Before we dive in, I want to open with a disclaimer.

If you are currently doing zero of these habits, but your kids are loved, clothed, and fed, you are doing a great job. If you are doing all of these habits, you are also doing a great job.

These are habits that, when done consistently week after week, allow me to not feel anxious, feel like a present mom, feel productive, feel healthy, feel at peace, sleep better at night, avoid having a million tabs open in my brain, and avoid a spiraling crash out.

This does not mean I do every single one of these habits every single week. It just means that after 15 years in the real world and about 4.5 years into motherhood, these are the foundational blocks I always come back to when I feel myself spiraling.

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WEEKLY HABITS

1. Set a Grocery Budget

Having a grocery budget is one of the simplest things you can do to relieve financial anxiety. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I used to do grocery hauls where I challenged myself to spend only $600 total each month for our family of four. That included many toiletries and diapers at the time. When I stopped posting about it publicly, I got less meticulous about it. I’m still landing somewhere between $600 and $750 per month, but public accountability shockingly helps me. I’m preaching to myself on this one because I want to get back to hitting that budget precisely like I did for so long. Having a budget not only relieves anxiety, it also makes you feel so satisfied and accomplished when you set a goal and stick to it.

2. Do a Fridge and Pantry Scan

Before you ever make a grocery list, scan what you actually have. You might be surprised how much you can stretch for one more week. I’m constantly asking myself “Can we make it ONE more week without that?” This single question can save you a ton of money every week.

3. Grocery Shop on the Same Day Every Week

This one habit alone makes it easier to stick to a budget and creates a reliable rhythm for your week.

4. Plan Your Dinners

You do not have to plan breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single week if that feels overwhelming. I personally do not do that. But I do want to encourage you to at least plan your dinners, especially if you work outside the home and especially if your kids play sports.

We start with dinner because it is usually the most stressful meal. It is the one where we are most likely to give up and order takeout at the slightest inconvenience.

This does not mean a hot, homecooked meal served seven nights a week. It means two to three high-protein dinners planned in advance. Then you utilize leftovers, freezer options, or minimal-cook items for the rest.

When I sit down on Saturday or Sunday and open my planner, I can see what the upcoming week actually looks like. There might be a night where Erik is at a school event and it is just me and the boys. Rafe might have a 6pm t-ball practice that calls for something simpler. Erik and I might have a date night. Knowing what is ahead allows me to know which nights make sense to cook a real meal and which nights call for a freezer dinner or leftovers.

Also, planning to have leftovers is still planning. Unless you have been meal planning for years, planning more than two to three meals will leave you feeling overwhelmed. I keep freezer staples like nuggets and frozen turkey burgers on hand, plus deli meat for sandwiches, and no-prep vegetables like frozen broccoli and canned green beans that can be microwaved in five minutes. We are not reinventing the wheel. Spend no more than 10 minutes planning this out. Action alleviates anxiety, so do not overthink it. Stick to things you are already confident making and that your family loves.

5. Do Minimal Meal Prep

If you work outside the home, the easiest things to prep are breakfast and lunch. When I worked in an office, this meant prepping food and putting it into containers for each day. If I was commuting with two kids right now, this habit would feel even more non-negotiable.

If you work from home, even just having some bulk protein, veggies, and a starchy carb prepped makes assembling meals throughout the week so much faster. My current hyperfixation meal is baked spaghetti squash as the base with seasoned ground beef, broccoli, and marinara. I bake the squash and cook the beef in advance, store them in bulk containers, and then just weigh out portions when it is time to eat. Everyone in the family can use those same items in different ways throughout the week, which I love.

6. Do Laundry

I personally do most of my laundry on Thursdays, which works for me as someone who works from home. If you work outside the home, starting one or two loads on Friday so they are ready to fold Saturday morning can make a big difference. Whatever your laundry rhythm looks like, try layering something enjoyable on top of it. I listen to a podcast while I fold, and it adds a layer of fun to a mundane task.

7. Social Media Detox

Several years ago I started taking every Sunday off. I would delete Instagram on Saturday night and re-download it Monday morning, and it was a breath of fresh air. Now I use a Brick device that locks me out without needing to delete anything. It was a one-time $50 purchase with no membership, and its the best $50 I have ever spent. This year I added a second day, every Thursday morning through Friday morning, because my kids are both home with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I do not want to miss these years.

If you currently have zero days off social media each week, I really want to encourage you to take at least one. The anxiety that lifts when you do this is something you have to experience to believe.

8. Go to Church

I know this is technically a hot mom habits episode, but hear me out. Going to church with my family every week checks every single box on that list I shared at the top. It is a reset for my brain, my body, my nervous system, and for our family. It is like an anchor that keeps us from drifting.

At the end of the day, my sole purpose on this earth is to be a disciple of Jesus in everything I do, so that others see my life and it points back to Him. That is a constant recalibration for me, because even with all of these habits in place, something is going to happen in life that knocks you off your feet. But God’s grace stays the same. That is my anchor. I constantly pull myself back to God, family, and then everything else. Church is what reminds me of that every single week.

Hot moms go to church. Because when you have a relationship with God, your identity does not get wrapped up in the surface-level desires of the world. You are more confident in who you are, because what God says about you will always trump anyone else’s opinion of you. And a confident mom is a hot mom.

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DAILY HABITS

1. Bible, Reading, and Journaling

You think journaling is woo-woo until you do it. Then you experience the nervous system regulation it gives you and realize it is actually an incredible habit. It does not have to be poetic or structured. It can be a brain dump of what you have going on, things you are worried about, or hopes and dreams you have for your future. Sometimes I journal prayers. Sometimes it is just a stream of what is happening in life. Sometimes I start journaling and somehow end up writing a to-do list. I wish that was a joke.

2. Stack Water with Your Morning Coffee

I make myself finish a full glass of water before I drink my coffee because I do not enjoy making myself drink water. So my coffee becomes a little reward for drinking water first. It gets me 16 to 20 ounces into my daily goal before I have even started my day. First keystone habit of the morning, and it can cascade into so many other healthy choices.

3. Work Out in the Morning

As moms, afternoons are so much more unpredictable than mornings. This is why I believe millennial moms with young kids genuinely need a morning workout routine. If you commit to 30 days of getting up and working out for even just 25 to 30 minutes, you will not look back.

There are so many things competing for our attention in the afternoon: errands, sports, dinner, bath and bedtime routines. Something will come up. And if you skip your morning workout planning to do it later, the math does not work in your favor. A few minutes in the morning is more than zero minutes at night. Every time.

Hot moms work out. So if we want to guarantee it happens, it probably needs to happen before the rest of the day starts.

4. Pre-Log Your Meals

The longer you do this the faster it becomes, especially if you are willing to repeat meals, which I highly recommend. It takes me about 30 seconds to pre-log my entire day of eating because I eat the same breakfast, lunch, and snacks on repeat until I am sick of them. Then I know exactly how many calories and how much protein I have going into dinner, so portioning things out is simple. You need to tell your macros where to go versus wondering where they went.

5. Hit Your Step Goal

Hot moms go on walks. This does not have to mean an outdoor walk every single day. It means looking for solutions instead of excuses when it comes to getting your steps in. Steps are so underrated, not just for fat loss but for maintaining body composition long-term. They are low-impact, so they are not adding stress to the body the way other forms of exercise can, and they are available to you right now, today.

6. Put Your Phone Across the Room at Night

Do not allow yourself to look at your phone inside the walls of your bedroom. As soon as you walk in, put it on the charger across the room. This one habit will probably have you in bed 30 to 60 minutes earlier than you currently are. And when your alarm goes off in the morning and your feet hit the floor, you will have to walk across the room to turn it off. Do not let going back to bed even be an option.

7. Get to Bed Early

Everything else on this list becomes easier when you are not running on empty. Protect your sleep like it’s a valuable resource you will never get back.

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These habits are about having something solid to come back to when life feels like it is getting ahead of you. Start with one and build from there. You do not have to do all of them every single week to feel the difference.