09/09/2026
“Have you got a quick five minutes?”
There goes lunch. I know this one very well.
When I travelled a lot for work, eating could easily become something I fitted in whenever there happened to be time and as a busy manager, even when I did put time between meetings, somebody would inevitably need me.
If a member of your team needs to talk, five minutes isn’t always five minutes because you want to listen properly.
So lunch gets pushed back, then another meeting starts and more emails arrive.
Suddenly, you realise you’re absolutely starving.
Many of us become very good at making room for everybody else’s needs while constantly moving our own.
During menopause, when our energy, mood and stress can already feel more difficult to manage, continually running ourselves to empty doesn’t help.
This is about recognising that your needs deserve a place in your day too.
A snack in your bag.
Lunch protected in your diary, as the norm and not the exception.
Something planned before you become ravenous.
It’s the small things for which looking after ourselves starts with deciding that we don’t always have to be the thing that gets moved.
How often does your lunch, or your own time, disappear because somebody else needs you, or it has been@planned into your day?💜