Hello everyone and welcome. I’m Laura Greco, your host is SuperPower Mommas and I am so excited to cover the topic that we have for today, which is Fit and Fabulous and Yes, Still a Mom. Isn’t that great? When we think about being fit and fabulous, it seems like such a wonderful place to be and yet often that kind of feeling is just not what we experience as moms, especially new moms. So are you that mom who is doing it all, you’re raising children, caring for all the needs of the household? Are you that mom that’s also carpooling and taking children to all kinds of activities? Or maybe you’re working from home or working outside the home. Whatever it is you’re doing, are you also that mom that when asked, “How are you?”, you’d say, “Fine,” when really and secretly inside you’re feeling overwhelmed and exhausted and just wondering when you are going to feel like you’re happy in your life in a way that is more consistent?
Maybe you’re showing up as a parent who’s feeling frustrated and exhausted and snapping at your children or doing the things that you would normally not be doing had you felt restful. Well that is why I’m so excited to have Dr. Orlena Kerek. She’s a doctor, she’s a pediatric doctor, who turned to be a health coach. She teaches busy moms like you to lead a healthy lifestyle so that they can feel fit and fabulous. And I’d like to add on her website, she says this, she says, “I live to share my message with your listeners. I love to share this.” She says, “I teach busy moms to prioritize their own self-care and to lead a healthy life so that they can be fit and fabulous.” And I’ll just add and show up for their children in a way that you really want to. So welcome with us Orlena.
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me here.
I’m so excited you’re here.
Me too, from Spain.
I know. That’s what I was about to say. I read your bio, you’re all the way from, or on your website, you’re in Spain now, but you’ve had more than that for a journey. And you also are a mom of four children.
Yes. Lovely, boisterous, very energetic children.
There you go. And I’m also a mom of four myself, so I can totally picture what that feels like. And yet whether you have one or four or five or six, right, there’s a commonality for all of us. As moms, we really want to show up for our children in a way that’s powerful and supportive. Right? So tell me, what super power do you carry in your existence as a mom and as a human being yourself?
Well Laura, I have to say, I have been thinking about this for a couple of days because I knew you were going to ask me. And it’s a really tricky question and I think partly because none of us like to say, “Hey, this is my superpower.” So my super power is being fit and fabulous. And I say that for two reasons. Partly because I have really worked out how to look after myself and that gives me the energy to show up like we’re talking about. I used to be that mother who snapped, and I’ll tell you more about that later on, but it gives me the energy to show up to my kids and be that parent that I want to be. Now I’m not a perfect parent. Of course, I’m not, but I have the energy to give them. And then the second thread of that is that it also helps me to teach my kids about healthy living. So I think fit and fabulous is my superpower.
I love it. I love it. It sounds so happy and energetic and sometimes we can get so bogged down that hearing that often, even making that a mantra almost would be a fabulous way to live or start a day.
Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s about being selfish in a not selfish way, if that makes sense. It’s about putting myself first so that I can be the most helpful to other people.
Exactly. So when we think of this fit and fabulous, you sort of touched on this and gave reasons in two ways, but I would love for you to expand a little bit about how these superpowers have assisted you with your children.
Yeah, totally. So I’ll touch a little bit on my story if I may.
Sure.
I have four children and my number three turned out to be twins, so number three was really three and four. So my oldest was only four and a half when my twins were born. So I had four children under five and they are four… Well you know what kids are like. I think it’s tough parenting. I was used to walking into a busy A&E department and everyone would do what I said. Then I had kids and they love this word, no. Yeah, life was difficult and stressful and there was a period of time when we were sort of basically surviving rather than thriving.
And my husband also got unwell with a stress-related illness. I could see myself just not being that mother I wanted to be. I wanted to be that fun, amazing mother who knew how to sort of bring my kids up in a well-mannered way, but in such a way that… A bit like Mary Poppins. I’m sure you’ve seen Mary Poppins. That’s who I essentially aspired to be in my dreams. But it all came naturally. But the reality wasn’t like that. The reality was more me getting frustrated. It was a battle to get my kids into the bath and then it was a battle to get them out of the bath. Then came this point when I just realized that I wasn’t showing up how I wanted to show up and my husband was unwell and that was really the turning point.
Actually I did do an online course, which was a parenting course, but it was really about focusing on me and taking care of me. It was really about the emotions that children have, but really about balancing my own emotions. And I think that really just led on this journey of discovery and amazement and it really boils down to self-care and it really means that I have the energy to turn up. Now as a doctor, I also see all the health benefits of all of these things and that’s the work I do now with other people.
Right. Listeners, you just heard an introduction basically to what we’re going to talk about when we get back from a break. And so I’m going to take us there first, but I have to say you have an accent that goes right along with the Mary Poppins.
Yes, I am from the UK. You can tell with my accent, I’ve got a British accent.
Yeah, it’s living in Spain. That’s an interesting story, I’m sure too. So before we leave for the break though, would you please share your website or how you would like people to find you?
Yes. I have a podcast myself, which is called Fit and Fabulous and it’s about health and living healthfully and having lots of energy. And my website is drorlena.com and I have to spell things out because my parents gave me this beautiful, very strange name that nobody has ever heard of before.
It’s pretty though. It’s very pretty. Okay. So thank you everyone. Please hold on. We will be right back from our break. We are speaking with Dr. Orlena Kerek and we are talking about Fit and Fabulous and Yes, Still a Mom. Hold on.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
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