You Shouldn’t Feel Judged For Living Out Your Healthy Lifestyle

The journey into motherhood is a huge adjustment for many of us. You enter this new world without a manual to guide you through the steps, but the beauty of motherhood is that you find your way. Your motherhood journey is not always pretty and it doesn’t look like your neighbor's experience, but it shouldn’t because every mother, including you, is unique.

For me as a new mom, along with all the normal motherhood adjustments, I found myself struggling to find a new identity and had a hard time finding a system that fit my values and lifestyle. Being a first-time mom gave me an overwhelming responsibility to make the world a safer, cleaner, and healthier place for my baby.

As I searched for a mom community that aligned with my values and lifestyle, I stumbled upon a lot of different moms who were all over the spectrum when it came to healthy living. There was the mom who only spoke of plastics, vaccinations, and processed foods, and then there's another mom who would talk about homeopathy and oils, and then there was me: A mom who just had a hospital birth and was having trouble breastfeeding. I didn’t want to share my journey with moms who I believed to be further along in their health journey than I was. It left me discouraged and ultimately led to me not taking leaps into living healthy. 

It wasn’t until my second baby, Addalyne, that I found a community and I became more confident in my options. I had a home birth (which most of my family thought was crazy) and in the first week after having her we found out she had jaundice and we decided to treat it at home (another thing people found crazy, and well you get the point). You won’t always get the support you’re looking for from friends and family, but having a small circle who supports you will make the world of a difference.

As mothers, we want to feel confident in everything we do, but choosing the holistic route will sometimes leave you feeling excluded, very excluded. And that’s okay. You do not need to have everyone behind your values. You do, however, need a community of women who share the same values and will walk through life with you. I remember Annabelle’s first birthday party eight years ago. As I was filling the piñata, I sat there thinking, “Wow, this is a lot of sugar and candy for the kids”. I felt terrible but I was pressured into doing this because I didn’t want to have to explain to 100 people why I decided not to have a piñata full of candy. I chose the “easy” route and didn’t stand for what I knew was best and I felt very guilty for not valuing and standing for my beliefs. Once I learned to stand-up for my beliefs and found a community that supported me, things changed. When I told my family I was planning on having a home birth, they laughed and thought I was joking, I chuckled with them, then said: “No, I’m serious.” It's not always going to be a comfortable situation but you have to muscle through and stick to what you believe. Friends, family, and doctors will push back against your beliefs but the more you educate yourself, the more confident you are in your choices, and with the encouragement of those who support you, you have the power to lead your life as you see fit.

Finding support, at the end of the day, it is the best thing you can do for you and your health journey.

xoxo,