"I don't have enough time."

I hate that phrase. I hate it, but I catch myself using it all the time. Every person on this planet has the same amount of time...24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year. Yet some seem to accomplish more with their time than others. Why is that? Because they don't "have" the time, they "make" the time. They make the time for a healthy lifestyle...time for exercise, time for healthy eating (grocery shopping, prep, cooking), time for Spark (blogs, message boards, tracking).

Time management. A skill that, sadly, I have not harvested. I started thinking about what my top "time hogs" are and how to defeat them.

IRREGULAR SLEEPING HABITS
I stay up too late. I sleep in too late. I'm tired all the time. This is why one of my goals is to stop hitting the snooze button. I'm also trying to readjust my sleep schedule by going to bed at a decent hour every night and setting my alarm clock five minutes earlier every morning.

TELEVISION
I watch way too much T.V. Which is ridiculous...especially since I have a DVR and can watch my favorite shows around MY schedule. So, I am going to limit my T.V. time to 1-2 hours a day and ONLY AFTER everything else is accomplished.

WORK
Well, working TOO MUCH. My department has been incredibly busy lately (a major transition period while only 40% staffed will do that) so I have been working a lot of extra hours. Hopefully things will slow down in a month or two, but in the meantime I think it would do me some good to slow down and accept that it is okay to leave some things on my to-do list until a later time. I need to take care of myself first.

Living a healthy lifestyle isn't about having time, it's about making time. It takes commitment, planning, and discipline. I know I won't be perfect at this in the beginning but, as they say, practice makes perfect. And I'm committing right now to make the time it takes to be a healthier me tomorrow.