Any working mom's

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.

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:

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!

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

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.