31st March 2011

If you only have one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home and then go out in the street and start grinning "Good Morning" at total strangers. ~ Maya Angelou

Last day of March which means it’s April Fools Day tomorrow, don’t get caught out! I’ve had the laziest eating week ever, I haven’t cooked one thing from scratch and I’ve lived on sandwiches or toasties and now I’m bored. This morning on my way to work I’m stopping at the shop to get some fruit, I need to eat something healthy before I turn into a loaf! Ooo not a nice thought, but a very apt one, when I think of loaf I think of a big lazy soft thing ;-) and that’s what I’ll turn into if I keep having chicken, ham and/or cheese toasties every day. They may be quick and easy but that really is where the appeal ends after the first couple of day’s.

My problem is or more my dilemma is I have so many things I need to and want to do, so I have to find a balance and make sure I do the eating/cooking thing correctly first and schedule the other stuff in, my time management needs improving, I’m going to do a meal planner this weekend and make sure I stick to it, I’d have the food delivered but as I said yesterday I actually enjoy shopping.

Are you so busy you can’t or don’t want to use the bit of time you have to shop and cook? If so then you need to decide how best you can deal with that, especially if weight loss is important to you!

The one thing it’s always worth making time for is your meeting, give yourself that time each week so that you can spend it with others who are like-minded and whom you can get more motivation from.

Did you know there’s actually something called Hurried Woman Syndrome (HWS) (sorry chaps!) it was recognised as a new epidemic among British women in 2005 and guess what the symptoms are – overweight, tired, and have a low sex drive!

So if that’s you, go back to basics, stop trying to be the perfect wife, mother and/or employee, and slow down and smell the roses, set priorities and realise you have limits.

Before you roar, “I haven’t got time to smell the sodding roses”, or anything else, put it into perspective, you’re not the only one who is in a hurry. It’s crazy, our mobile phones ensure that we are immediately contactable all the time, instant email is another thing that demands an instant response, you have what they call is “pseudo ADD” if you are one of those people who compulsively check your phones and emails every 30 seconds and so are unable to focus on whatever you’re are supposed to be doing. (I’ve just realised that’s me, I rarely turn off, hence the need for red wine to turn me off!!!!)

So could you read your email just twice each day. Could you turn your phone off occasionally to give yourself a break, I turn mine off at 9pm, but by then I’m almost asleep, I might turn it off at 8.30pm from now on so I have half hours peace before bed.

Would you like to recapture some of your time? If yes start to think about how you can do that. What one thing could you change? I’m going to turn my phone off at 8.30 each night and actually listen to what my mom has to say to me from that time till I go to bed.

What you gonna do?

Have a tremendous Thursday, and as the roses aren’t out yet, why not admire the blossom on the trees today xx