Finding the time for Health

By Debby Padilla-Hudson

I wanted to talk a little bit about time management because I think it sometimes gets to be an issue with finding the time to live a healthy lifestyle. I find that having a structure and organization allows me to manage a lot of what I do in my life.

I also have it set up so that fitting in what I need to do just happens because it's part of my routine like brushing my teeth. Having a structure is like the most important thing I do!

See, I work full time, go to school, have a 2.5 year old son, keep my house clean, cook food from scratch every day, go to the gym 6 days a week, run a website, talk with people on the phone regularly, handle my budget, grocery shopping and more! In order to do all of this I have to give up perfectionism with anything and just do the best I can.

I also try to multi-task as much as possible.. combine the things I have to do with other things I have to do, or things I enjoy doing. For instance I put on music while I'm cleaning, and have my son help me. This way I am spending time with my son (he loves cleaning!) and we are enjoying music and getting stuff done, I'm teaching him to clean and to enjoy it and getting exercise too!

I thought I'd share my daily routine, which consists of a morning/evening checklist in case it helps anyone. If you can manage your time well, you'll have time and energy to cook those healthy meals and exercise (which is great help for detoxing from Candida). Of course your schedule would be different if you choose to make one up, but this one can give you some ideas.

Here's my schedule (divided by rooms for efficiency).

Debby's Daily Schedule

Morning Checklist

bathroom

kitchen

son's room

bathroom (again)

kitchen

other

Nightly Checklist

kitchen

son's room

bedroom

bathroom

office (a little bit of time each day keeping up)

Once I get all of these things done at night, I usually have some time to relax and read a book before bed and wind down. Each day I'd be less efficient if I didn't have this list to go by, because I'd never remember it all, and I'd run from room to room doing things out of order.

I only get so much time to dress, cook and workout in the morning, so I have to use my time wisely. I found that as my life became more and more complicated (adding hubby, son, school, exercise, etc. one at a time) planning became more and more crucial.

Mostly because I've found that accomplishing anything in my life, including but probably most notably living a healthy life style, has required me to maximize the way I use my time.

The thing with time management is that everyone has different tasks they need to do, different priorities, etc. In a nutshell what I did to set this up was I wrote down a list of things I need to or have to do.

It was written out very generally like exercise, spend time with son/hubby, help others, study for school, read books for enjoyment, work, do bills, get the house clean, etc.

Once I had the list laid out, I had to figure out how to implement that list. I found that if I didn't combine things, I had to cut things out, so as they say necessity is the mother of invention.

I looked and looked at the list and came up with ideas on how to combine many of the tasks. For instance if I read books I enjoy while exercising, I'm doings two tasks.

If my son and I clean together, I'm completing several tasks (teaching him to clean, spending quality time together, getting my cleaning done, and listening to music while we clean), etc.

While I drive to work I have a headset on my cell phone so I can make phone calls.. sometimes personal sometimes business. If I'm at work and working on something that is more mindless, I might have my headphones on and be listening to a lecture on health or something. This way I'm working while learning something else.

Finally, once I had an idea of how to combine everything as best I could, I took the combos and the items that I couldn't double up on, and found slots for them to be on my list. Then I looked at what I would do each day (such as exercise) and broke that task down further into a list such as:

As I got my to do list down, I further refined it so that things were organized by room, so I didn't waste time running back and forth. Sometimes when I reevaluate my list, I see new ways to combine things or organize things.

The things I listed might not work for you.. so what you do is you write down a list of all the things you want to do and/or need to do, then find a way to combine them with other things you have on your list.

It's very hard to find time to cook healthy or relax if you waste a lot of time or use your time ineffectively. I also had to cut back on some things that weren't high on my priority list. Although I didn't formally prioritize them with numbers or anything, but I knew in my head where they rated.

So I scaled back my newsgroups and keep the number I am involved in down, only watch 3 hours of TV or less a week, etc. I have quotas for everything, from food, to money, to time, because I'm the type of person who will eat as much as I can, spend as much as I can and not get things done, so I have to make rules for myself and structure.

I don't grocery shop more than once a week. I have a Master List of things I buy on a regular basis including pretty much everything I have ever bought.Having a master list I find really helps me stay focused.