Black Coffee & Calendar Magic

Whether it is hanging up in the kitchen, sitting on a desk, or flashing alerts in your iPhone, if you are like me you are a slave to your calendar or more accurately, calendars: all striving to manage work schedules, kids’ schedules, activities, etc.  So, what about your health and fitness plan...does it even appear in the mix?  Because in my case:  If it is not on my calendar, it is not in my life.  No amount of hoping, thinking, or dreaming gets it in.  At minimum, I have training appointments and classes that are entered by default; they might get edited, but they have to be carved into the week.  If I don't defend that time, trust me it gets sucked up by chores or work or traffic or errands, etc.  You know how it is you look back at the day and think...what happened, my list is so long and I am totally exhausted and  out of time.  It is almost demoralizing except that when I do take the initiative the calendar can be MAGIC.   Registering for races taught me that.  I can be working out all along, but as soon as I circle a date for an event, something clicks.  It is with me moment to moment, not in a worrisome way, just reinforcing that little adjustments in nutrition, exercise, sleep, habits, all make an impact.  There is deceit in a bad habit that tells you it won't matter.  But when I am training for something specific I am rarely taken in by it.  The next date for me is November 16th.  It's not a race actually it is something totally different; this time my brain needed a challenge and my body needed less running.  But, the date is the key to unlocking the little adjustments to get ready, like stretching on my own, taking glucosamine, and, maybe not so little--drinking black coffee.  It took me until today, day 25, not to miss it.  But, after three decades of "light and sweet" I guess 25 days is actually pretty miraculous (and so is deleting 3,750 useless calories 150 x 25 days of Coffeemate)  So, put something on your calendar, something just for you, after all shouldn't your calendar-- translation-your life- have room for you?