Sensational Moms: For Overstimulated Homeschool Moms

Finding Motivation for Movement with Evgeniia of At Nourished Motherhood: Part 2

• Whitney Whitten • Season 2 • Episode 5

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Moving to help with overwhelm, overstimulation and burnout as a mom sounds great in theory, but what about:

  • getting started when it's been a while!
  • when you're in a hard season
  • taking the hardest (first!) step
  • why it's definitely NOT too late for that new year's habit change

Evgeniia gets blunt but with an encouraging spirit and gives us simple motivators to get started. 

She shares how our bodies learn that movement helps us feel better, but only when we do it first and yes... 5 minutes counts!

AND... you'll never guess who's your ultimate (free) accountability partner.

Find her practical resources, including nutrition and movement resources all here:
www.atnourishedmotherhood.com

This podcast is not meant as medical advice or a substitute for any medical advice. Please contact your health professional with any mental health or physical health questions or concerns.

 Welcome back to the Sensational Moms podcast. The podcast for touched out, talked out moms looking for connection in the midst of chaos.  I'm your host, Whitney.  And I'm an occupational therapist turned homeschool mom. turned mom coach  to help you be able to weather the chaos, the overstimulation and overwhelm that so often comes with homeschooling our kids. 

I help you figure out a way to make homeschooling work, not just for your kids.  but for you as well.  Today I'm bringing you the second of the two part series about movement and motherhood to help you with your emotional regulation.  Maybe you know how movement can help you move through the overwhelm and overstimulation that comes with mom life,  but you're needing a little extra encouragement that small steps really are the best steps. 

Or, maybe you need help to find the motivation to take that hardest step, which can be the first one.  Evgenia of At Nourished Motherhood and I will dive straight into that in this episode, all about movement and motherhood.  Evgenia is a homeschool mama who specializes in pro metabolic, sustainable wellness.

for homeschool moms, just like you and me.  I'm thrilled that she joined me to share her resources and her encouragement.  If you missed part one, be sure to check that out right next to this episode on your podcast player.  Let's get to it. 

So how do you find motivation?  Like you said, during hard times, so whether that hard time is the weather, or maybe it's, um, a hard time, like an emotional hard time, maybe we're going through. a season of grief.  Maybe we're experiencing some other difficulties like depression.  The list could be endless, but how do you find motivation to keep moving during those? 

Well, first of all, I know that my body will feel better if I move,  right? Um,  yes, it's not gonna make my problems disappear,  but because of the movement, certain physical processes in my brain would happen, for example, endorphins release,  uh, it will.  make life slightly better for longer period of time. And then just from a physical aspect of how any workout influencing our body, it regulates the blood sugar, blood sugar, very often, uh, blood sugar dysregulation, or when blood sugar goes too high or too down very fast, it feels like anxiety.

If someone is already struggling with anxiety, that is an extra thing to deal with.  So moving will regulate the blood sugar, uh, as well as protein intake. I'm 

very big on Yes.  I love that on your stories. I, I love that daily reminder. I don't get tired of that. So keep it going. 

Yes. Thank you. Then, um, as I said, it will help with certain hormone production, right?

It will help you better. It will help you to feel better. It will help your cells to detox.  whatever, if it's toxins or it's just toxic salts or it's something else, it will help it. So knowing all of this, remembering all of this, that it's just started snowing here,  knowing all of this and remembering all of this when it's hard.

It will help me or anyone to get started. However,  we have to make sure that you remember this. And it's hard in the moment to think about workout as a tool. Then we are depressed or there is a real depression, right? Feeling depressed and having depression. They're slightly two different things. Right, right.

Um,  so once again, it's not. Movement is not, you know, a magic pill, but the more you're doing this, the better you will feel, and the better you will feel, the more other tools you will have, or you will think about, and how to start when it's really hard.  Unfortunately, there is only one suggestion. You just have to stand up and start.

You know how many times I cried really hard because of life circumstances, and I was starting squatting, and I immediately felt better. Immediately.  whatever, 30 squads, 50 squads. Even before my child was born, I was doing this. And  yes, it's not gonna, you know, bring some people, for example, if there is some loss in the family, but it will give you the tools to manage it.

And every time you do this, you do it, for example, once a month.  And then you do it twice a month and you will know and your body will know and your mind will remind you.  Um, okay. Remember last time you will, you did the workout and you, or you did 10 squats. So you did, you know, went outside and got some fresh air and some breathing while you were walking.

Uh, it all helped you. So then you will start doing it more consistently, but unfortunately  No one will come and save you.  Um, but you, you, you have the power in you. This is how God created us. He created us with joints movement, um, with, uh, tendons with muscles so we can do all the things. And he gave us. an ability to move certain way and to have our emotions and to have our hormones and like the body is built certain way because everything is connected and movement is one one small piece of course but this is a huge piece because that will make all the systems work synergetically  so when the hard time comes  It will help us and in my case, of course, I'm a coach and I know all of these things very well, but  I am not immune to hard times.

I'm not immune to saying no to healthy stuff when it's hard. However, because I am in such routine for so long, one day of not doing anything for me is enough to understand that my body starts feeling worse.  And I know my why. My why is my child. I don't want to be on the couch. Um,  not feeling, I can still feel depressed.

Right. But I don't want, I want him to see that I'm a real person. I want him to see that I feel sad or any other emotion. However, I want my physical body to be able to get up and do things with him because he doesn't deserve to kind of  get the same emotion. So I don't want to pass this to him, right?

Like he can see. That I'm real. He can learn that things happen this way, but I don't want him to  mimic this or to copy this just because I am this way at the moment because I have responsibilities for my family and we all have right and life circumstances sometimes are terrible, but we still have to move and movement is one of the things you know, if you, uh, we still will be cleaning the dishes,  Right.

We still will be, uh, going to do laundry. What about marching while you're doing, um, dishes? That's what I do. And what about doing 10 squats while you're folding laundry? And what about when you're tying your shoelaces, what about going up and down in this position for 10 times?  

Yes. Working it into our daily routine like that can be a great place.

To get started when it comes to overcoming that sort of all or nothing mentality and that inertia of just getting started. Um, I, I love how you're talking about your why. Because it sounds like you're saying getting clear on that why maybe even writing it down, you know it whether whether or not you journal, that would be really helpful just making a list of what your motivation is for doing this, and also. 

You're drawing from past experience. It sounds like, like, you know that you feel better when you do those things. It can be easy to forget in the moment.  So I think sometimes you might use this tool with your clients, sometimes having them write down how they're feeling so that they can actually see. And whether their energy has changed, whether they're having more positive feelings.

Whether, maybe they're having more patience during those difficult times with their kids, so, so that then there is a reminder right there on paper that even when we don't feel like doing the thing, well, I, here's, here's the evidence, right? Um,  What's funny is that now that my kids are older,  they've kind of figured out polite ways to ask me if I have exercise  because they can tell a difference, right?

On the days that I go outside and do things that are good for me Um for me that looks a lot like working on the property like like how you talked about geography how that affects us How what kind of movements we can do I find a lot of purpose and fulfillment in doing? A thing that has a visible  end to it.

So, um, one of the reasons that we moved where we move is, so like yesterday I was outside cutting trees down with a hand saw, like,  that's exercise. I will never forget when someone told me that that didn't count. And I was like, I'm sorry, what ? Mm-hmm  . You know?  Um,  so it's, you know, it's figuring out the why and. 

Holding ourselves accountable by looking at past times where it has has proven to be useful.  So, so over time, it gets easier to just stay consistent with it, just like we would.  You know, brush our teeth about really thinking about it, you know, it's just a thing, right? 

And, um, one example, which you can do, uh, in this hard moments of life is to play with your kids.

And that's the best thing because they laugh is healing. Like when they're laughing, it's, yes, it's going to give you as their mom.  Immediate boost of energy and good, um, emotions and that yeah, yeah, this is movement to end that counts for sure.  

Yeah, that's wonderful. Yeah. Being playful.  So many times kids know what to do intuitively.

And if we all follow their lead,  it would take us a long way.  So,  let's see, what encouragement or advice would you share with someone who has maybe been neglecting that intentional movement for a long time? We've talked a bit about that, just like the getting started, um,  taking those small steps.  And being aware of our mindset with this.

Is there anything that you might add to that? 

Yes. It's been a long time. And what I mean by sometimes it's always like this. When we invest in something, even though it's 5.  we most likely will do it.  And the reason why I'm saying this, look, um, there is so many free routines on YouTube. You can go and exercise for the rest of your life, but people don't do this because  they don't pay for this.

You have to have motivation in order to stick to something. But when you're lacking this motivation,  I do highly recommend. Buy some cheap program and it works with me every single time when, you know, for business, I have some free stuff, all of them, I download them and I forget about them. Then when I spend on some course, 7,  you know, maybe I will procrastinate doing it for some time, but I will never forget about this.

I'll never forget it in my unopened inboxes, inbox. So I can. I can eventually go there and do this. So when we pay money, there is something magical in this, unfortunately,  that when we invest, it's funny, once we went, uh, with my son.  I paid in advance for swimming in some community center and it was five dollars a person.

So I paid ten dollars and it was this day when it was everything went wrong. It was snowing. We were late. He was, you know, there was some drama at home and school and we made it for the last. 20 minutes of that swim, but this 10 I spent, it really made me go. I didn't want to waste this 10, even though it was absolutely inconvenient for me to go there that day. 

But my son was happy, and that's why I did this. I knew I will want to cancel, but I knew that he wanted it. So I paid in advance, so that would make me do this. Right, this is, um, paying for something that, of course, not just for something, but you have to find what actually feels like manageable for you, realistic for you, and then do this.

For example, I have, it's called Mobility Challenge for homeschooling moms. Um, The price is very manageable, and it's six days, and it's, um, reminding you every day with different, uh, emails, it's video routines, they are five minutes to seven minutes long, and then the idea is that you will remember all of these routines, and I also show how to do this at your kitchen, how to do this at your homeschool space, how to do this in your, on your bed when you're going to bed.

Right. So manageable things. But if you find something that works for you, please do not hesitate because you are worth it to spend five, 50  on your health, right? We will never, uh, think twice when, uh, it's about spending money on our kids. But when it's about us, we always sit back when in reality. Our kids and our families well being and successful homeschool depends on the way how we feel. 

So this right number one to number two, remember that you  can do one minute of routine, you can do two minutes of routine and just  Let go of  perfectionism completely. You can keep your perfectionism when it comes to laundry, cooking, cleaning, but when it comes to your health,  do not wait for the perfect moment because eventually it's not going to, it's, it'll never happen.

I have a friend who is 77 zero, and she still tells me that she's so busy. She can't work out until She finally something happened to her food and then she was ready to actually listen. With your full attention what she could do and she actually set me down. She's like, no, we're talking about health right now.

Tell me what to do. Before she was telling me I'm busy, you know, I have to do these things. And I was thinking, oh my gosh, I hope that at 70, I will have a little bit less.  Kind of lifestyle. Yeah, right. Just remember you are worthy of. Five minutes a day and start with five minutes a day and call it the win if it's hard for you make a list or  Like a habit tracker or something where you can check mark that you did it always check marks.

Unfortunately feel good um Yes  you know the goal is to Get out of this mindset that check mark is something because eventually we don't want to stick to Anything like this and we have to be okay with just doing things and feel great about them without check marks But if check mark works in the beginning, please cross it out check mark or anything on my website.

You can Uh download the free habit Um tracker sheet you can print it out put it on your fridge Do some habits with your kids. For example, habits of movement for five minutes a day. And here, here it is, right? You can do, um,  stick to walking  right now. The spring is coming, so it's going to be slightly easier.

The dark, more dark, uh, days are past. So be good to go. There is seven months at least of great weather ahead of us. And then you create the routine of moving consistently through seven months, this three, four. Five months of darkness and cold will be slightly easier than before.  And I guarantee you, if you work consistently for so long on habits, you most likely, like 99.

9%, you will not, um, let go of all the healthy habits you established.  Right. Then, um,  you can make your kids, your accountability bodies,  a  little bit of power above you,  always works. Always works. Um, you know, I, um, whenever I want to work on some habits, like, and I know it's going to be ridiculous, but I will say this because I want to be very honest that no one is perfect because I work online, I try to make time.

to work when I can, even when I go to washroom. And I literally asked my son to check. And I mean, he comes to my washroom anyway, unfortunately. But I asked him, okay, if you're going to come anyway, check me. And if I have my phone, take it away from me. Just take it. I give him permission. Just take it because I know it's bad.

I don't want to be consistently with my phone. I want 

So I gave him this permission, and he does it because he really enjoys it. He comes there. Yeah. If he sees this phone, he just grabs it and he leaves.  So yes, if you want to start moving, make your kids, um, move with you, uh, or make them.  To push you to do the routine, create something, some, uh, you know, something like, okay, I move for 30 days.

I will buy myself something like give yourself a permission to give yourself a treat at the end of something.  Think about how would you do. How would you make your kids to do something in a natural, compassionate way and use the same tools for you? And that's going to, yeah. Right. Do not, do not pressure yourself.

Do not negatively self, uh, talk, do not, uh, think that you're failing. As long as you're not giving up, there is the whole life for you to build the routine.  You're not in a rush, right? You have the whole life ahead of you to change your routines to create the routines and As long as you are not telling yourself you're failing you are learning and as long as you're learning You will eventually make it work the way how it will fit your life and You know, kids will grow and then you will have to change it and it's okay that routines are changing.

Our kids are changing, our lives are changing, and it's okay that your movement routine will be changing. And it will look different in every season. And as long as we do not, um,  focus too much on, Okay, this doesn't work. I don't know what will work. If it doesn't work, just try something else.  Go on right longer, make it, you know, accessible for you,  

Virginia.

You've given us some really great places to get started here, and it's not too late in the year. Right. It's February, but I know a lot of people think on January, New Year's resolutions and then February hits. And we think, oh, man, well, I've, I've, I failed again, but, um, that's not true. We can pick up these small habits.

And we, like you said, we, we, we don't even have. Just 2025 to work with here. We have  God willing, our whole lives ahead of us and each small thing that we do will start to snowball, right? It will grow. So thank you so much for sharing these practical strategies with us and for sharing just your transparency.

I've loved that and how you have used that to encourage us. So I'm going to leave it to, uh, to, to take one small step. So thank you. And  how can 

we January is the worst month to create your New Year's resolution because January wasn't even the beginning of the year, probably 200 years ago.  We should all 

be hibernating,  

give yourself permission to, you know, not focus on anything crazy.

Just yes. Five minutes walk is nothing crazy, but if you jump, trying to jump into some heat workouts in February at 5 AM, uh, that's not the best thing. Just the best of January is to sleep and recover and eat nutrition foods and do some mobility work of work when you're moving your joints instead of doing some crazy things and wait until March comes and hit your new year and set up all the new year's resolutions when the sun is out and you actually have this boosting energy from the sun. 

When the rest of the creation is waking up, then we can join with it instead of, uh, putting all this unnecessary burden on ourselves right now when we really might, like you said, it's snowing there. I wish it were snowing here, but it is definitely not. It is, uh, Georgia winter, which, believe it or not, we are already seeing daffodils pop up and, uh, such a short winter that we have here, but I can still have a overwintering mindset and rest and recuperate from the All that December brought.

Looks like a perfect state. Maybe we should move to Georgia.  Well, I, I, speaking of weather holding you back, winter doesn't hold us back here. It is summer. Um, we spend, we, we spend probably four months out of the year with the heat that we spend inside hiding from. You look out the window and you think, Oh, what a great day to go outside and And play and then you're out there 10 minutes and you're running in to get away from the heat.

So it's, it's definitely backwards, but I'll figure out a way, a way to make it work this summer. I, we have a pool in our backyard that I need to take better advantage of for myself, actually, instead of. Um, just using it as something for my kids to entertain themselves. So, that would be a way that I can be creative through the heat this summer.

So,  um, how can we connect with you? And like you said, there is a mobility challenge you've got going on. How else can you,  uh, serve us? 

So you can go to my website. It's, uh, at nourished motherhood. com. Um, and I have all the courses and resources there. I have tons of free resources, um, that are recipes or kitchen workout and some weight loss guide.

Uh, all the things that they are, you can download all of them. And I also release, uh, maybe every two months, some free resources as well. Like right now I'm working on, um.  PDF that is going to be just routines that are, um, fulfilling for homeschooling moms. And it will be called feeling your homeschool mama cup.

Uh, and it will be sent to all my newsletter subscribers. And then there, there are courses and coaching on my website as well. Uh, like mobility challenges. As I said, it's very affordable. It's very short. It doesn't feel like you have to commit to something, but I know in fact that the simplicity of it makes people to commit to this because it actually shows them it's real.

Like you can do it. Right. We can do it. Right. Um, I also have a course that is called the 28 days, um, homeschool mama metabolic marathon. It's more about nutrition and routines like healthy habits and movement for, um, metabolism and boosting your metabolism and making sure that, um, it's working for you.

But once again, all the things there, they are showing you that it's possible and you can take. As long as you need even even like mobility challenging sex six days, but it's um  Not obligatory like you don't have to do it this in six days. You will have all right. You're not you're just  You won't 

know you're not gonna be there watching us, 

right? 

And even if I will be there i'll tell you that that's okay  So all the things are there and uh For daily motivation, inspiration, or weekly, you can, uh, and once again, as I said, um, subscribe to my newsletter or you can get to my Instagram.  Um, that is at dot nourished dot motherhood.  Uh, and I also am planning, I'm planning for last two months.

I'm planning to start a blog. It's going to be more mindset based and  Less about health.  I mean, it's going to be about health, but basically like mindset of being yeah Yeah, and then YouTube channel where I will be showing my own transformation because I actually fell off track recently because life got  Very hard last year.

We moved three times and it was some  Financial and all other things so we just getting back to our feet but The thing is that, of course, I let go of my, um, movement, of course. I don't know, I will never let go of my food and nutrition because I also have to feed my family and definitely I have to, I have to feed my son well.

So that part, see, this is my why I will, I probably will not eat that well if I would not have kids. Uh, but movement is something what was, um, not as good as I want it. So right now I am. back to it. And I'm just showing that I'm doing 10 minutes workouts and I'm not doing anything crazy. Just how any beginner, I consider myself a beginner right now, because since my muscles didn't work, uh, consistently for so long, I have to start.

Again, from very beginning. And that's okay because that's a challenging workouts for me. Um, and then I will be showing my own body transformations. I don't like to share my, you started that yet, Virginia. Have you started that channel yet? I started recording it, but I didn't Okay. It on my, um, YouTube channel yet.

Yeah, YouTube 

channel. Well, I'll be looking out for that. That's exciting. That's really, that's really, I just wanna 

show people that  when you commit to movement. You actually can change your body composition and especially the way how you feel plus on YouTube. I will be eventually sharing, um, workouts like simple homeschool friendly workouts, but you also can find homeschool friendly routines on my Instagram.

If you scroll down, there is tons of different pelvic floor routines. Um, just regular full body routines. Toilet, like, washroom routine. Yeah, yeah. Kitchen routine. Um, anything 

really, right? So. Wonderful. And thank you for having those available. I can tell that you are just really passionate about being able to serve moms who are in this phase of life and  You're showing us that it is possible and, you know, life is not going to be one smooth trajectory uphill, right?

It's going to have its ups and its downs. Uh, but we can make that intention and we can keep going. So thank you for showing us that.  So I, um, I look forward to looking at all those resources myself.  And thank you so much for joining us today and sharing just your wealth of knowledge, your resources, but your heart behind what you do.

So thank you for helping us make that connection to see how movement can really help us be able to. meet the demands that are placed on us as homeschool moms.  So thank you so much.  Well, that's a wrap for today's episode. Be sure to check out Eugenia's resources  with at nourished motherhood. I'll have those in the show notes. 

And come back in a couple of weeks. The next couple of episodes will focus on my favorite things that I do when I am feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated, and I'll be helping you understand how you can communicate your needs in that moment, in a way that your kids can understand.  Until next time,  may you find connection even in the chaos.