Mama Renew

We came across this wonderful blog post from Meghan Rathwell, holistic nutritionist, on the reality of new motherhood and nutrition.

in my past life i was a nutritionist: a shopping, chopping, soaking, fermenting, well-fed nutritionist….i found contentment as a foodie and confidence in practicing what i preached. but that was my past life. 9 months ago, i became a mama.

while pregnant, i imagined that motherhood would further immerse me in the glorious world of REAL food. i would bake bread, and make yogurt while my child played at my feet. my counters would be lined with soaking grains and living sprouts. Instead…. Read more.

Sound familiar, y’all?  We all have images of what life will look like as a mother, and countless ideals and expectations we hope to live up to.  There’s a whole lotta letting go that most of us need to do once we meet the reality of parenthood.  How to make peace with the contrast?  How to be gentle on ourselves? How to accept that “good” is “good enough”?

I don’t have easy answers.  We are all doing our best, even if we don’t feel like it is actually the best at all.  When I sift through the layers I find myself coming back to emotional self-care – being gentle on ourselves, and honoring where we are instead of longing for where we’re not.  As our children grow and change,  so too will our vision of what is most important to our family lifestyle, and our ability to fully live that vision in a way that feels healthy and balanced.

Now that my kids are older – 6 and 8 – I can look back and see how much more space has opened up in my life now that I am well rested and have a good balance of time for myself, my work, and family.  Yes, the list of expectations is still there, but this new list of ideals is shaped by the reality of our life together, rather than imposed upon it. The guilt, frustration and self-judgment still appear from time to time, but through it all I’m striving to believe that the life we are living is more than good enough.

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