May is full of celebrations from Cinco de Mayo to Mother’s Day to Memorial Day!  Time to eat, drink and celebrate right? Right! But with a celebration literally almost every week, you have to learn to celebrate in moderation or by making tweaks to recipes and drinks!

This week, leading up to Mother’s Day, we celebrate moms! Moms are the ones that cook, clean and take care of us. They are the ones we look up to, we learn from and that give us good advice.  Moms, however, often put everyone else above themselves, which can result in decreased activity and weight gain throughout the years.  So, this week we are looking at 5 tweaks mom can make to stay healthy and fit even with a family and career.

1. Squeeze in movement: Moms are busy most moments of the day, but exercise is essential! As we age, we burn less calories and it becomes harder to maintain and lose weight. Exercise is a must to improve your health, burn calories and to give you energy! Whether you go for an early morning walk before everyone is awake, bust out an exercise video while dinner is cooking or lap the field while your child is at soccer practice, get moving!
2. Make time for meals: Skipping meals sets you up to be starving later and crave less than healthy food. Plan in advance so you have meals ready for yourself. If you make all the kids a brown bag lunch, make yourself one too. Make them breakfast?  Eat with them.  Eating regularly helps prevent unwanted snacking later.
3. Kid-food Trap: Kid-food can get mamas in a calorie dilemma! Though small and bite-size, lots of bites, licks and tastes can add up to lots of calories throughout the day, so be sure to have your own healthy snacks. Try to omit snacking off their plate for meals or snacks.
4. Stuff your purse: Having healthy snack food around is the key to eating healthy snacks.  Be sure to have protein bars, small bags of nuts or similar hidden in your purse to keep you from grabbing something on the go. This is also a good back up plan for if you don’t get to eat a meal, you can fill in with a healthy snack! 
5. 10pm Tweaks: The 10pm hour can be a nutrition challenge for all mamas. The kids are in bed, the kitchen is clean and you want to relax!  However, glasses of wine and snacking out of the bag can really add up if you are not careful. A good idea is to have a small protein-rich snack like a string cheese and a few grapes, some Greek yogurt or even a glass of milk. If you are going to indulge in a glass of wine, measure it! Many women call it “a glass”, but if your glass is filled to the rim it is more like 2-3 glasses which means lots more calories. So, tweak your 10 pm habit and see success on your waistline!