Any working mom's

becbec71

out there? I work 9-5 m-f, try to get to curves 2-3 times a week after work. have 2 +2 kids a fiance, a dog ect. Busy and dont always find the time I need to get everything done!! How do you guys cope with dinner time? I have been making sure to grill veggies every night with dinner weather it be turkey burgers or chicken. My family is used to me making lasagna, mac and cheese, high fat high carb casseroles for quick dinners during the week. Not so sure they are liking the new way of cooking. How did your familes adjust?

becbec71

out there? I work 9-5 m-f, try to get to curves 2-3 times a week after work. have 2 +2 kids a fiance, a dog ect. Busy and dont always find the time I need to get everything done!! How do you guys cope with dinner time? I have been making sure to grill veggies every night with dinner weather it be turkey burgers or chicken. My family is used to me making lasagna, mac and cheese, high fat high carb casseroles for quick dinners during the week. Not so sure they are liking the new way of cooking. How did your familes adjust?

sculley

mine did not I had to cook a meal with modified sides

Summarain

Its very hard for me to come home from a 9-5, get the kids together, get dinner ready and try to feed myself before 8pm. I guess it all boils down to time management. If you have a schedule (or not, create one!) then stick to it!

My routine (my kids are 3 and 1) is to come home, let them watch Elmo on Sesame street for like 15 min. while i'm prepping dinner (i know, its such a short time) then put it in the oven, get out of my clothes, get them into a bath while dinner is cooking, read to them, feed them then hopefully feed myself. Of course exercise must be in the morning becuase I could never do it at night, i'm exhausted!:yawn: :yawn: :yawn:

Its so hard to try and cook, clean, feed them, bathe them, entertain them and make sure I eat before a certain time....it gets crazy! Good luck to you! The only thing I can suggest is to either prep dinner the night before or wake up early or after a morning work out make sure dinner is prepped so all you have to do is stick it in the oven or whatever when you get home.

weaverc

I am a working mom as well. I have a husband who works and goes to school and 2 daugthers. My life gets very hectic. My family was kind of used to eating fairly healthy. I have always served vegetables and lean meats. They weren't very prepared for me to take away all the junk food. I make variations of meals to try to accomodate everyone. I make the meat, potato, vegetable or whatever. I eat mostly vegetables and little portions of the other stuff. They eat mostly the other stuff and little portions of the vegetables. Sometimes I cook a side dish for everyone else that I don't eat myself. They deal with the lack of junk food and are healthier for it!

Tamishumate

I work 9-5 m-f, then 3 nights a week I go right to the gym from work ( then work out on the weekends too), sometimes I pick up my 16 year old and he comes with me. I dont get home till after 8 on those three nights. My 4 boys are all living at home, ages 19,17,16 and 6. I dont worry about what they are going to eat, my husband takes care of the 6 year old ( and himself ) and the older boys all have different things going on, mostly they are not home at dinner time with sports and work. I am Putting myself FIRST, till I have reached my weight loss goal, for the first time in 20 years, I COME FIRST. My teenagers understand.. my husband is a whole different story. Good luck to you. :flowerforyou:

CarmenSantiago

I work 8-7 4 days a week, so dinner time is when mom gets home. I have 2 hungry, growing, boys, 1 soon to be teenage step daughter and a fiancee. I am the smallest eater in the house. The key for me is planning. I don't want the family eating at 9:00, it's already late enough when I get home.

I've modified almost all of my recipes to low fat. I make lasagna but I make it with 96% lean beef, fat free cottage cheese, and fat free mozz. I make meatloaf with the same cut of hamburger. There really isn't too much that can't be modified to be healtheir and the kids don't even have to know it is. Even mac & cheese which btw is my FAVORITE food :-d can be modified to be lower fat.

Go to ALLRECIPES.com and search for healthy dinners. You'll get all types of ideas. You don't have to feed the family all chicken and fish. I also throw vegtables in every meal and serve salad before hand. AND I make the kids wait 15 minutes before they can have seconds. If they are still hungry 15 minutes after dinner then I'll let them have a bit more.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

I also have elminated all the junk food from our house. I don't buy chips anymore or cookies, etc. The kids don't need that stuff and I don't need the temptation. I'll make sugar free, high fiber, muffins that taste just as good as "the real" thing.

In addition I work out every day. It might be midnight (which it usually is) that I step on my eliptical, but I always make time for me. If mom isn't happy then nobody is. :smokin:

aymie24

I'm also a working mom, 8-4 plus 24/7 on call. I have two young teen girls and two toddlers and my hubby is woking in Iraq for the next year. I feel your pain!!!

I am still looking for time to hit the gym. I am starting Jillian Michael's 30 day shred as soon as it arrives, hopefully tomorrow.

As for food, the kids turned their noses up at the turkey burgers I made last night. About 30 minutes later, they ate them after deciding they didn't want to cook for themselves, lol. This is very new for me. I am "that mom". My teenagers JUST started doing their own hair. They are a bit spoiled.

I used to cook whatever everyone else wanted to eat, and make something else for myself while they were eating. No more. They don't make the best choices for themselves, even though I keep processed stuff out of the house. Also, if I am going to do the work, they are going to appreciate it enough to try new things, or they can have cereal or <gasp> make their own meals.

My toddlers will eat whatever I am eating so I don't have to worry about them. In fact, my two year old asked to try my spinach salad at lunch yesterday and ended up eating all of it instead of her own lunch.

I also freezer cook. I am making my list for tomorrow's cooking session right now. I am going to make two weeks worth of breakfasts and dinners. Makes life so much easier to pull out frozen, homemade, healthy foods the kids and I can just heat and eat. Most freezer cooking websites have lots of unhealthy recipes so I had to get a little creative but there is a lot of great basic information about freezer cooking on the web. I swear this saves me a ton of money, time, and calories!

ma9321

Hello,
I work from 7:30 - 4:30 monday thru friday. I pick up the kids from the sitter, cook up something small, eat/play with the kids... then I head out to the gym. I drop the little one at the sitter and take my 4 year old with me. My older daughter stays home with grandma. (Ages 12, 4, and 8 months) I get home (close to 9) get them bathed and ready for bed. Then it's me time( laundry, dishes and whatnot)
My husband works two jobs so he's never home. I hardly ever cook for him since he's not hungry when he gets home. It's too late for him to eat anyway.
My weekends consist of laundry, cleaning and getting ready for the week all over again.
I have no time for reading, tv, or just taking a breather.
I'm in bed late everynight. When i say late, i mean late!
Past midnight.

hmmmm

I am a mom to a two year old and a three year old and work overnights about 40 hours a week 6 to 7 nights a week.
Right now my easiest go to is the crock pot, I just throw in bone in chicken (peel the skin off) and bbq sauce and then I serve on tortillas (watch the calories here) with bagged lettuce, shredded cheese and lowfat sour cream.
I still make casseroles. I like campbells cheesy chicken and rice casserole with a bag and a half of frozen veggies in it. Easy to prepare, and everything in one dish!
I try to make my normal foods just use low fat dairy, substitute the butter and oil and use leaner meats and I put veggies in just about everything, lasagna, hamburger helper and mac and cheese. Then I serve with a salad or more veggies prepared in a different way,
Good Luck

becbec71

Thanks everyone! Its good to know I am not alone. I am not a morning person so getting up ear;y enough to work out before work isnt possible. I am trying towork my time up on the elliptical so maybe once i dot hat it would be possible to do in the am. The biggest problem I have is myself, finace, daughter and soon to be step daughter are overweight. My soon to be step son is normal, and my son is tiny and lean, he takes meds for adhd so often times has no appitite then can be very picky when he is ready to eat. So I do still have tokeep things in the house that he can and will eat. Not a lot of junk but a couple of things .

Anna_Banana

I'm a 8 to 5 person and live 14 miles from town. We have all sorts of animals so we spend half our evening doing chores. My biggest suggestion is to plan ahead, and make things for two meals at one time. For example the other day I was browning hamburger for soup, so I went ahead and browned twice as much and made a lasagna while my soup was cooking, then stuck it into the frige for my kids to put in the oven a couple days later when they get off the bus so I will be ready when my hubby and I get home from work. Also I made twice as much soup as we needed and froze half of it to eat another day. Last night I got a roast already to go in the pan of my slow cooker so this morning all I had to do was sit it on the base and turn it on, then supper will be ready when we get home.

My kids have adjusted fine to changes, but I've always made them eat fruits and veggies, and I'm a parent that refuses to make other meals for my kids. They can eat what we're having or go hungry.