T I M E M A N A G E M E N T
But a combination of the body’s initial reaction to smoking and
a dispassionate review of the evidence on smoking and health can
tell us what’s right for us—even if we don’t always do it.
Given the difficulties in knowing what’s “right” and the inevi-
table clash between what our natural rhythms tell us and what
socially enforced patterns dictate, you still might be able to alter
your living pattern so that you’re living more in harmony with
your internal “music.” Here are a few possibilities.
1. establish a Fairly regular pattern
Many of us live by at least two different patterns, the work
week pattern and the weekend pattern. We may reward ourselves
with a late Friday and Saturday night, get up a lot later on Saturday
and Sunday, and eat more and different things at different times.
Huge swings in patterns create constant disruption and the
need for continuous readjustment. Shift workers suffer the most
from its sort of disruption. Bringing the weekend and the weekday
a little closer together may help you find and adhere to your true
rhythm.
2. eat When You’re hungry, Not When It’s time
Many of us have learned not to trust ourselves to eat naturally.
We may have so thoroughly trampled our own natural sense of
hunger and satiation, we’re not even sure when we’re truly hungry
or when we’ve eaten enough. But short of suffering from an eating
disorder, we can recapture—and trust—a more natural sense, an
internal sense, of when we want and need to eat.