4 Brilliant Back-to-School Survival Tips from Wellness Expert Moms

August can feel like whiplash after the slower, sweeter days of summer. But don’t stress — we tapped incredible women who run wellness businesses while raising kids (including our own rockstar Nutritious Life founder, Keri Glassman, R.D.) to get their top back-to-school survival strategies.  Take a page from their hectic-season playbook: Keri Glassman Founder, Nutritious Life Making lunch the night before and deciding what breakfast will be is a huge help in keeping the morning peace. Doing this (and prepping the coffee the night before, too, of course!) allows me to be present and enjoy morning family time. Also, deciding what breakfast will be with the kids ensures I don’t get hit with the “I don’t want to eat that today” complaints — most of the time! I am a morning person, so making each one as calm as possible is very important to me and to us as a family. Chloe Epstein President, Chloe’s Fruit I have to prioritize my workouts or I can’t function, so finding a great workout and sticking to it is a must. Also, it sounds counterintuitive, but I’ve found that spicing things up with the family at home at the start of a new school year helps. For example, we launched all family cook-offs two Sunday nights a month. Each family member prepares a dish for our Sunday night dinner and is responsible for cleaning up their own mess. Thus far, it’s a lot more time in the kitchen for me, but it’s been a hit as a great way to end the frenzy-filled weekend together. Prioritizing time together is always a challenge, but it helps keep everyone balanced and happy, for the most part! Catherine McCord Founder, Weelicious + One Potato It’s all about smoothie jars! Every week we make seven jars filled with our favorite smoothie essentials like bee pollen, hemp seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, dates, collagen powder and more. This way all you need to do every morning is add a banana, your favorite frozen fruits, a handful of greens, and the ingredients in your smoothie jar, and you’ve got an easy, fast nutritious breakfast for yourself and your family.  Kristin McGee Celebrity yoga and Pilates instructor As a mom of three boys, I’m pretty crazed a lot of the time! My advice includes always keeping a sense of humor and letting things go as much as you possibly can. Stress is a huge downer and can wreak havoc on your health. The more we can take things in stride, the better. On top of that, I recommend staying consistent with a few set things. For instance, I always eat a healthy breakfast no matter what. If I”m not getting as much sleep as I would like to, I make sure to move my body during the day and get some fresh air. I also think it’s important to stay connected with your kids and partner as much as you can —and do one thing daily for yourself, whether it’s a yoga class, glass of wine, or a few minutes with a good friend or book.

“Running Helped Me Prioritize My Health and Happiness as a New Mom”

By Whitney Heins, founder of The Mother Runners, as told to Mara Santilli I’ve had a love-hate relationship with running for most of my life. When I was six years old, my dad saw me running across the front yard with our dog, thought I looked fast, and started entering me in races. I was running competitively by high school and felt the pressure that comes along with being an athlete. But running can be a beautiful thing, too. When I got to college, I found community through running and immediately felt part of something larger during a stressful time. I ran my first marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon, in college too. RELATED: 4 of the Most Common Running Pains, Explained Running also helped me reclaim my sense of identity after pregnancy. I had my daughter, Eleanor, in 2014 and my son, Cal, in 2017. I was lucky in that I was able to run throughout both of my pregnancies but afterward was super challenging. I had other people depending on me, and I couldn’t exactly peace out when I wanted to run…unless I wanted to wake up before the sunrise, take the kids on a stroller run, or make sure my husband was around to watch the kids. I also felt guilty about making time for myself. Finding a New Community of Runners I ran some 5Ks after I had my son, and I started to run with another mother in the neighborhood who’s also a runner. She encouraged me to get a coach to train for the Knoxville Marathon, and eventually, the Olympic Trials.  Shortly after my training began, I wasn’t hitting the paces I should have been hitting, so my coach recommended getting blood work. It turned out that my estrogen levels were sky-high, and I had vitamin deficiencies and an underactive thyroid. RELATED: Keri Opens Up About the Real Challenges and Rewards of Being a Mom Running was key in helping me realize that something was wrong with my health. If my coach didn’t bring it up, I would have just accepted feeling awful as a normal part of new-mom life, never prioritizing my wellness. Getting Back to Baseline I completely overhauled my diet due to new food sensitivities and started taking supplements. I stuck with my new regimen during training, got my blood rechecked, and my health and running improved. I ran the Knoxville Marathon in 2019 and placed behind my friend who was going to the 2020 Olympic Trials! But running isn’t just about achieving PRs for me. It helped me take control of my body after having a baby and introduced me to other women going through similar things. I mean, being a new mom can be so isolating—you’re so focused on your baby’s needs that it’s easy to neglect your own.  That’s why I started The Mother Runners, an online resource and social media community for moms who run all over the globe. Running with other mom friends fulfills my need for both exercise and socialization. Unlike a coffee date or playdates with the kids, there are zero distractions when you’re running, so you can focus more on your conversation.  At the moment, I’m injured with a torn hamstring, which prevented me from qualifying for this year’s Olympic Trials (hoping 2024 is my year!). So, I’m cross-training and getting stronger while I take a few months off from running.  This would make a lot of runners feel low, but I have women from the community checking in on me multiple times a day, which is really amazing. These friendships are honest and genuine—when you run together, you lay it all out there. We’re all about inspiring not only each other but inspiring confidence in our kids (my daughter is a runner, too!), so we have a lot in common. That’s why I want to expand this sisterhood as far as it can reach. The Mother Runners is empowering women to move past the “mom guilt” and other obstacles that come with being a mom and take time out of their day for themselves, to push themselves, and to support other mothers who are runners. Because being a mom is just as much of a marathon, trust me. (Photos: The Mother Runners)