Guest Post- I Food Prep Because It Makes Me A Better Mom

Courtney has been one of my long time nutrition coaching clients and over time she has become a friend as well. She has two little bitty beautiful girls, co-owns a CrossFit Box and coaches multiple classes a week. Her husband travels a lot for work and she is often flying solo on the mom front. 

With all that, she never gives up on herself. She sets goals and tackles them head on. Her weekly check-ins show that she takes her nutrition very seriously. Because of this, I asked her to tell us a little about why she food preps and how she handles it with everything else going on in her life. 

Here's what she said.

I could use my family for excuses or reasons. If I want to get out of a social situation, one of my kids could be sick.

Or cranky.

Or sleeping.

Or in time-out.

If I wanted to eat a bunch of cream filled donuts on a daily basis and exclaim the extra weight around my mid section is from having a baby 9 months ago, I totally could.

 Or if I wanted to drown each temper tantrum with a glass of wine and pretend one tantrum in particular that resulted in intentional vomit at the airport just plain didn’t happen. I could.

 But, I don’t use my kids as excuses. I use them as reasons. I just had a baby 9 months ago and I have fought like hell to look better than I did before I started having kids. This means I put nutrition and working out as “non-negotiables” on my to-do list. Sundays are spent in the kitchen prepping food for the week and it takes twice as long because my 4 year old is helping.

I’m firm about actually eating it too.We don’t stop at fast food chains at the end of a long day because there is no food in the house. I prep our meat and some of our veggies on Sunday, I boil a dozen eggs and wash and cut our fruit. I even put some of it like grapes into baggies for times when we are running out the door and I know somebody will want a snack. 

Most of the time my meals are carefully measured and weighed for the following day in containers that sit next to my 4 year old's lunch and my husband's food that also has been weighed and measured. There are a lot of dirty containers at the end of the day, but we feel better about ourselves than we ever have. 

We’re faster in the gym  and we’re lifting heavier than before.  Want to know the best part? All this meal prepping, planning, weighing and measuring actually makes me a better Mom.

We spend valuable time in the kitchen learning how to measure food for recipes and talking about which foods make your muscles big and which foods make you tired and lazy. As my teething 9 month old gnaws on a carrot and my 4 year old dips hers in hummus, she asks

"Mommy, how do my muscles look now?"

And for one second of my very long day, that epic tantrum in the airport feels like it never happened. 

The fitness goals I have set for myself have come into  line with my family goals … and somehow it all makes sense. And for one millisecond I enjoy the hell out of it because who has time to bask in glory when there is spit up to clean, food off the floor to scrub and bed time books to be read? 

If you enjoyed reading Courtney's take on being a food prepping mom, show her some love by sharing this post. You can also read more from her where she blogs over at Vette City CrossFit.

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