Making Time

I was on the phone yesterday with Children's Hospital trying to schedule an EEG for my son, Charlie.  The hospital never asks "When are you available?"  They always say, "Our next available appointment is yada yada yada."  Usually I take the appointment and cancel all my other engagements.  Why?  Because its my baby boy and he needs medical care and mommy guilt and he's the priority and on and on.  But yesterday, when the scheduling department said, "Our next available appointment is Wednesday morning at 9am" I winced.  I thought, no... no... no... that is right in the middle of boot camp!  I took a breath and asked, "Do you have another time available?"  She sighed and said, "We're pretty booked...  but we could do it at 2:30pm on the same day."  YES!

When I started boot camp in early November, I wasn't sure if it would work into my busy schedule.  I could only manage two of the three days a week and felt like it was an extra burden of time and money that I didn't have to spare.  But that's a pretty normal reaction to something new.  Most of us think that of all the things we lack, time and money are at the top of the list.

But I don't feel this way anymore.  Now instead of wondering how healthy eating and working out will fit into my schedule, I plan my daily life around eating well and working out.  My children still get to appointments and preschool on time.  My family still gets three healthy, timely meals.  My blog posts still get written.  My mom still gets phone calls from me.  My bills still get paid on time.  My husband and I still sit down to watch Mad Men at night and chat over a glass of wine after dinner.  But when I sit down with my calendar and plan the month ahead, I pencil in boot camp classes and time for running first.  I also spend some time planning meals and snacks so that I don't have to improvise food.  (Improvising food is how I gained so much weight in the first place.)

We never think we have enough time.   Never.  But if we make our health a daily priority, as we do our families and our jobs, then we can change our lives.  We can transform our chaotic habits into healthy ones.  We can transform our out-of-control inner life into one of peace and joy.