I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Aveeno. I received product samples to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.
Happy Sunday! Hope you’re having a great weekend. I have spent the last couple of days a little less stressed, and a bit more productive. Most weekends I run around trying to catch up on everything my FT job doesn’t allow me to do during the week. Chores, errands, exercise, blog projects, and the usual kid’s activites and more get squeezed into 2 days, and I end up mentally drained and exhausted come Sunday night. Usually not having finished everything I set out to do, and going to bed stressed and feeling defeated.
Can you relate?
I’ve known for years that I need to make changes not just for me, but for my family. If Mom isn’t running on all cylinders, the whole family suffers. The main culprit to my stress isn’t just how much I have on my plate, afterall most Moms carry a full load. Deep down it really has to do with how I am taking care of myself, or lack thereof. Working FT, blogging, and managing a family makes it hard for me to find time to exercise. Furthermore, staying up late at night to play catch up has wrecked havoc on my stress levels, and overall energy. Coffee can wake me up and make me alert for work, but once the work day is done, I just want mentally check out–not quite what the family is banking on! I know that in order to manage my family well, I need to be the best me I can be. That means exercise, and get more sleep.
So I decided to take part in the Aveeno Daily Challange. Yes the Aveeno you know and love (as does Jen Aniston).
Aveeno Daily Challenge
I joined a group of my fellow bloggers to kick a bad habit, and use Aveeno daily. In my case, staying up until 2 a.m. was a habit I needed to change.
My Challenge:
Get atleast 7 hours of sleep every night
Aim to exercise daily
Use Aveeno Moisturizing lotion daily
Every night for 3 weeks I aimed to get have my bedtime tea by 10 p.m. (I used Yogi Bedtime Tea), to help me relax, and shut the brain down for the night. Then I’d take a shower followed by Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion every night. Although the folks at Aveeno didn’t require this, I added the goal of exercising daily to my routine. I know that it’s important for my health and something I wasn’t doing as often as I should. I added either a workout video or a long hilly walk to my weekly routine as often as I could.
After Week 2:
The first week wasn’t too bad, I was excited about the challenge and determined to make it work. Week 2 was a little more of a challenge though. It was getting more difficult to get to bed on time incorporate exercise. Using the Aveeno was easy–how could I not love adding moisturizing lotion formulated with ACTIVE NATURALS® Colloidal Oatmeal and blended with rich emollients to soothe and moisturize dry skin. Living in the Southern California dry air, my skin gets very dry and itchy, especially after a long walk. ACTIVE NATURALS® Colloidal Oatmeal is the #1 natural ingredient most trusted and recommended by dermatologists, and I will agree that it made my skin more supple and felt moisturized all day. Even after working out. Aveeno is clinically proven to improve the health of your skin with significant improvement in 2 weeks. So far, so good! I love that it’s non-greasy and absorbs quickly, its hypoallergenic, fragrance-free and noncomedogenic. The Aveeno didn’t clash with my sunscreen and felt wonderfully soothing going on.
Now that the challenge is over:
I feel overall better. My skin feels much more supple and smooth. My muscles are stronger, and I have more energy throughout the day. I’ve lost 4 pounds, although I have been cutting back a little on food, I wasn’t officially dieting so this is a nice plus. I am getting used to getting a good night’s rest, and loving how great I feel afterwards. Not to mention how much better my skin looks (no more bags under the eyes and skin tone is more even). Sleep is still the biggest ‘challenge’ for me because my daily load hasn’t lightened, but I am starting to look at things differently. Will it kill me to not post anything on my blog tomorrow? No. Will it kill me if I don’t catch up on my emails tonight? No. Will it kill me if my family notices I’m too tired to tend to their needs? Absolutely.
It’s about priorities. After this challenge I realized that putting my healthy habits first, is really putting my loved ones first, so I can be the best mommy and wife I can be. Everyone’s happy:)
If you know you need to tweak a little here and there to be a better you, I highly recommend taking the Aveeno Daily Challenge.
In 3 short weeks you can develop habits to be a better you, so you can be better for them!
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