Most new moms struggle to lose the weight they gained during pregnancy. Even you were active during your pregnancy including working a job that required a lot of time on your feet and ate very healthily, still, you might gain a lot of weight. Many working moms continue to gain weight even with breastfeeding. The struggle with post-pregnancy weight loss is real, and you aren’t alone.

Juggling work and motherhood is a constant balancing act. Taking care of your health (both mental and physical) and making time for yourself is crucial during the early days of motherhood. The key is choosing a psychical activity that you enjoy and brings harmony to your schedule and lifestyle. Here are some suggestions to manage time to exercise as a busy working mom.

Be Clear on Your Non-Negotiables

It’s really important to get really clear on your non-negotiables rules and routines. For you, that could be the thirty minutes minimum of some type of going within. That could also be a walk at your favorite lake, yoga, mindfulness, reading an inspirational parenting book, journaling, or a bath with essential oils & healing salts. Whatever it is you should take this time very seriously, and you will feel more grounded, healthy, and joyful as a result.

Limit Your Screen Time

Exercise releases certain chemicals to the brain and body while TV watching releases chemicals that give the opposite effect. It is harder to sleep when you’ve just had the TV on—with all the horrors it can bring, interjected by flashing, and blaring advertisements. Even skipping an hour of screen time in the evening gives you the opportunity to incorporate exercise into your daily routines.

Make Meditation a Daily Habit

Try to wake up earlier to do a half hour of Yoga to start your day. You may find it counter-intuitive, but this much is true, those early yoga sessions will keep you feeling awake and refreshed through most of the day. You will also be in a better mental state knowing that you have already exercised.

Wake up Ahead of Your Children

When you wake up before your kids are up, you start the day proactively and intentionally. Take a shower and a few minutes to meditate. You will feel absolutely wondrous having a good workout first thing in the morning.

Have a Good Night Sleep

Taking care of young kids is a lot of work. You will surprise yourself with how much movement there is in your life. Check your resting heart rate. The higher it is the less sleep you will need per night. The more you exercise, the lower your heart rate and the more sleep you will need to recover. If you can’t get the sleep you need in one shot, take one or two naps during the day. Gauge your wakefulness and ability to concentrate on the task at hand. If you constantly feel tired for no reason and you are not ill, you need more sleep. Try eight hours per night and adjust accordingly.

Choose Moderate Exercise

Moderately brisk walking for 5 or 10 minutes times a day amounts to substantial exercise. It is one of the simplest ways to make a profound change in your life. If you walk for 5 or 10 minutes every day, you will end the week with 50 to 70 minutes of walking each week. Exercise is the biggest part of that change, but it’s only one part. You are also outside, feeling the weather and clearing your head.

Involve Your Kids in Your Workout

More often working moms feel guilty about not making more time for kids. You can certainly live an active life that includes children and exercise. Yard work, gardening, and community dancing are activities that give you a chance to live a healthy life that includes children. There are others. If you want to weight train and you have young children, you can always use the children as your weights. They’ll think it’s a hilarious game, you’ll get some resistance training in. It’s a win-win.

It’s definitely a challenge for us working moms! Don’t feel guilty about not going to the gym more, or making more time for exercise. Allow yourself to accept that you need rest. Do exercise for recreation or procreation. Have fun living.