Organize for Success

Are you a career woman as well as someone who is trying to lose weight - or maintain the weight you're now at?

Well, one thing that will help you is to get your life organized... this will help you not only in your career, but also in your weight maintenance goals.

A lot of people overeat because they are stressed out, and they are stressed out not so much because their jobs are stressful, but because the miasma surrounding their jobs stresses them out.

If "Weight loss books" lead the self-help book sales, "How to get organized" books are probably a close second.

A great percentage of people waste a vast amount of time in their lives - time that they will never, ever give back. Isaac Asimov refers to it as the unforgiving minutes.... well, he was quoting Rudyward Kipling... but Asimov was the epitome of the enjoy-a-holic, he never stopped working, but his writing was his work, and he loved to write, so he never considered it work.

But if you're in an office from 9-5 and hate your job, that could be paying havoc with your weight program - especially if you're not as organized as you might be.

Do you rush from home because you haven't had time to cook or make yourself a good breakfast, and thus grab a donut as soon as you get to work? Do you have soooo much work to do that you don't go to lunch, but rather grab a donut out of the break room to see you through until the evening?

And once evening comes, do you ease your stress by eating and eating and eating?

For some people, the stress is intrinsic in the job, for other folks, they cause the stress themselves because they are unorganized. Getting to work late, having to spend minutes and minutes every day looking for papers they've lost, having to recreate documents for the third time... it just goes on and on.

Get organized, and a lot of that stress goes away, and with that comes the benefit of not desiring to gulp comfort food all day long.

This could extend to your children, too, if you have any. Who rules the roost, you or your kids? If you let your kids sleep in until the last minute, or play video games while he or she should be getting ready for school, so that you're always leaving home ten minutes late to drop him off at school before you go on to work... you've got to fix that situation!

That's just one example (and one I take from my sister, who does all things at the orders of her son, not the other way around. As does her husband. The kid's nice enough now, at age 13, if spoiled, but I dread to think what he's going to turn out to be like once he hits 16....especially since the words "thank you" have never been part of his vocabulary.)

Well, that's a rant for another time and another blog.

Anyway...there's a corollary...a conjunction, between people who are disorganized and people who are overweight. It all comes down to time management. Those who manage time well usually (not always, but usually) also manage their weight well - at least, once they make the decision to do so!

Organizing also helps in other ways. If you set certain times for certain events, you will simply get more done, and when you look back on your life when you're in your 70s, you will have a lot of achievements to remember with pride, instead of looking back and sighing about "what might have been" if only you'd been more organized - and spent more time on yourself and less time on others.

You should always make time for yourself. Make time to exercise at a time that's right for you - when you feel most energetic, and if family and friends try to sabotage it, convert them to help you instead of hinder you.

If you want to spend an hour reading before you go to bed, instead of sitting on a couch watching your son play video games - because he wants you to be there watching him - go read your book! And tell him to read a book, too!

People who are unorganized often have other things in common with those folks who find it difficult to control their weight - they try to get organized and fail! That's because, like the weight issues, organization requires that you change your life habits and practices - and though it is possible to succeed in doing this, it wont' happen overnight. Like changing your eating habits, it must be done gradually.

But it can be done...and believe me you will be a lot happier, in the future if not now! - if you do it!