THE SENSORY MADE SIMPLE PODCAST

Transcript

Welcome to episode number 24 of the Food Explorers Podcast.

In this episode, I have an extra special guest, Lori Oberbroeckling, joining me to share tips on how to manage overwhelm, burnout, and saying no so you can fully embrace your supermom status.

As a parent of a child with sensory and feeding challenges, it's easy to look around and feel like everyone around you has it all together.

While it feels like you are constantly struggling and overwhelmed, here's a hint, they usually don't.

But according to Lori, there are some secrets you might want to know.

A little about Lori.

Lori is passionate about helping moms who want fulfilling careers or side hustles or passion projects while also wanting to feel present and connected to their families.

She believes that moms can have an extraordinary home, an extraordinary career, and be extraordinarily happy at the same time.

Lori wrote Secrets of Supermom, How Extraordinary Moms Succeed at Work and Home and How You Can Too, to share tips, strategies, and quick wins for moms that want it all.

Lori is a wife and mom of four, all while working as a leader in corporate America and nurturing several side hustles.

She has a bachelor's degree in psychology with graduate training in marriage and family therapy and counseling.

She helps mom who want it all develop the skills, habits, and confidence to happily have it all.

I found so much value in the tips Lori shares with us in this episode, and I know you will too.

So, hey Lori, I'm so excited to have you here today with us.

Can you start by telling us a little about who you are and what you do?

Yes, super excited to be here.

I am Lori Oberbroeckling.

I am a wife.

I'm a mom of four little humans, and I am the owner of Secrets of Supermom, which started as a book that I wrote called Secrets of Supermom, turned into a podcast and programs and all sorts of things to support working moms who want to do it all.

That's so cool.

I actually didn't realize you started with your book.

I didn't know that was the first.

Yes, yes indeed, I did.

I pandemic, it was a pandemic baby, right?

And so the pandemic sort of highlighted to me that there were some moms that were seeming to keep it together, kind of, right?

And then there were moms that were really falling apart.

And I kept asking the question like, what are these other moms doing differently?

What is happening?

What are they doing that's so different?

And so I decided to do a survey and some interviews and I ended up talking to like almost 200 women and put together these secrets that really the moms that felt more calm, that felt like they could pivot, that felt like they were keeping it together in some way, had some strategies.

And so it turned into 16 Secrets.

And that's the book, 16 chapters, 16 Secrets of what these busy moms were doing to make their lives better.

I love that.

I'm already like, oh my gosh, I have to pick up a copy.

And I'm not even a mom yet, but I wanna know the secrets.

So yes, I have a woman that reached out to me.

She said, you know that these secrets are for anyone, right?

She goes, men should read this book.

And I said, well, yes, but I talked only to mom.

So I feel like I had to talk about mom, you know, being a parent.

And there's so many examples of being a parent, but 100%, they're all things, you know, like habits and asking for help and learning certain productivity techniques.

All of these things are things any of us can do and apply and use to make our life better, faster, calmer, all the things I will be picking up a copy for sure.

So you kind of bridged into this already.

But what inspired you to start a business focusing on Supermoms?

Was it during COVID?

Was the book kind of the start?

And where did you start?

Yeah, it really was that.

It really was the spark.

So I did not anticipate creating a business around being a Supermom or around moms who wanted to feel like they could do anything they wanted, right?

They could reach their goals while still being an awesome mom, while still having a job they loved, right?

I didn't ever think that that was going to be a path for me, but writing the book sort of got me talking to all of these women and realizing, oh my goodness, there are so many things that we can share with each other, that we can help each other in so many ways.

And so the book was created.

And then I thought, wow, as you guys are listening right now, having a podcast is a great way to share with busy moms who are driving kids around and picking up these things from here and there and running kids all over the place.

And so I started a podcast to kind of highlight more of those chapters and be able to interview women who were applying a lot of these things or who had really honed some of these skills, right?

They were really good at productivity or they were really good at to-do lists or they were really good at negotiating at work.

And so all of these women that I've been able to meet with and bring in and introduce to my listeners.

And then it just progressed.

There was a program and a membership and everything came out of that.

But it was really this sort of natural thing from going, wow, this book could be really impactful and how can we reach more women?

Yeah.

And so you mentioned that you started during the pandemic when there were some people who seemed to be holding it together and some people who were really not holding it together.

Did you identify as one of the two and is that kind of the spark?

I felt like I was on the more together side.

So I think that's why I noticed because I thought, wow, like some of these things that are stressing some of these moms out are really not stressing me out.

Or I immediately go into problem solving mode, right?

Immediately my brain goes, oh, that's going to be tough, how can I fix that?

Oh, that's going to be tough.

What can I do to make that easier?

Because if we live the next, what we thought was two weeks and turn in two months and turn in two years, right?

If we live the next minutes like this, I'm not sure I'll make it very long, right?

There were things that I thought, as far as homeschooling for children and having a full-time job and having a family and having all of these things, I thought there are not, I've got to figure out a way to make this sustainable because I can't put a bandaid on this that I could handle for two days, but not for two weeks and not for two months.

So really just kind of getting into those mindsets and then, yeah, and then I was like, what else, what else, what else?

Asking more questions and really digging deeper.

Even after pandemic, running a business is really, really hard.

And even more so when you are a mom, again, I'm not there yet, but I talk to moms all day.

My business helps moms.

And a lot of my friends have a business and are a mom and it is a struggle.

So if they are somebody who's in that place where they are looking and it feels like every single other person in the world has it together.

They feel like they're watching social media, they're doing these things.

Everybody else has it together and their business, their home, their kids, everything feels messy.

Is there somewhere you would tell them to start?

So one, everybody that you see is sharing the best of them, right?

You're only seeing the best of what they have.

Because even those of us, so I work full time and have a business and have four children, right?

That's a lot.

That is a lot.

If I say it out loud, I go, wow, right?

That's a lot.

But I feel like I am pretty calm most of the time.

I feel like I've got it pretty together most of the time, but I intentionally drop things, right?

I don't want to get so stressed out that I drop things on accident, that I don't, that I drop things and I can't control it, right?

So I am always looking at my schedule, always looking at my calendar, and I know what's okay for me to drop.

If my house turns into a tornado, which is very easy with six humans and two massive dogs living in one house, it's a very easy tornado to make.

If that is not going to be my priority this week, if I've got other things that are more important than having a perfect house, I'm going to let that go.

And I'm going to let it go on purpose.

And I'm going to put my blinders on and say, it's cool that there are shoes everywhere because this is not our time.

This is not what we're using our time for this week.

And in the weekend, we can take care of this.

Or just being really strategic with the way that I use my time and the things that I let to drop and the things that I never let drop, right?

The things that are, so my workouts, for example, are incredibly important to my energy, to my mood, to my mindset.

And if I let those drop, everything else starts to fail.

And so I know that that's a ball I can't let drop, right?

That's a ball that I have to hold.

And even if I have to move it around and get creative, that one has to stay.

So I think it really is just starting to get intentional with the things that you're spending your time doing.

And if you don't know how to do that, track it, right?

Start to look at it, start to get strategic with that.

Because when you start to really get, follow those strategies, a lot of the things that I teach and that I do and that I live, then you are able to manage more because you're picking the priorities and the things that are really most important to you.

And you are intentionally going, it's cool if we eat out every day this week, right?

I don't want to do that on a regular basis, but if there's a week that's really big deal at work or the kids have a million things going on and I have to let that be okay, then I've decided that that's okay.

And then I don't have to live in the guilt about it.

I don't have to feel terrible about myself about it.

I say that was our decision this week and next week it'll be different, right?

And I think just getting to be really in charge of your choices helps to get past some of that stress and overwhelm and burnout.

Yeah, I have two questions from you coming for this.

So one, you mentioned that guilt, that guilt of making choices to be working on your business, making choices to have maybe take out that week.

And you said, I've made that conscious choice for the week.

How did you get there?

So how do you get to that place first where you don't feel guilty about that?

Even though it's the choice you made, some parents, they're not there yet.

Yeah.

What do you recommend?

No, I totally get that.

And I think that the guilt so often comes up for us.

And again, it's not intentional, right?

It's not intentional guilt.

It's not like we're doing it on purpose.

And we also don't always know what to do with it.

So it just keeps cycling back.

We, the guilt, we start to work and the guilt comes back and we go, oh, I shouldn't be working right now.

I should be hanging out with my kids.

But then you say, fine, I'm gonna stop this project, even though it's super important to me, even though it might be getting me a promotion, even though it might be moving me to the next level of my business.

And I'm really excited about it.

I'm gonna stop and I'm gonna go hang out with my kids.

But then now I'm with my kids and I'm guilty because I'm thinking about that thing that I didn't finish or that thing that I really felt like was a priority that week and I'm not present anyway.

And so then I'm not good in either place, right?

Or maybe it's you're hanging out with your partner, you're hanging out with people that are important to you, whatever it is, when you have that guilt and if you're constantly living in it, it is not as productive.

So the things that you are working on, you're not as focused.

And so it is sort of slowing you down in everything else that you're doing and doesn't even allow you to be fully present.

So I think realizing that you're there, right?

That's the first step is really going, this is where I am, I am feeling this all the time.

And then it's about doing that priorities assessment, really saying, what is the most important thing to me?

Now, just because the most important thing to me is my family, which of course it is, doesn't mean they're going to get all of my time, but they are the most important thing to me.

So when I am choosing other things, I'm doing that strategically, right?

I'm making sure that the quality of time with them is really important and really is focused and that I'm there for it.

And I am present and excited about spending time with them so that even if that time is more limited some weeks than others, it still is really good quality time.

And so being able to start to choose those things, I think is that next step.

Yeah, and that quality time is what your kids and your family really want.

They don't want that side of you that's on your phone and half talking to them.

They notice.

There's so many times I'm sitting with kids and they're looking at their mom and they're like, put down your phone.

I work a lot with older kids.

And they're like, put down your phone.

Yeah, I mean, and you can imagine if I spend five hours sitting next to my child who's playing with toys, and I'm on my phone, and we spent five hours together, but we probably didn't interact much.

Or maybe I just pretended to play, but I was really just doing something else versus 45 minutes of actual quality time playing a game or playing blocks or being super into it.

What do you think they would rather have?

What do you even think you would rather have?

Right, so it's not always about quantity, massive amounts of time with our people.

It's really about that dedicated, awesome time with our people so that we can make those two hours count.

Yeah, I've even, I see it with my husband, and sometimes he'll come in, I'm in the middle of doing something, and I'm like, you know, I would love to give you 100% of my attention.

So let me just finish this thought, give me two minutes to finish whatever I was doing so that I can give you 100% of my attention.

And I've noticed how much that changes our interactions too.

Yes, yes, because certainly you don't want, like you can think about those spouse, those partner, those friend relationships where, you know, you go to dinner and the other person has their phone out and they're like checking it the whole time.

And you're kind of like, hi, I'm here across the table.

We are face to face right now.

Let's take advantage of this time.

And, you know, whereas if you go to dinner with me, you'll notice my phone is, unless I have a babysitter that I must be present for, my phone is almost always in my bag.

It's not, I'm not checking it.

I'm not looking at it.

I'm not paying attention to it because the person that is there, they're the most important thing to me.

I want to be fully present for that because there are some people I don't get to see that often.

And I want to have every single minute with them count.

Yeah.

And so you said you're really strategic about what you pick and what you drop.

Do you have a planning session where you do this?

Do you schedule it out every week?

Like these are my top priorities.

How do you do that?

Yeah, that's exactly it.

I do weekly planning and I swear by it.

I live by it.

I teach it.

I want to gift it to everyone in the whole world, because that weekly planning session has been everything for my sanity, for my priorities, for me getting out of the mom guilt that I used to live in.

And so I Sunday mornings sit down and I go through my entire week.

I pull together, I use a paper planner to pull everything together from all the digital places that it is.

So that's family activities, that's my personal activities, like workouts I mentioned.

That is me planning for food, grocery shopping.

That is me doing every work meeting that I have, every volunteer meeting that I have.

That is all of my to-dos that I want to do that week.

It's everything.

All the things I pull together into one place and I plan out the next week.

Now, lately we've had a lot going on, so I'm planning into two weeks and then I'm re-looking, right?

But most of the time, I would just go a week forward.

So I'm looking forward at that week and I'm saying, what are the most important things?

What can I absolutely not change?

What do I need to drop this week, right?

What do I need to get rid of or pull out of my calendar or decide that I really wanted to get that done this week, but it's just not going to happen.

And instead of me fighting against myself all week long and knowing that I really don't have time to do it, just putting it on for next week or moving something, being able to cancel appointments, all of that strategy session, and it only takes me 20 or 30 minutes.

That strategy session saves me loads of energy throughout the week, because on Monday I get up and I know what I'm going to do immediately.

I know exactly what I'm going to do.

I know exactly what my day is going to look like.

And it's just so easy for me to execute once the plan has already been made.

It also allows me on Sunday to just feel really good about doing whatever I want to do because I am not stressed about what's going to happen on Monday because those Sunday scaries are real.

They are real, especially if you have a regular Monday through Friday schedule and you are thinking about all the things and they're spinning in your head of all the things that are going to come up that week.

No, it's already planned.

I know what's coming.

I even plan for the things that I don't expect, right?

I even have a plan for that.

So just being able to strategize that weekly planning session and using all those tools, man, huge for me.

Yeah, I think that's great.

I think it's something a lot of people don't do.

So I think that's a really good tip going forward.

Yes, they play the game of hope.

They hope that they get to work out this week.

They hope that they have time to do some fun stuff with the kids.

They hope, right?

But hope, I worked with a counselor a long time ago.

He and I were substance abuse counselors together when I was very early in my career.

That was my original job.

And he would say, hope is not a strategy.

He would always tell our clients, hope is not a strategy, because that's, you know, in substance abuse, they'd be like, well, I hope that next week is an easier week.

And he would be like, hope is not a strategy.

This is up to you.

We have to plan these things.

It's not about that.

So yes, so I always love that quote from him that hope is not a strategy we have to plan.

Oh, I love that.

If it is not in my planner, if it is not on my calendar for that week, it's not getting done.

I'm never getting to it.

Yeah, agree.

So along with that though, a lot of us over schedule and are going, going, going, going until you're burned out.

And I mentioned to you before we started that I am like loving your stuff on burnout because I think it's so applicable to all of us, especially in the world we live in now.

So how can somebody who's really in one of those higher stages of burnout, so if you guys have not gone to Lori's Instagram, it's like 12 stages of burnout.

So if we are in those higher stages, if somebody's kind of really feeling it right now, where do they start?

What can they start to do to just break that cycle?

Yeah.

I mean, ultimately, when you are really in like a, you know, like 9, 10, 11, 12 stage of burnout, and you guys can go check it out and see all the details.

But the, I mean, we're talking about, at that point, you probably need medical help, right?

Because there is some sort of substance abuse issue.

There's some sort of sleep issue that you cannot fix on your own.

There are, you are so, so past the point of being able to get out yourself.

But if we're talking about early on, right?

When we're talking about, I'm starting to overwork and I'm starting to feel stressed every day.

I don't, I never feel like I'm fully out of the stress cycle.

And if you're not sure if you're in that, think about how you're feeling in your body.

If you are, every day you have a pit in your stomach, every day you feel that pressure in your chest, every day you kind of have a dull headache that doesn't really seem to be coming from anywhere specific.

Every day you're skipping workouts, you're skipping sleep, you're skipping food that is healthy for you because you're work, work, working, or you're just trying to do all the things and you're skipping the things that are really allowing you to do all the things, right?

The energy giving things that will allow you to do everything you want to do.

When you find yourself doing those things, that's when it's time to pause and say, hold on.

Because when you can catch yourself early and not get all the way into the most destructive times of burnout, the feeling where you feel like nothing even matters anymore, right?

You get to that point.

When you can catch yourself early, you can stop it.

So you can say, wait, are all these things really important to me?

Or is this really the life that I want to be living?

And starting to really ask yourself some of those deeper questions.

How do I want to feel every day?

Do I want to feel calm?

Do I want to feel happy and excited?

Do I want to feel passionate?

Do I want to feel just patient, right?

And maybe, you know, maybe I just want to live a life with ease.

How do I want to feel every day?

And then what am I doing every day that is allowing me to feel that?

Right?

What are giving me those energy boosts, those, you know, those really fun things that I'm just so excited about.

And what is totally bleeding me of energy?

What is, what is giving me just nothing, right?

And sucking my energy dry and not letting me live the life that I want to live.

And then we can start to make those small changes, right?

Because it is about saying this is not working.

How do I say no to this?

How do I step back from this activity?

How do I make a change?

How do I ask for help?

How do I delegate something?

Right?

We have so many options, but we have to know what's not working before we can start to take those steps.

I think to a lot of those come with having to say no or drop something, like you mentioned, that can be really hard, especially when it's like a family kind of thing.

Maybe you know it's draining you.

Maybe you know this is something that's, you know, not helping you go in the direction you want to go.

How do you recommend families or moms and somebody struggling start to say no or to drop something when they feel weighed down by it?

Yeah, yeah, I think it's really hard.

And this asking for help.

So if you've heard me talk before, you know that in my book, one of the key secrets is the secret of help.

And that is asking for help, outsourcing things, delegating things, right?

It encompasses all the ways of asking for help.

And it talks about doing that at work and it talks about doing that at home.

And if you've heard me talk before, you know that's the hardest thing for me.

That is my secret that is the most hard because I was so used to doing everything on my own.

My husband would travel every week.

I had four kids.

I'm working full time.

And I'm like, you know, annihilating life.

I'm doing all the things, but I never stopped.

And I would cut back sleep and I wasn't working out.

And then I started to realize, oh, my goodness, I just keep piling things on and I am not taking a breath.

And then I started to kind of hate everything.

And so I started to work through those stages of burnout.

I was getting into that and I had to stop and say, no, this is not how I'm going to live my life anymore.

So for the help part, it really is about communication.

So much is about having the ability to communicate and sometimes be vulnerable to other people in your life.

If that is people at home, that is having a conversation with a partner or a roommate or whoever, you know, you share your house space with.

And sometimes kids too, right?

My kids, my oldest is 13, my youngest is six.

So I have four children who can do versions of something in my house, right?

It may be not as much as I can do, but certainly I have children old enough to make food.

I have children old enough to vacuum floors.

I have children old enough to help bring in groceries and to feed dogs, right?

And so being able to say, okay, I can't do everything, nor should I, right?

Nor do I need to be, and we need to be, I love to call it a family team, but we are a family team.

And so as a family team, we're going to teamwork, makes the dream work this house.

We're going to teamwork, makes the dream work this dinner, right?

And so we're going to get all these things done together and getting your spouse on board with that so that you are not the only one carrying that load because it's heavy.

It's really, really heavy if you're doing it by yourself.

It is, and I, I love this tip that you just gave because as you know, most of the families who are in this community, they have kids with sensory needs.

And guys, those chores, they are organizing to the sensory system, having your kid help you with groceries, having them help you vacuuming, having them helping you with different things in the house.

That is considered heavy work, which is proprioceptive input to the body and is calming.

So not only are you taking a mental, physical load off yourself, but you're also doing it in a way that can help your child get organized in their body.

So I personally love that tip.

And I also love the idea of the food prep, because again, kids who struggle to eat, they could benefit from food prep.

So that was just a side note.

Lori, that was fantastic.

Well, I know that's perfect.

Well, and I was going to say just in saying that, like you said, kids that struggle to eat.

I never have really had kids with massive food struggles, but I have certainly, we go through waves of picky, right?

We go through waves of, I love to eat this, and then I do not love to eat this so much.

And having them help make food has been the biggest way that they have tried new things, put new things in their bowls, and then having them be able to build, like especially if we're doing like a make your own salad, for example, where everyone's got a job to make something for that salad, and it all goes in the middle of the table, and then they are able to build their own salad.

Oh my goodness, there's veggies in that salad that they would have not eaten if I had put them in there.

And so it's just a really nice way to come together as a family, I feel like, but also to encourage them to try new things, because they're like, well, I just cut up this whole red pepper.

I should at least try a few of them, right?

And so that's been a really good way to, and then it still takes the weight off of me as the food owner in our family.

Yeah, accomplishing many things at once.

I think that is fantastic, right?

Yes.

So it's so good.

So good.

So a lot of families, though, also maybe don't have a partner who is as supportive in this, who is as present in this, is able to assist that much.

Maybe they work a lot or they're a single parent.

Is there any recommendations you have for somebody who maybe has all that load on themselves without support in their physical household?

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I think so.

First of all, we think we can only ask for help from people in our home, and that is certainly not true, right?

We have neighbors and family, and I don't even mean having to ask for help necessarily for, like, I'm asking them and then I'm giving nothing in return.

Sometimes it's just about trading things that you maybe really like to do and someone else doesn't.

So for example, you could trade meal nights.

So if I'm going to prep a lasagna, let's say, I could make two and give one to my friend.

And tomorrow night, she or he could do the same thing.

It saves me from a meal prep night.

It's not a whole lot extra effort to make one than it is to make two.

And then we're saving each other some energy.

So sometimes it's about just, like, getting a little bit creative with the people in your life.

And maybe that's a friend, maybe that's your mom, right?

Maybe that is a neighbor.

And being able to share some of that just makes it a little bit easier.

I have a girlfriend that used to talk.

She didn't have kids, but she had an apartment that she very much felt like she needed to organize.

Like, she felt like all the spaces were crazy.

So she had another single friend, and they would call each other on two nights a week, and they would talk and organize.

So it was accountability that they were on the phone because they wanted to talk to each other anyway, but they had agreed we're going to talk and organize.

And so they were both able to get their entire apartment cleaned by doing this accountability.

So sometimes it's just about getting a little bit creative with the things that you want to get done and also giving yourself grace for what you are actually capable of doing.

What is your true capacity?

Maybe if you don't have a lot of help, then starting a full-blown business that you're going to leave your company in one month and still do an amazing job at your...

Maybe those are not the best choices right now.

Maybe you have slow growth.

Maybe you do a slow step back.

Maybe you get a little bit more strategic about it.

And it is always about where specifically you're at, but I think there's always creative ways to get around challenges.

Yeah, and I think too, even just asking for help in other families going through something, the same thing you're going through, I've actually found in my business, one of the things that was most helpful was joining communities of other business owners and for, again, my community, for people who have children with sensory needs, there are support groups out there.

There are Facebook groups where you can connect with people who are going through the same thing.

And usually those people have really good ideas for where you're struggling.

Yeah, camaraderie and yes, you might be so in the weeds, I would call it, right?

You're so in the weeds of what's happening that you can't see the solution.

Whereas someone else might be a couple steps in front of you and they're like, oh, try this.

And you think, wow, I wish I would have thought of that.

But, you know, that's why we have other humans in our world is so that we don't have to think of those things on our own.

And then we can use those good ideas from someone else.

Yeah.

So anything exciting that our listeners can look forward to from you?

Oh, yes.

So the Supermom Summit, second annual, is coming in June.

So excited about it.

The speakers are going to be amazing.

So stay tuned for that.

That is my most exciting thing coming up.

And where can they find that?

Oh, yes.

So secretsofsupermom.com is my website.

You can't register for it just yet, but by the time this comes out, it'll be really soon.

So that's the best place to go for the book and the podcast and the summit and all of my socials.

Everything is there.

Perfect.

So leaving here today, is there one thing listeners can get started on that will help them feel like more of a Supermom?

Yes, I really think it's weekly planning.

For me, it's always going to be the weekly planning.

So even if you start small and just you look at your schedule, right?

Maybe you don't get real strategic with your to-do list and do all the different steps that I talked about, but you just start to look ahead at the week.

One day a week, you look ahead.

And then maybe you start to get a little more strategic the next week and a little more strategic, but that weekly planning has got to be the thing.

Yeah, I think that's the thing for me most of the time too.

So big.

Okay.

So before we go, a couple little fun rapid fire questions.

What is one sensory quirk that you have?

So this is so funny because you're, and I was like, I was thinking, I knew you were going to ask this and I was thinking, I don't know if I have one, but I think this counts as a sensory quirk.

If you touch my neck, it feels like I'm immediately feels like I'm choking.

So like if a child touches my neck, I immediately feel like I'm choking and I absolutely hate it.

So yes, I think that that is one that I haven't thought about in a long time, but no one really does that to me anymore because I've said, if it feels like mommy's choking, you can't choke.

So yeah, that's one of mine.

Yeah, that's a good one.

I have so many, but that is a great one.

What was eating like for you as a child?

And does it influence how you interact with food today?

Ooh, I think so.

My mom cooked nearly every meal.

She cooked, she worked full time, but she also cooked every meal at night.

And so that has led me to want to do the same, right?

To feel like I should do the same, but also to feel like there is an importance of doing that, not only for health, but for family connection.

And so having family meals has been really, family dinners specifically, has been really important to me.

As much, as many nights as possible during the week, we have a meal together, we sit down together, we share the best of our day and the worst of our day, and we eat the same food.

And I just think that parts of that came from how I grew up, and I just feel like that that is the way that we most importantly connect as a family.

Oh my gosh.

Family meals are one of my favorite strategies that can just completely alter the whole relationship of eating.

100%.

Okay.

And then what is one thing you like to do to calm down your nervous system when it is dysregulated?

Ooh, for me, it's breathing exercises.

So I love a whole lot of different ones.

But when I had babies, I wanted to have them with no pain medication.

So I wanted to have natural childbirth.

And so I did hypnobirthing with my first child.

And there's a breathing technique where you fill your stomach as if it's a balloon and you count as high as you can.

So like literally up to 30 or 40, you count and you fill it as full as you can fill it.

And then you try to let your air out as slowly as you can with the same count.

So if I blow up to 40, I then need to slowly blow out to 40.

And that was what I used for hypnobirthing.

And it immediately relaxes me so fast that I still use it even though obviously I'm done having babies.

Something so interesting is most people think that when we breathe in, it's what relaxes us.

But you're so right.

It's that breathing out and that counting out that really gets you into that full relaxation.

And it just is so immediate for me.

I love it so much.

Lori, thank you so much for joining us today.

You shared so much valuable information that can really help our community find more work-life balance.

So fun.

Thank you for having me.

As a reminder, you can find Lori's podcast, The Secrets of a Supermom Show, information about her summit and her Secrets of a Supermom book on her website, secretsofasupermom.com.

And she has so generously shared with us a 100% off coupon for her Master the Time Toolkit, where she shares with you those secret planning tools she mentioned in this episode to start managing your time like a pro.

I'm going to link that in the show notes for you, and her coupon is already embedded when you click on the link.

It's a $47 value, so you're definitely going to want to take advantage of it now.

I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did.

If you're not already, make sure to subscribe to the Food Explorers Podcast, where we talk all about how to help children with sensory needs and SPD become happy and confident eaters.