Whole Mom New Beginnings Workshop

I had a great opportunity to attend the New Beginnings workshop, held last January 23rd at The Parenting Emporium, Quezon City. I learned a lot of preggy tips and tricks from the celebrity moms behind Whole Mom: Rica Peralejo, Chesca Kramer and Marilen Montenegro.

Indeed, it's a pleasure to meet an impressive team of beautiful and inspiring moms who encourage other women to make happy homes, embrace their beauty, and nurture the heart. Leading by example and hailing from various backgrounds, they listen, challenge and inspire women with thoughtful discussion and share their suggestions and perspectives.

In this workshop, I've learned how to stay belly beautiful while expecting my bundle of joy.  They have crafted a day of fun and enlightening workshop during what may be a stressful time for moms-to-be, new mothers and trying to conceive.  I also learned that being a 100% whole mom does not stand for perfection.  It's all about three things; Home. Beauty. Heart.

 Below, some of the most helpful, interesting and thought-provoking things I've learned from the workshop;

Marilen shared the importance of a clean and organized home. It is important because it creates a better work flow at home. Also, your husband will appreciate coming home to a neat and tidy house. Plus, your children will learn orderliness at an early age.

Here are 3 steps to an organized home:

• Purge and Spring Clean - Dispose of anything you have not used in the past year and discover a lot of things you don't need and find new space for storage. If it's broken and beyond repair, discard!
• Organize and simplify - Organizing makes an effective system. Group similar things together. Use storage boxes, bins and drawers.
• Maintain and impart - Teach family members and household help to be clean and be organized. keeping things clean is a habit. Create a weekly or monthly cleaning schedule for your house.

You can also download a free PDF version of her Monthly Cleaning Schedule that guides us Moms to clean our entire house thoroughly for just a month! Head over to www.marilen.ph!

How do you stay beautiful while expecting your bundle of joy? The beautiful mom of three, Chesca Kramer, covered the beauty basics. My fingers were crossed that she'd reveal the secret behind her amazing no-make-up-look-make-up and beauty secrets. I'm glad she did and she also gave a quick tutorial on  how to achieve the no-makeup look and date night look.

Here's the secret formula:

Time Management + Simplified Beauty Kit = A Beautiful You! So I made a beauty promise; Love yourself. Make time for yourself.  Because, every woman has the right to look and feel good. Let me borrow a line from Chesca;

"Motherhood has never ended anything for me, it started everything for me." 

Mederma expert, Dra. Clarissa Cellona, also gave a talk about caring for our skin and bodies, followed by Chef Michelle Adrillana who shared some scrumptious recipes. We enjoyed the healthy and nutritious snacks and I'm looking forward to try them at home soon.

The last part of the workshop was a heart-to-heart talk from Rica Peralejo. Her one piece of life advice to an expectant (or really any mom) is this: Marry your choice of recreation with a day out with your husband, sisters or girlfriends!

To be honest, I can't remember when was the last time I went out on a date with my hubby or with a group without our daughter. So from now on, I'll try to have regular "date nights" with hubby or a "girl's day out" with my girlfriends. What I learned: Whenever you feel overwhelmed with all the changes happening to you or around you, look for some "ME" time in the midst of all the mommy and baby talk.

"A whole mom is celebrated, served and loved." I like that (as a takeaway), or go with the line that says, "To be a good mom, you have to be good to yourself."

It feels impossible at times but as my husband reminds me, "take what you need." With so many things going on and with a growing belly, I forget to take what I need when I need it. Finding the quality over the quantity  (even a few minutes or hours for myself) and just taking the time. It's mine, it's yours. Our time is ours. :)

I also had a great time sharing and learning from other moms, expectant or not, from different walks of life. Well, we're all different, we all have different shapes and sizes. We have all the same issues and we all go through the same thing every day. But we all are completely different.

I learned that it's easy to talk about different things in a certain way with other moms because you see certain "similarity" and all that, but the truth is, we're amazing because we're different. That's how I learn from them, and that's why I don't rely completely on Google. (Sorry, Google.) Sometimes we need to make meaningful connections and reconnect with other women who have gone through or are going through the same changes. To pursue wholeness, not perfection.

Aside from great takeaways and meeting new friends, there were giveaways from Pampers, Happy Skin, Mederma, Istorya and MoringaO2. Thank you to Rica, Chesca and Marilen for having me and sharing a day of bliss by making a keepsake that I will be able to take with me as my journey into motherhood continues.

For more info, visit the 100% Whole Mom Facebook page. Instagram: @wholemomph