When Is the Best Time to Do My Menu?

If you’re an Egoscue client or have read any of my books, you know that in a perfect world, you’d wake up, grab a glass of water, and start your menu. The sun would be shining, the birds would be chirping, and your body would be pain free and without any limitations. In other words, you’d wake up and assume the role of Superman or Wonder Woman.

But this isn’t a perfect world. You hit the snooze button. You make a cup of coffee instead of water, because…coffee. The kids are screaming (or is that only in my house with three boys?), it’s raining, and you feel like Homer Simpson instead of Superman.

We don’t always have the time to finish our menu by 7 a.m. And that’s OK. Sure, I’d love if you started your day with your menu. You’d set yourself up for the remainder of your day. You’d be building the functional foundation that is so crucial to your health and well-being.

But I don’t really care when you do your menu as long as you do it. It could be at 7 in the morning, or it could be at 9 at night. While it’s not ideal to do your menu and go to bed shortly after, it’s still beneficial to do it.

Even I don’t always do my menu first thing when I get up. Take yesterday. I worked nonstop with the exception of my lunch break and a quick trip to the gym. As I was putting my boys to bed (they do eventually quiet down), they were taking forever to brush their teeth and put their pajamas on. So I decided to take lemons and make lemonade.

I spent those 15 minutes while they dawdled going through my menu. I grabbed a pillow off my son’s bed and used that instead of an Egoscue block. I also didn’t have a strap, but I improvised and did what E-cises I could without it. At the end of those 15 minutes, my menu was finished, I felt great, and my boys were ready for bed. We read a chapter of The Mouse and the Motorcycle and turned the lights out.

My schedule wasn’t perfect yesterday, but I did my menu, and that is the key. Yes, it was at 8 p.m. rather than 8 a.m., but I did it. I introduced a positive, functional stimuli on my body, and today I’m better for it.