Setting a Schedule

One of my personal goals of this year is to create a set schedule for my life. This includes, among other things, eating and physical activity. 

I’ve always lived a life where schedules differ day by day. The bulk of my professional experience has been in restaurant or retail settings, where it’s rare to work the same hours week to week. I take classes online, so my academic schedule is something of my own making. In the world of theatre, my schedule changed every three months. Weekday rehearsals became weekend performances. Add to the mix my natural night owl tendencies and the fact that in all honesty, I don’t crave routine. I’m a fast worker who excels under pressure. I’ve never needed to follow a schedule.

Except, of course, when it comes to my health. I wake up and forget to eat until I’m starving, so I eat too much, then forget to eat, and then it’s too late for dinner, but again, I’m starving, so I scarf down enough to make myself sick and it’s too dark to go for a walk, and didn’t I mean to take up jogging this week? 

Like I said, I need to set a schedule for my food intake and physical activity.

I’ve managed this in the past. I’ve set eating plans for myself and followed them brilliantly. But these plans were always attached to unrealistic expectations, with habits that I knew I’d never keep. Now I need a schedule that makes sense. Something that works well for me and fits with my ever changing lifestyle. 

I was sick yesterday, holed away in bed with a migraine. Needless to say, I did not follow a schedule. Finding food that I could stomach was challenging enough (wheat toast with honey). And physical activity? I could barely walk in a straight line. 

For someone like me who is still developing a schedule, a day like yesterday throws everything out of whack. And while my schedule is still a work in progress, and today was hardly by the books, I’m pleased to announce that the migraine left a little after noon and I managed a lovely three mile walk.

I may not have a schedule yet, but at least a day in bed hasn’t thrown all of my progress out the window. 

How do you adjust to a sick day? How do return to routine after a day that is anything but?

-Mahalo