Tammy's top 5 tips on balancing fitness, motherhood and building an empire!

Tammy's top 5 tips on balancing fitness, motherhood and building an empire!

With a phenomenal social media presence of over 8.1 million followers on Instagram and 1.1+ million subscribers on YouTube, Tammy Hembrow is known worldwide as a social media influencer. While Tammy’s life online looks carefully curated and completely glamorous, her day-to-day consists of running her personal brand Tammy Hembrow Fitness, building clothing line Saski Collection and keeping up with her young family. Only 23 years old and with two kids under the age of three, Tammy has managed to successfully build her personal brand and businesses, while maintaining her health, relationship with fiance Reece and being a hands on mum to her two children Wolf and Saskia. Tammy is an inspiration to many of her followers, who often contact her for advice on balancing an active lifestyle, children, work and an intense fitness regime. We decided to sit down with Tammy and find out how she has achieved her success, how she maintains it and how she stays motivated to keep setting new goals.

Tammy identifies five key points that enable her to achieve what looks like an impossible schedule:

 

  1. Plan your week

It sounds simple but it is amazing how much you can fit in if you have an “ideal week” planned. This is more of a generic plan to help guide you through the week, and may include the days you’re going to workout, the meetings you have to attend and the time you want to allocate to spend with your family. Block out time to dedicate to those activities and try to be realistic and use your time wisely. Try to be as efficient as you can and spend time on the things that mean the most to you. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t stick to it strictly, being a mum of two babies I know first hand that things don’t always go to plan, but if you plan ahead of time it makes it easier to shuffle tasks around or anticipate disruptions ahead of time. Just do your best to pick yourself up and move on to the next activity or reassess your commitments to get back on track.

 

2. Take care of your health - Don’t overwhelm yourself

What motivates me to look after myself is how much more I get done when I do. When I’m at peak health I have more energy and feel less sluggish, so I can focus more on making better decisions for my business, setting new fitness goals and being there for my babies. It’s important not to push yourself too far, this can be applied to your daily life and the gym. Listen to your body. If you’re exhausted, you’re probably not going to do your best work and it can lead to more problems down the track. It’s okay to have an early night when you need it, run a relaxing bubble bath or hire a babysitter for date night - I do! Be careful not to fall into the habit of making excuses or procrastinating, but you should always work some down time into your weekly plan, because it’s important to dedicate some time to you too.

 

3. Forget perfection

Too often do I see girls and women seeking perfection, or what they think perfection is, and this is often by comparing themselves to others. Everyone is different with different schedules, different families and different circumstances. You need to work out what works best for you - I could almost guarantee my “ideal” would be different from anyone else. If you can’t make it to gym outside of work, whether you need to be at home with your kids or don’t have access you may need to adopt a home workout routine. Don’t beat yourself up because you can’t do or achieve what someone else is achieving, or you can’t do it “their” way. Build a plan that works for you, and work that plan until you reach the desired result. With dedication and hard work, you’ll get there.

When I had my second child I had to adjust to looking after two, which I found extremely difficult at first and it was a lot harder than managing one. I had to try different ways of utilising my time and planning schedules around being there as a mum, working out and work. There is no set formula to balancing, you need to find out what works for you, your family’s schedule and your lifestyle … my best advice is trial and error, if it isn’t working try something new! Little changes can make a lot of difference, keep shifting your routine slightly and eventually you will strike your balance.

 

4. Allocate your time responsibly

One thing I want to emphasise is time allocation. Make sure you set realistic timeframes to get things done. Don’t fill your day with meetings that you know will be back-to-back and will stop you from getting anything else done, or a gym session where you get there and realise you have to be home in ten minutes. This will only create stress and have you chasing your tail, which isn’t productive. That doesn’t mean your day shouldn’t be busy, but each activity should have enough time allocated to actually get the job done. For example, I try not book any meetings too early because I know I need that time to wake my kids, get them breakfast and dressed and ready for the day. My work day always starts once I have dedicated that time to my family life because it’s so important to me.

 

5. Enjoy small victories

Having small goals throughout the week is a great way to build resistance against procrastination and encourage healthy habits. These goals could be things like waking up an hour earlier, getting extra work done in your lunch break, doing healthy meal prep on the weekend, or taking an hour every night to focus on a side project. These little victories become larger over time, as you see little changes in your routine amount to bigger achievements.

We’re certainly inspired to get the most out of our week after hearing how Tammy does it, we hope this insight gives you the motivation to strive for what seems to be unattainable. For more information on Tammy Hembrow Fitness visit:

www.tammyhembrow.org

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