Stay At Home 2020: Get Low. Tired Moms Hit The Wall

On The Mom Show Blog: How to get the most out of your Quarantine. Family challenges. Personal discovery. Radio Host and Mom Kristin Cruz shared her LA (Stay At Home) Story.

“I was spending my days and nights in pajamas, yet never had I felt less rested.”

Kristin Cruz, LA Radio Host & Media Consultant

With my husband’s unpredictable schedule at the Firehouse, and frankly an unreliable future in general, I hadn’t been able to figure out when I should store up my energy and when was best to burn it off. Sometimes when I was talking myself into that Rocky Balboa headspace, ready to take on the day, I would just pull back because I wasn’t sure where I was planning to go anyhow!

Where am I going?

If you can’t see your target, then you probably can’t hit it. Knowing that to be true makes the Pandemic environment even more frustrating, especially for entrepreneurial women like me. I can see my goal of getting my Amazon packages from the front porch. I can see it’s time for lunch, and I need to make spaghetti, again. But, I really can’t see big targets beyond these walls. Realizing this, I decided to work with what I know. Let’s start here:

Self-Care While Sheltering In Place.

I had to go back to basics, in order to move forward. That has always worked for me in life so many times in the past. Would it work again? This time I’m only going to move forward about 10 steps anyhow before I hit a wall. Literally. Anyhow, making mistakes and trying things out in the privacy of my home is a good place to regroup, where no one can judge. Let’s do this.

  1. Make a schedule. Then, stick to it but stay flexible.
  2. Drink water (It’s OK. We won’t “run out”. The faucet still work, after all.)
  3. Take Vitamins and Minerals.
  4. Take a damn shower. Please.
  5. Eat when hungry. Not when sad or bored or mad etc.
  6. Carve out personal time to meditate, stretch or do a few yoga poses.
  7. Go to bed before 2am. It’s getting ridiculous.
  8. Get 7-9 hours of good comfy restful sleep.

Something has changed since I realized what I needed to do and took a “No-Excuses” approach to making it happen. I have felt hopeful and healthier. I can more easily handle unexpected situations as they come up. Bad news still sucks, but I can more calmly take it in. I am the one who decides how I react to things. I decide who’s the boss of me. And I take deeper breaths. Ultimately, I’ve learned to lean on friends, books, experts and a few key tools in order to push myself off this starting line that I’ve been stuck on.

Setting out helpful tools and taking a good long look at the powerful energy I have available to draw from, makes taking first-steps a lot easier. Here’s what I am currently using:

Morning Meditation thanks to a friend who does exquisite Voice Over work Natasha Marchewka. It’s quick and calming. I’ve done it with my daughter who loves it too. Other Meditation Apps I have used are Calm and also just searching them on YouTube is a great free way to find the right one for you. I also hold a mala designed by Dear Brooke. It was hand-crafted and personalized just for me. Bought a few of them on Etsy and they are all absolutely beautiful. You can chose very specifically which one speaks to you in the Loving Mala store there.

My afternoon Cold Brew or Matcha keeps me going until kids are in bed.

Coffee of choice: brown bottled Starbucks unsweetened Cold Brew or what I make myself using the BEST tasting home kit I’ve found which is Dunkin Donuts Cold Brew Bags. No lie. And I drink it all day until about 6pm, when I switch to Casamigos or Underwood Pinot Noir (in the can). Just being honest here.

My bed is super important to me. The Puffy mattress, of course which is one of my advertisers. I only order Eucalyptus Lyocell sheets from Sheets & Giggles because they are the softest things I’ve ever touched (plus sustainably made, no pesticides, static-free amazingness). I like to sleep, watch TV and work in my bed. But if I stay in it all day then my kids want to “join me”. If I need to get any work done nowadays then I sadly have to leave my awesome bed and move to a proper workspace.

Especially Vegans like me should be taking supplements.

Vitamins for all the people in my house. I take a slew of them from my collection of bright pretty HUM bottles. The kids are taking HIYA, which is a new brand I am excited about; very eco-friendly in the packaging, junk-free ingredients and makes ordering a synch. I have cold medicines and holistic remedies on the ready for my husband, the Fire Captain: Goldenseal, Echinacea, a few different forms of zinc, Airborne (The OG dissolvable tablets only), a bunch of bone broth and Yogi teas. I end up being the only one who drinks the teas, but whatever- I just like having an assortment around.

Tackling showering and a good beauty routine on your own at home is a whole post unto itself. Let me know if you want me to go into that and I’ll gladly peel apart my shelves and containers to show you what I use.

I have other special tricks for great sleep in your home that have to do with air purifiers, humidity, and convenient apps.

Lastly though I need to get to the whole eating thing which is a winding road. I am a true and for real Stay At Home Mom. Which means I do not do a job at home that makes me money or run a business or direct sales thing from my house. It’s been like that on purpose for a few years now and my reasons are many. Occasionally I get a call from a past media client that would like to enlist my help on something, have me host something, do PR or marketing or ask my advice. I have a shingle called momtourage media brands just in case somebody wants to pay me for something. I’m a friend and almost always oblige regardless, but I am a proponent of valuing one’s life experience and being compensated for my time and expertise.

With that said, I have gained 50 lbs since my Morning Radio Show ended.

It’s a staggering number right? It’s practically pregnancy weight! (I doubled that weight-gain with my big babies, but I started at a much lower weight.) So currently, I’m almost the same weight I was when I gave birth the first time! Losing weight for me is a pain I’ve always wrestled with and I hate exercise. I need rewards to stay motivated and usually earning money and having independence inspires me. Since we can’t go do those things right now (#stayathomemoms2020) I have to diet, by way of ignoring.

Can’t think about food and log food and prep food all the time. If I do that I’ll get way too obsessed and spend way too much money on ordering weird ingredients. I’m also inside with kids who want my attention constantly, so I can’t be logging on a food app on my phone all day. I’ve gone back to basics, once again. I do a shake in the morning. A Pressed Juicery of greens. Another shake. Then I eat dinner with the family- whatever it is. My calories stay low enough that I can happily join guilt-free in the evening with the kids at the table.

And that’s it. Easy, right?

Hahahah, sure. I’ll let you know how I’m doing as we go along. Let me know what YOU are doing too! So please do share with me in the comments below. What are you doing to get your head around this whole thing and stay energized, focussed, fulfilled and healthy?

PS. In full disclosure: I do NOT get paid anything if you buy any of my suggested products here except the Puffy. I’ve tried many things, sponsored or not, and the ones mentioned above are the ones that really work. I will always tell you if I’m being paid to talk about a product, I promise 😉 My bedding was gifted by Sheets & Giggles. Vitamins gifted by HIYA.

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