Laura talks about a typical day in her life and how she balances out being a mama, wife, sister, daughter and friend, a business owner and just… a person! Listen in for her tips on balancing her life and hear some real talk on the realities of getting it done (and on some days, just surviving).
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Transcript
You’re listening to the Love and Lettuce podcast with Laura Lima, episode 40. I want to talk to you about my typical day, and specifically how I balance my day with three kids. Stay tuned.
Hey, this is Laura Lima, holistic nutritionist and founder of New Mama Nation, and host of the Love and Lettuce podcast. I am here to help mamas know what to eat to give them energy and help them feel fantastic. So they can better enjoy life with their littles. And remember, this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only, and does not replace medical advice from your healthcare provider, and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. As always, please consult your health care provider to find out what is right for you. With that said, let’s get to the show.
Is weight loss a goal that you have, but you feel like you’ve tried all the things and nothing sticks?
Well, I want to give you some advice. Specifically, I want to give you the five common weight loss mistakes that I see so often. And I want to break them down for you. So go to http://bit.ly/5wlmistakes and get my free download there.
Ah, yes, the typical day for a mom with kids
There is really no typical is there. I mean, there is but it’s just so much unknown. And so much that can come up. I want to give you a little bit of a behind-the-scenes of my day, and I want to give you some tips on how you might balance your day out if you also have one kid, 2, 3, 5, whatever. I mean, listen, if you already have your kids, then you definitely have tips of your own that I’m sure you can share with me. And if you want to do that, I would love to hear from you either in solidarity or t give me advice. I would love it.
So come find me on Instagram @lauraannlima. And send me a DM and I will be so happy to chat with you there. So yes, my typical day for let’s talk about a week day. I’m currently feeding my five month old Ben. And so you may hear him in the background and that just hey, balancing life with three kids, sometimes you just can’t. Sometimes you just have to do two things at once, like recording a podcast episode while feeding your boy. I mean, what else?
So I want to talk about a typical weekday with you because I’ve got a girl Ellie who goes to school. She’s in junior kindergarten, now she’s four. So during the weekends, obviously she’s home and the weekends look a little bit different, they’re less structured, and I mean that every single day is totally structured anyway. But having said that, yes, I do want to talk about a typical weekday.
In the morning
So in the morning we get up, I like to get up at five. I know that sounds crazy, maybe especially if you’re someone who’s like I like to sleep in Thank you very much. The only way honestly that I can get up at five comfortably is if I have gone to bed early enough. And there was a big and I haven’t been up too much. That night. Like the previous night. If I’m up three or more times, or if I’m just feeling so tired at night. I do switch my alarm clock instead of getting up at five. I will get up at 630 which is the time that I have to get up in order to be ready before the girls wake up and I get Ellie ready for school.
So if it’s a crazy night where I’m so tired or just wasn’t able to get to bed on time to have at least seven and a half hours of sleep, that’s my sweet spot, is getting between seven and a half and a maybe eight and a half hours of sleep. Just makes me feel the best when I get that amount of sleep. No more no less. So if I can get to bed on time, which means that I’m not up you know cleaning and finishing up the kitchen and whatever because it happens a lot.
I love getting up early if I can
So if I’m doing those things then I will sleep from 6:30. But if I am able to get to sleep on time and I get up my typical one or two nights two times a night then I will get up at five and it feels so good. Because when I do that, I have at least an hour, if not an hour and a half off to work. That is when I do my dedicated business work time. It is where I can get my most focused work done when I can do my writing. When I can do my thinking about my, you know, my strategy and my planning, and just all of that where I can work on my coaching program that I have coming up. And I can just do the work without interruption.
I love that unless of course, a child wakes up early, in which case, if dad’s home, he can see to it but if not, then there I go. So, if I get up at 630, however, for if I’ve gotten up at five and I’ve been doing my work at 630 is when I’m like, Okay, I gotta get myself ready for the day. And that doesn’t mean showering in the morning. I like to shower at night these days. Or if someone happens to be here to watch the kids while I have like the two kids while Ellie’s at school, I have a quick shower or during Ben’s first nap in the morning, he’ll be sleeping and then I’ll take Maggie into the bathroom with me have a shower then.
So anyway, so you’re getting to the real behind-the-scenes of my life right now. But I will not shower first thing in the morning, I will get makeup on. Unless I plan to shower that day, in which case they will have no makeup for the morning. And I’ll put my hair back whatever, get dressed. And then I have to get Ellie out of bed. So at 6:45 I have to get her out of bed. Because there’s always that lag time where she’s like, Oh, I just want to lay in bed. I’m tired. Let’s chat about the day. So I want to give time for that. I don’t want it to be so rushed.
But yeah, so 6:45 is kind of the sweet spot for that. So then we get up le now Ellie and Maggie share a room. And this is a rather recent thing. In the last I would say two months they’ve been sharing a room because we’re getting ready for Ben to have his own room when he turns six months. So in one more month. Oh my gosh. And so we’ve been getting the girls used to having their own room and now Ben is going to have his own room in Maggie’s old room.
So Maggie usually wakes up when I’m waking Elliot for the day. And oftentimes, yes, one or both of them wake up before I get to them. Depends. It just depends on the day, right? So we get them ready for the day. Get them dressed, get them downstairs, and make breakfast. Usually, my husband makes lunch for Ellie, for her lunch bag, which is such a huge help. Oh my goodness. So when he has to work in the morning, I’m like, Oh, no. Okay, here I go. But yeah, he’s usually home and does that and it’s so fantastic. What a help.
So he does that. And then I see Ben at some point then wakes up at, I don’t know, 7 or 7:30. It really depends. Sometimes I have to wake him up before we go to school. And so I feed him, get him ready for the day. And then it’s struggling, right. It’s like putting him into his chair so that I can cook breakfast and then give him a boob and then put it back in the chair while I get Maggie’s socks on and then give the other boob and then put him down and then get Ellie. You know, help her get her jacket on or help her whatever, put something in her school bag. It’s definitely a juggle, if you know, you know. So we do that. And then we are off to school.
Now sometimes my husband will take Ellie on his own. Sometimes I will take the kids on my own if my husband is already out at work or whatever. And sometimes we will all go together as a family. That is my favorite, obviously, because we have two hands on deck, sorry to people, I guess, on deck, and we have the whole family together. And so I like going for the drive and just it’s fun. I also like it because when we get to school, I can stay in the car. If we’re like right at the cusp of being late, and my husband can take Ellie I can stay in the car with the other kids. And that’s really nice. But if we can all get out together, get a little walk in from the car to the school, then that’s nice too.
From there we go home if I find a school, we go home, the day begins will mean the days already begun but the next part of the day begins. So that includes snacks, a lot of snacks for Maggie throughout the day. And this is less of a structure time. I don’t like to work during the day if I can help it, but there’s usually something to do with either my husband’s business. He’s a realtor, and I do a lot of administrative work for him. So there’s a lot of stuff that I, you know, I have to print this out or do this task or whatever. Or maybe there’s something to do with like, I have to open the mail and deal with that, I have to pay bills. You know, household type of things.
Clean
Sometimes, there’s something that I want to clean or tidy. So in this case, today, it was wanting to clean the playroom. So I tidied that up. And so it was all nice and ready for when Ellie got home from school, it was so great. And it just makes me feel good. When I can look around and see what I’ve done. I love it. And then I just know that it’s way nicer for the girls to have a clean space. I just I love it. I love cleaning the kitchen and having, again, a clean space for us to cook the next meal. Love going into a room and just having, I keep saying it, but it’s true. A clean space, like a blank slate. Like, ah, I think I can breathe when I go into the office. And there’s not crap all over the desk. If there is which there is right now, by the way, I just can’t work as well. My brain is like, No, I see all this distraction. And it’s in my brain and I can’t fully get into this work mode.
It’s true. It’s so much better for me when I’m able to have that clean space. So I like to choose an area every day. Sometimes it’s the same area three days in a row, depending on how much I’m able to get down or how much there is to do in that particular space. And I’d like to work on that.
And then, of course, there’s feeding Ben throughout the day and there’s lunch for Maggie around 1130. Then her nap is at noon. And Ben’s second nap is usually around noon as well. Because I have to get them up by two in order to get to Ellie’s school in time to pick her up. Because yes, school finishes at 2:20. It’s crazy. Well, you can actually get them between 2:20 and 2:35.
But yeah, during that time, while it depends on the day, that is another time when I like to get work done. Or if I’m like really involved with cleaning, whatever I’m cleaning, then I’ll keep doing that. Maybe I’ll do a load of laundry. Maybe I will have lunch and sit on the couch. It all depends. And then yeah, it’s waking up the kids. And if I need to feed Ben and then go to get Ellie from school unless again, my husband’s out and about he can get Ellie. Or if he’s home then I’ll stay home with the kids. I don’t have to wake them up. And then he didn’t go and get Ellie. It really depends on the day.
After School
Once Ellie gets home from school, even though it’s only like just before three o’clock. Honestly, it’s like okay, making dinner time. And then it’s like eating dinner time. And then it’s like bedtime. Honestly, it just seems to go so fast. I don’t know if you find the same thing. But I used to think like, wow, she’s getting home from school so early. It’s the middle of the afternoon. But actually, things are pretty speedy at that point. And then after bedtime, which is right now, I’m feeding Ben and then I’m going to be putting him to sleep. But the girls have already gone up to sleep. I’ve already put the girls to bed upstairs.
After that, it is cleaning the kitchen time it is getting all of our dinner stuff. Sorry, Ben’s just coughing in the background. This is a true mom podcast today with my kid in the background here. So I’m putting away the food from dinner, you know, cleaning the dishes and getting ready for the next day. Which means having a clean slate – having a clean kitchen. That is how I roll. That is one of my tips, actually. So it’s what’s coming up next.
Tips to Balance Your Day – Adjust Your Expectation
So let’s talk about some tips on how I balanced my day. With three kids. Here we go. Now you ate a lot. Maybe I’ll give you a minute. So I have Ben beside me now. So we may hear him even more. My first tip for you is to adjust your expectation. And notice I didn’t say that lower my expectations or even management expectations. Just adjust them. I want to know that. Even though I’m going into the day with a good list, either in my head or ideally on paper or my computer, or phone of things I want to get done. That doesn’t mean that it’s all going to happen. I have to adjust my expectations.
I have to know that it may not happen. Because life with kids means the unknown. It means things that will sporadically come up. Life in general means that, but for me, especially since having kids yeah, there’s a lot of unknowns. A lot of surprises. Now you’re staying home with a sick child or surprise. Whatever I didn’t get him to think of another one. But you know what I mean, things come up and you have to adjust and that’s okay.
You have to adjust your day and in my case, I have to adjust my expectations. I have to know in advance that I may not get anything done. And that’s okay. For example, my expectation today was not to be recording my podcast episode after I put the girls to bed while I’m feeding Ben and putting him to bed. But that is just what is happening today. And that’s okay. I mean, it has to be okay. Because I’ve decided that I’m adjusting my expectations. I know that things won’t be, quote, perfect, but what is perfect anyway.
I feel like this is perfect, because it’s, for me, it is my life. So, yeah, I’m just feeling a lot better about my day, knowing that I don’t think I have to get it all done. If I don’t finish something today, I will do it again, tomorrow. It’s fine. And it sounds easy. But it is something that you have to get your head around, you have to wrap your head around it and truly be okay with it. I have to truly be okay, going to bed. As I walked past the playroom, walk up the stairs, I can look down at the playroom and say, oh my gosh, there is so much mess there. I have to be okay, with going to bed anyways. And just saying you know what, I’ll do it tomorrow. And if I don’t do it tomorrow, I’ll do it the next day. I have to be okay with seeing the insane pile of laundry that I literally have right now in my bathroom upstairs. It’s crazy. I have to be okay with saying well, I’ve got to do my podcast tonight. So that’s one more night of no laundry.
I did two loads, like two days of laundry load each day. Last week, I wasn’t able to get to any on the weekend because we had various things. And today I wasn’t able to get to it even though I had planned on it. So truly, I have adjusted my expectations to be okay with those things. And that just makes me feel better. It’s not about what you’re getting done or not getting done. It’s how you feel about it right? The thoughts that you have about it, which is making you feel a certain way. So I definitely adjusted my expectations there, which I love.
Be Prepared & Prep in Advance
My next tip is to be prepared. It’s to prep in advance. So I’ve mentioned this already, but I need sorry. Groaning in my arms here. So I need to go to bed, having the kitchen clean. I didn’t used to have that. So it was kind of like the playroom before where I can just turn a blind eye. It’s fine. I can’t do any more of the kitchen. I need to go to bed with a clean kitchen because I need to wake up to a clean kitchen. I’ve already talked about my morning. It’s crazy with getting it ready for school and getting all the kids fed and myself. I don’t want to come down to a messy kitchen and have to do all those things on top of it. No, thank you.
I don’t want to have to clean first before making another mess essentially, no way. So no matter what, I am cleaning the kitchen before I go to bed. And that means after I record this episode, and edit it, I will be cleaning my kitchen because they still haven’t done it yet. But yeah, that happens after bedtime. So it’s all good.
Another part of being prepared for me is doing everything I can the night before, including, and I don’t always do this, but I like to even have my outfit planned for the next day. Whether it’s a workout outfit cuz I’m going to be working out that day, or a comfy outfit or whatever. I just like to have it laid out for me. Underwear, bra, top, pants, done. So everything that I can plan the night before. Ideally, that is what I do. And yes, I could make Ellie’s lunch the night before, we just haven’t really gotten there. We’ve done it literally once she started JK in September. So it’s only been a few months of that. But if we could do that more often, or if we may, I should say if we made that a priority because we could do it. If we made it a priority, then that would be fantastic. But I know that for me, it’s okay during in the morning, as long as I’ve gotten my kitchen ready and I’ve prepared in other ways so that we’re able to do that in the morning.
My Mantra – Keep Going
My third and final tip for you is really a motto. It’s my motto, my mantra. It’s something that has naturally just come into my mind over the past probably six months or so, as I’ve just been really busy. I’ve had my third child within the last six months and yeah, my life has changed in a lot of ways and my routines have changed. My motto is keep going. This works so well. For me. It’s literally just something that has come into my brain and continues to do that all by itself.
Keep going means I’m looking at that laundry pile. I’m thinking about it right now. It’s spilled over okay, we have a huge laundry basket. Okay. It’s like a wicker basket thing. It has spilled over and it’s on the floor as well. A huge pile on the floor. If a podcast has ‘add a video’ aspect I would show you but it doesn’t. It’s just crazy. So keep going to me, in this case, means keep going, Laura, one load of laundry one at a time. You can do it today. Okay, keep going. Tomorrow is another day, you’ll be able to keep going tomorrow.
It means I wasn’t able to get to work this morning at five. Because you know, I was up last night and I knew that I was going to need the extra sleep. Keep going. Okay, keep going. You can do your podcast tonight, which is exactly what I’m doing. It means when I’m doing my podcast, it means when I’m creating my next program that I’m going to be offering for new moms. Keep going. You got 10 minutes of work done today. Keep going. You got half an hour of work done today. Keep going. It means when I’m looking at the kitchen, and I’m recording this now looking at my kitchen, and I’m seeing all these things that I have to do. Keep going.
And it’s not like push yourself beyond. No, just keep going. You can get through this. I always come back to the laundry because I feel like that’s always just something that’s literally never ending, you know what I mean? Right? Kids or no kids, you know that there’s just laundry is constant. And especially with kids, laundry is constant. Just keep going. I tell myself because it does help me to get through it. Realizing that. Yeah, my house is messy right now. Keep going. Okay. I was able to clean the playroom today. Because I kept going I didn’t just give up and stop and say, Ah, this is so hard. I can’t do anything. No, I just kept going. I clean the playroom. And now I feel better. So this is my motto/mantra of the past six months that has really been working for me.
So I encourage you to create your own motto or mantra that makes sense for you. And that you can really connect with or use mine adopted as your own because for me, it has really helped me for sure.
I hope this has helped you to see a little bit about a behind-the-scenes of my every day and I hope that it has given you a few tips on how you can help yourself deal. I guess you could say, with a busy day. I’m not talking about your whole life like how I balanced my whole life with three kids because that’s a different story. But it’s similar. It’s made up of these small pieces. I’m talking about how I balance my day with my three kids.
So I hope that I’ve given you some insight there. Again, go to my Instagram profile, @lauraannlima and send me a DM. I would love to hear from you as always. And hey, if you want to leave me a review on Apple podcasts, I would love that.
So thank you so much in advance if you can do that. It just helps me get to more people and gets me more reach that more mamas can see this podcast, and hopefully benefit from it. I am off to change them. Ben has just pooped while I was talking. And then I’m gonna put him to sleep. So I will talk to you next week. Have an amazing week.
Thanks for listening to the Love and Lettuce podcast to find out how to work with me and for more great info check out newmamanation.com. This is Laura. Until next time, love and lettuce.
