Have you ever had days where you realized you got your kids bathed and fed, and did the laundry and dishes, and at one point realized you’d only taken time that day to put your hair into a messy bun, and put yesterdays clothes back on because hey, I don’t think anyone saw me in these at least no adults that is LOL
I believe we all have all had days, especially when our children are young, where looking after ourselves wasn’t our first priority.
You know, as Moms, I think we sometimes are so focused on making sure that everyone is looked after that we forget to look after ourselves and wonder why we find we’re feeling tired and depleted? Now I’m not an expert and I definitely can’t give you all the answers but I just want to share a couple simple goals I set for myself that had a pretty huge impact, and made my days a little brighter and less wearisome.
I can remember when my children were much smaller; I had reached the end of my day and realized I had hardly had any water to drink. I had had a few carrot sticks as I made the kids lunch at the counter, and by the time I had walked around the table during supper, cutting my children’s pork chops, my meal was cold and I no longer felt hungry. I recall finding myself feeling more tired than usual, less motivated and even felt the odd headache.
After doing a little research, I discovered the incredible importance of drinking enough water and the affects it had on my body. I realize now that 60% of the human body is comprised of water and each of our organs need an adequate amount of water to function at their best. Water regulates your body temperature, moistens tissues in your eyes nose and mouth and even carries nutrients and oxygen to our cells.
Allowing ourselves to become dehydrated, even losing only 2% of our bodies water content, can alter your bodies temp control, cause increased fatigue and even headaches. It can even affect your energy level, your brain function and affect your mood.
So, grab a cute water bottle and keep it with you and if that doesn’t work there’s even a drink more water ap you can put on your phone as a reminder.
The second thing I discovered was the importance in getting yourself outside and getting lots of fresh air and sunshine! There are so many reasons why fresh air is beneficial, but I’ll just share a few.
Inhaling fresh air actually helps cleanse your lungs. As you take longer deep breaths of air, you increase the oxygen being brought to your bodies cells. As fresh air increases the flow of oxygen, it can even help you to digest your food better. Anytime we increase our oxygen levels, it helps our white blood cells to function better which aids in killing off bacteria and germs. Better oxygen levels also give you more energy and a sharper mind.
One of my favorite benefits of fresh air is that it actually makes you happy.. for real! An increase of oxygen helps your body produce more serotonin, otherwise known as “THE HAPPY HORMONE!”
In addition to being outside, breathing in the fresh air and marveling at God’s beautiful creation, your body will be able to absorb Vitamin D from the sun which supports our immune system and strengthens our bones and teeth.
So, I want to encourage you today to start looking after yourself by to setting some simple goals that we all can accomplish.
#1 Drink more water. It’s one of the best things your can put into your body, and we have access to free, clean water in this awesome country we live in.
#2 Get outside of the house or go for a walk on your lunch break or after work and breath in some fresh air and get a little sunshine and vitamin D at the same time.
#3 Proverbs 22:6 says
“Start your children off on the way they should go and when they are older, they will not depart from it.” I want to encourage you to ask your children to make these their goals as well, so they too will learn to look after the bodies God has given them and drink lots of water and get outside and breath in the fresh air as well.