Wellness with Vanda
33: The FREE Feel Good Mom Summer Challenge
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Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. I missed a couple weeks of episodes unintentionally. We just had a lot of life things happening here at home and I didn't have time to sit down and record anything. But I am back and again. I'll just be giving this disclaimer I guess, until the baby is born, I am going to be 35 weeks on the day or almost 35 weeks on the day that this podcast goes live. So you know, baby could come at any time and I probably, for a few weeks at least, won't have the capacity to record new podcast episodes. So if I go on a random hiatus, that is probably why and I do plan to record an episode and share, like about the end of pregnancy and birth and all those things when it happens. So that'll come sometime soon after the baby is born.
Speaker 1:But today I am here to record a super short episode and I'm actually going to release it a day early than normal. Usually you guys get my podcast episodes on Tuesday morning. You guys get my podcast episodes on Tuesday morning. However, this one is going to drop on Monday morning because what I want to talk to you about is the Feel Good Mom Summer Challenge that I am hosting and it's kicking off tomorrow, on Tuesday morning. So I wanted to drop this in time that hopefully you have time to listen to it so that you can jump in and join us for the challenge if it is interesting to you. And I'll also just throw it out there that even if you're listening to this on like Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, it's not too late to jump in there, because all the trainings that I'm going to be hosting I will also be posting replays so you can always go back and watch them a bit later. Now the group, it's going to be hosted in a Facebook group, a private Facebook group, and it's not going to stay open forever. They won't be available for, like you know, weeks and months later. So if you're listening to this way later, stay tuned, I may host something like this again, but this particular challenge probably won't be available at that time.
Speaker 1:So I decided to do this challenge because, kind of in my last episode where I talked about how to manage, like our mood swings and our expectations and all of these things, it sparked a lot of conversation with the moms in my community about how they're overstimulated, they're overwhelmed, they don't have enough time to take care of themselves, they feel like they don't get to take care of themselves or get to do things for themselves. Very often, especially those moms that are stay-at-home moms, and then even the ones that like are still working outside of the home, and even the ones that like are still working outside of the home, feel very similar, because it's like you work all day and then you rush home to take care of your home responsibilities and even though during the day, while you're working, you may be getting some like adult interaction, you might have some girlfriends at work that you're connected with all the time, it's still work. It's still not something that you are just like freely choosing to do for yourself, that you really want to do. It's something you have to do. So I just decided that like this has been a problem for me in the past and, I'll be honest, there are still days and times that I absolutely get oversimulated or overwhelmed with my kids and I lose my crap. I don't think we live in a world where that is 100% unavoidable. Like that's one of those unrealistic expectations that is just like silly in my opinion, because I just don't think it's achievable. I don't like to set myself up for failure and I don't like to set my clients up for failure either.
Speaker 1:However, since becoming a mom and not to get into the weeds of this story but we got thrown into parenthood really like I don't know if quickly is the right answer, but we had a foster child that's now my adopted son, anthony, that came to live with us six weeks before Kenley was born. He was two, he was over two and a half, he was two, going on three. So he had obviously been through a lot, went through a major life change. Also, you hit those, like you know, quote terrible twos, three, major vibes, like we had a lot of things going on there. Six weeks later I have my baby, a little over two weeks early, and suddenly, in you know, six weeks time, we went from a baby, a family of just Blake and I, somewhat newly married, to a family of four with a almost three-year-old and a newborn, and so there were definitely a lot of days where I was overstimulated, I was overwhelmed, I didn't know what the hell I was doing, I was trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1:There's all those like hormone changes and things going on postpartum that you're dealing with, and I absolutely felt like I didn't have time to like do things I wanted to do because I was always outpouring to others and I was like I have got to get a handle on this and like figure out a way that I can still feel like me and do things for me and show up the way that I want to show up for these kids and my husband and our family, because I was, you know, I think as moms we all do this. We kind of like beat ourselves up for the way that we mother or the way we parent or the way that we act as a wife or a partner or whatever it might be, when we're not living up to our own expectations. And it's not even that like our kids are disappointed in us or our partners disappointed in us, like they think we're killing it, but it's just like our own internal monologue that's telling us that we're not doing enough. And so from that and it took me this is not something I figured out overnight and I will say that Blake was extremely supportive.
Speaker 1:He was so mindful, like I remember, especially in the early days of Kimley still being a newborn and you know you're sleep deprived and I was breastfeeding and you know like at that point there wasn't like sometimes there's just not a lot of things that your partner can help out with. Like he was obviously doing a lot with Anthony and he was doing what he could with Kenley, but like we were just breastfeeding, we weren't giving any bottles at that time, and so that wasn't something that he could do and that's the way that I wanted it. I absolutely could have chosen to, like, go ahead and implement bottles, but I didn't want to, um, but, all of that being said, he was very mindful of, like, almost every night, once we kind of got the kids settled, or maybe even after Anthony went to bed, but it was still early, um, but like Kenley was settled, or whatever he would be like, babe, why don't you go take a bath? Why don't you go like, do something you want to do? Like he was very conscious of that and that absolutely helped a ton and I was always so appreciative to that. And I know that not everybody's partner is like that and that's okay. Sometimes they don't know to be like that and that's something that you know. Like I talked about last week in the episode or well, I mean two weeks ago, whenever it was in the last episode about how sometimes we have to communicate those needs. So, anyway, I'm getting off on a little bit of a tangent here and I didn't mean to, but like that is like what led me to develop this challenge Because, like I said, after a while I figured out a really good flow of like.
Speaker 1:Okay, if I do these things consistently some of them are daily things, some of them are weekly things then I feel much better, I have less incidences of getting overstimulated or overwhelmed and I feel like I'm really getting to like take care of myself and intentionally choose to do some things for myself every day. And you know another like I don't know myth, misconception, belief that I'm going to talk about through this challenge on one of the days, in particular on day three, is this idea that we get built up in our head of what self-care is and what self-care actually can be and how it can actually be implemented on a daily basis in a way that fills your cup up but is not like extreme or costing you money or causing you to need, like, extra help, like you got to get a sitter because you got to go somewhere to get this thing done. That's, you know, self-care, like going to get a manicure, pedicure, whatever. So I want to give you a quick rundown of like the topics that I'm going to cover during the challenge. I'll give you a few details and then in the show notes of this episode, I will link where you can go and sign up. This challenge is totally free and I would love to have you join me. So on day one we're going to start off and I'm going to share what I do each week to help set my week up for success. This habit that I have, this strategy that I use, helps me prevent getting oversimulated and overwhelmed. Um, it's how I set myself up for the week and am intentional with, like how I'm going to be spending my time throughout that week. Now, obviously, there's things come up that you can't control. That's life but this has been super duper helpful for me.
Speaker 1:Day two we're going to revisit kind of the conversation we had in the last episode of the podcast. It's, but we're going to dig maybe a little deeper, or it's just going to be a little more personalized, because you guys can like talk back to me and we can talk through some certain situations, but it is about like learning ways to manage your mood swings and your own expectations and how those expectations might be setting you up to land in a place where you're overstimulated or overwhelmed. Then, on day three, I'm going deep detail on my two non-negotiable method. You guys have probably heard me talk about that before. I think there's a podcast episode on it but again we're going to dig into the nitty gritty of that and this is how I incorporate this is the self-care talk. This is how I incorporate things that fill my cup up nearly every single day. And then on the last day, we're going to visit how to fuel yourself and why fueling yourself is really really important in both like preventing overstimulation and overwhelm, increasing your own wellness and like expanding your capacity for stress, because when we think about why it is that we're overstimulated or overwhelmed, it typically all comes back to stress. Stress is like the number one theme that I see across my clients that I work with and it makes sense Like we just live in a very stressful world and lots of different forms of stress coming at us constantly. So that's the rundown of the days.
Speaker 1:Like I said, there's going to be a private Facebook group that is open for this, where I'll be coming in at noon Eastern time every day to do the live training. I'm going to keep the trainings short, but I will leave time at the end of each of the calls for us to like chat back and forth. You can ask questions and, like I said, the replays will be posted. Because I totally get like a lot of you guys are probably like Vena I work at noon Eastern every day. Okay, like, I totally get it. Me too, I'm going to be doing this on my lunch break, so I understand, like, if you can't jump in and join me when I'm live. But that's why I want to keep the trainings themselves like short, so that's easy for you to watch them back later. And then you'll have a couple of days, like through the weekend, to watch those trainings back, in case you just can't get to it through the week, because the knowledge is going to be there for you to like soak in and and put into action. You don't have to join me live to get the most out of it and I would love for you to join me live and I hope that several people do, but it's not a must to like participate in the challenge. There's also going to be some fun prizes, um, for people that participate in the Facebook group, and I've set that up in a way that, like, you don't have to be there live to get the points to like, enter the prize and win. So there'll be more details about that once you join the Facebook group. And, like I said, I will link the signup link, like a signup page, in the show notes of this episode so that you can easily just click, go, get signed up and you'll be good to go. And again, when I'm dropping this episode, this is Monday the 20,. Let me pull the calendar up Monday the 22nd and this challenge is kicking off on Tuesday, july 23rd. Our first session will be at noon Eastern on that day. And if you're listening to this Wednesday, thursday, friday of that same week, maybe even Monday, tuesday of the next week, feel free to still jump in there, sign up, jump in because it will be there for you, because I'll have those replays. So that's all I have for you guys.
Speaker 1:Today I am getting ready to um. I got to wake Anthony up. He has been doing vacation Bible school this week, so he's got that this morning. And then we're going to the baby doctor for my last ultrasound and my appointment, all that stuff, and I'm actually taking Kenley with me today to let her see the ultrasound.
Speaker 1:I talked to her about it a couple of weeks ago and she was really excited and she has no idea what to expect. She doesn't get it, but she knows that she's going to get to go and, like see pictures of the baby today. She's very excited, so that'll be a fun way to spend our day. I'm really excited about it. My mom's going to. She hasn't been to any of the ultrasounds, I think with any of my pregnancies, honestly, so she's going with us as well and, of course, like we'll meet us there. But that's what I've got going on right now. I hope to talk to you guys again, um, next week. If I can, you know, like get my crap together to have time to record an episode, um, but if not, then, um, I will talk to you guys sometime soon and I hope you have a great week.