing, I’ve had to tell each of my kids that they could not turn on the TV. Once in a while, a quiet Friday night is okay. I explained that I live here, too, so sometimes it’s my turn to decide what we’ll watch. I happened to decide that the TV would stay off tonight. And that’s okay — our house is noisy enough during daytime hours. This quiet is water in the desert.
One way to guage whether or not you’re needing some “you time” is to think about how often you get cranky with your family or others. Emotional issues can develop when you don’t take the time to take care of your well-being (spiritual, emotional, and mental), not to mention the physical results of emotional neglect.
Here are some tips to help you fit in some much-needed time for yourself:
1. Get up earlier in the mornings. Once everyone is up and moving around, your day can go from 0-60 mph just like that. Waking 30 minutes to an hour ahead of time means quiet solitude to drink your coffee, read a book, pray, or listen to music.
2. Turn ordinary experiences into memorable events. When you take a bath, add some candles, essential oils, quiet music and/or an inflatable bath pillow. Your regular bath has now become a spa-level experience. If you’d rather watch a movie, then turn out the lights and curl up on the couch with your very own bag of microwave popcorn (or your snack of choice).
3. Ask your significant other for help. Kids love their mothers but time spent with dad is important, too. Let them bond with dad while you go shopping for a new outfit or work in the garden. Since the time is yours, spend it however you like.
4. Use the Boy Scout motto. (Yes, really.) “Always be prepared” and you’ll find yourself spending more time in a relaxed mode. Fix lunches the night before. Iron clothes for the next day and place backpacks by the front door so kids can grab them on their way out. The fewer things you have to do throughout the day, the calmer you will be around your family. The times you feel burned out will be few and far between, and “catastrophes” that would otherwise seem like mountains will actually look quite small. You’ll feel ready for anything!
5. Take exercise breaks. When you get a few minutes the last thing you want to do is exercise but getting a little physical activity in your day has far-reaching implications. Exercise helps you to think clearly and stretches the muscles. Also, stress will drain away as powerful endorphins are released into your system. Do jumping jacks during a television commercial or jog to the bus stop to pick up the kids.
6. Laugh…just laugh. Keep a funny calendar cube on your desk or subscribe to a daily joke site. Or come back here and watch the funny videos in the upper right corner (refresh the page to see a new one). Laughing releases stress and can lift your spirits big time. It also keeps the abs tight…and who doesn’t like that?
Don’t put this off until tomorrow (unless you’ve actually got your time scheduled in your planner). Taking care of yourself is so important — it’s like a gift for your family. You owe it to yourself and them to do this (and yes, you do deserve it).
I'm so glad to have you as a reader here at CrazyBusy Mama (Dot Calm)! If you've been encouraged, motivated, or both, I won't say no if you'd like to buy me a cup of coffee. :-)
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workday, to be as productive as possible, in the vain hope that perhaps we won’t have to work late or take work home to catch up.
Building moments of recovery into your work day will enable you to engage in your tasks more fully and passionately. Research has clearly shown that productivity increases when people build in periods of renewal into their work day. Even though they are ‘breaking’ more, they get more done than those choosing to work ‘flat out’. Some of the most creative thinkers (such as daVinci and Einstein) were strong advocates of breaks, to allow their subconscious minds to work out the problem at hand.
My daughter (my exercise buddy) and I like to work out with videos. We find it keeps us motivated to do an entire workout if we’ve got someone telling us what to do. Knowing it will be over after a set amount of time also helps.
as a good workout to follow if you want to get fit and trim in a hurry.
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If you look close enough, there are many parallels in life. For example, I’ve dealt with a condition called fibromyalgia for years. If I eat the wrong things or work on my knees a little too long in the garden, I can literally feel the muscles in my body freezing up like the Tin Man did in The Wizard of Oz.
My number one frustration as a work-at-home mom is distraction. I can have the best intentions as far as what I want to accomplish, my planner can be utilized perfectly, and I can even have my “game on” (meaning my mind is sharp and raring to go).
We all have days when the saying “no rest for the weary” really hits home. Funny how that weary person is usually mom, huh? We moms take care of hearth and home, but who takes care of us? We go, go, go from the minute our feet hit the floor, and — most days — keep that pace until our heads hit the pillow each night.
