By Guest Blogger: Heather Brooker, Host of Motherhood in Hollywood Podcast
First let me say I’m thrilled to share my thoughts on getting healthy with the mamas of Gugu Guru! I hope your new year is off to a good start. Now here’s why I’ve called this meeting. Can we get honest about dieting and getting fit for a second? It’s freakin’ hard! As moms we are facing overwhelming obstacles that pose a potential problem in our plan to lose weight and get healthy everyday. No time for lunch? Grab a burger. Trying to get to the gym? It’s toddler tantrum time. Want to go for an evening walk to reach your 10,000 steps? El Niño.
I don’t know about you but sometimes it feels like the world is against me when I try to get healthy. So I’m challenging myself to overcome obstacles that get in the way of my weight loss success. I recently made the announcement of my plans on my podcast, Motherhood in Hollywood. I’m calling it the #MIH15by15. I plan to lose at least 15 pounds by my 15th wedding anniversary in May. I purposely set a smaller, more attainable goal in the hopes that I will smash it. I’m getting outside my comfort zone and trying new workouts in my city, and creative, fun ways to eat healthy that fit my schedule as a stay-at-home mom. That’s the #MIH15by15! And here are the obstacles I find most challenging and how I plan to overcome them.
1. Willpower
What is this word and why does it get bandied about whenever anyone talks about dieting and exercise? Because it’s important that’s why. And this is probably one of my biggest obstacles. I am weak when it comes to food. I love to eat. It’s like a party in my mouth every time I have a piece of cheese, or anything laced with butter. Donuts? Fughettaboutit! So in the coming months I will have to dig deep to come up with some willpower to resist excessively eating the foods I love so much. Here’s my trick: I’m going to try visualizing the raw ingredients of whatever I’m eating. Like a donut for example. The basic ingredients are milk, eggs, butter, sugar, unbleached flour and several different -fates and -iacins. When I think about all of the unhealthy ingredients that go into making my favorite foods, I suddenly don’t want a donut anymore. Or maybe, only half a donut. Ya feel me? And with any bad habit once you break the cycle of addiction (which sugar is for me) then it has less and less control over you. Then bam! That willpower gets stronger and stronger.
2. Exhaustion
Nothing is the enemy of getting healthy like being tired. In fact, I’m up way too late right now writing this article and I’m sure I will pay for it tomorrow. All the experts say your body needs rest to function properly. So, aside from right now, I am vowing to get as much rest as possible, whenever I can. That whole thing about napping while the baby naps? Yes please! My daughter is 2 and she (thankfully) still takes some healthy naps. I’ve realized that it’s okay for me to skip the laundry, or the dishes, or a blog post… if it means I can get some sleep. I’m less irritable, more patient and I make better food choices. Rest mamas. It is the key to your well-being.
3. Temptation
My friends with no kids always want to go out to eat. Or meet for a drink. Sometimes it’s my only way to socialize so I agree to go. And when I’m sitting at the Cheesecake Factory for the umpteenth time staring at all those yummy sounding dishes, I can’t help but order something I know I’ll love. Usually a pasta of some sort, with a white sauce. It’s literally the worst thing I could possibly order but it’s comfortable and it’s a habit. I’m thinking in order to break that habit, I need to limit myself on eating out during the week. I’m going to come up with more creative ways to hang out with my childless friends that don’t involve food. Maybe go for walk, visit the zoo, grab coffee even. Something to remove the temptation from my view. This is my goal anyway. Feel free to keep track of me and keep me honest if you see I’m eating out a lot. I also feel like this is something my wallet will thank me for.
4. Soda
I’m listing soda as an obstacle for me because it really is. I drink pop, soda, coke whatever you want to call it, almost every single day. It is one of the worst poisons I’m putting in my body and it tastes so good that I don’t think I can ween myself off of it. For this obstacle I’m going to have to go cold turkey. I’m not buying it at the grocery store so it’s not even in the house to tempt me. I’m going to order ice tea with any of the convenient combo meals that I admittedly order from time to time. I will leave it out of my rum and cokes and just have rum from now on. Kidding of course. I’m a microbrew gal. But this truly is a weakness of mine and it will be a tough nut to crack. That’s why I hope to build a strong community around me who also wants to get healthy in a fun, effective way-soda pop free!
Do you face any of these obstacles? Tell me what obstacles you’re up against in your journey to get healthy and how will you overcome them? To keep track of my progress during the #MIH15by15 and to keep me honest, go to motherhoodinhollywood.com.
Bio
Heather Brooker is a mom, actress, Emmy Award-winning writer, and host of the popular podcast, Motherhood in Hollywood. She’s appeared on TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy, The Middle, Fresh Off The Boat, The Mindy Project and more. On her podcast, Heather discusses her two passions — parenting and acting — and has a hilarious and addicting, tell-it-like-it-is personality.
