Excuses, excuses

I have had clients, in the past, who have come to me for guidance on diet and nutrition, and one of the main problems they have cited for their poor eating habits is time. For example:

"Oh, it's such a rush in the morning, getting the kids off to creche/school, I don't have time for breakfast."
"My job is demanding, and I don't have time for lunch."
"My lunch hour is always taken up with running errands, and I don't have time to eat."

While I agree that we may not want to run our lives according to the clock, our time is precious and needs to be allocated and monitored periodically. This takes time, too, but the last five minutes before you fall asleep, or the first five minutes before you get up, is a good time to mentally review the day ahead and give it some structure.

Do you remember when you were at school? I loved getting the new time-table at the beginning of the year, and I would spend hours making coloured charts. When I did my degree, I structured my study time - according to the subjects and level of difficulty - with a time-table.

Take a few minutes and draw up a rough time-table for your typical weekday. We all need between six and eight hours sleep a night. We, most of us, work at our jobs eight hours a day. That still leaves eight hours 'free' to do the other things we must do - and to have some 'me' time.