Take Time to Refuel

Most of us treat our cars better than our bodies.

I don't let my car run on empty, why do I let my body? 

Another day without breakfast. This is after I promised myself I wouldn't skip the most important meal of the day. 

Even when I do eat breakfast, it's not quite what I'd call a meal. It's a banana with peanut butter. It's a bowl of raspberries and almonds. It's a granola bar. (At least it isn't a donut with icing and sprinkles.) 

Most days I don't even eat a thing until lunch.

My new plan was to eat breakfast by 8:30. As part of my Mother Me challenge, I had made a pot of oatmeal, the Irish steel cut version that sticks to your ribs all morning. I put dollops of cooked oatmeal in a greased cupcake tray, froze them, then popped them into a Ziploc bag. I microwave one each morning and toss in a handful of pecans and banana slices. 

Now all I have to do is remember to eat them. 

Yesterday, at 9 a.m. my inner alarm went off. My stomach didn't tell me, my heart did.

And I listened. I hope to keep listening to it. I think it needs help. So I'm trying a new alarm system.

It's so easy to forget to take care of me. I'm learning how to be a better mother to me by watching my daughter be a mother to her three little ones.

She's religious about nap time, bed time and meal times. She feeds them before they are too hungry. She tucks them in before they are too sleepy. 

She anticipates their needs and fills them so the need for food or rest rarely pushes them into tantrums and meltdowns. 

I used to think it was cute when my daughter was a toddler and fell asleep on the floor or on the couch or on my lap. Now I realize as a mom, it was my job to tuck her into bed before she got that sleepy. 

Raising three children under 5 can be overwhelming, so my daughter sets the alarm on her cell phone to remind her when it's time to get the two youngest from day care so she has time to prepare a little snack for the ride home. 

So I'm taking a cue from her: I just set the alarm on my cell phone to ring gentle chimes when it's time for me to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.  

My car has a gauge to tell me when to fill the gas tank. I rarely let the fuel get so low the little light goes on and I hear that scary "ping" that tells me I'm on empty. 

I am going to have this body for the rest of my life. It's time I treated it better than my car.