Fill Your Bucket (FYB) #1 - Food and Water

You feed and water your children, your pets, your plants (well maybe not so good a job on your plants - or perhpas I'm just projecting!), and provide gas and oil for your car, right? What about your body?

How many of you eat breakfast? Raise your hands. Let me define breakfast = a meal that occurs no later than 2 hours after you get up and consists of some protein, carbohydrates, fat, and perhaps fruit, not a bunch of sugar. A doughnut at 10:30 doesn't seem to qualify.

You know that eating a good breakfast is important, right? We learned that in elementary school. So what keeps you from beginning your day with something that is going to feed your brain, give you energy, and make you more productive and creative? Figure that out and then fix it. You'll find that your day is a whole lot easier.

So here's how women I know have successfully incorporated breakfast

• keep easy to prepare items at the office - like: instant oatmeal (not the sugary kind), cereal, soymilk, nuts and dried fruits, lowfat yoghurt, sliced turkey, cheese slices
• make hot or cold cereal at home and put it in a tupperware and take it with you
• enlist the help of a family member who loves to make food for you

These are just a few ideas. Got a different one? Post it to the comments so we can learn from you.

Now - what about water? Don't want to keep going to the bathroom all day long? That's the complaint I hear from most women. However, actually getting up from your desk, or moving away from a task and taking a break makes you MORE efficient and effective when you return. And so does keeping your body hydrated.

If you wait to drink until you're feeling thirsty, it's way past time for water. Thirsty means you're already dehydrated. Dehydrated means you're beginning to feel tired and headachy and feeling like you need a cup of coffee - which is voila', a dehydrator.

Get a pretty cup that you want to drink out of and make it big enough so that you only have to fill it up a couple times a day. Then drink it!

Feed and water yourself properly for a week and then let me know how you feel. I betcha you feel better and can think of other ways to fill your bucket.