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For State Rep. Doug Overbey, R-Maryville, the day starts with some time to benefit both body and soul.

"My day starts with a devotional time each morning -- Bible reading and prayer -- and then 30 minutes on the treadmill," he said.

Overbey recently spoke to The Daily Times about his schedule on a typical day.

"Usually, for breakfast, I come up to the cafeteria at the legislative plaza to get an egg sandwich or a sausage biscuit, bring it up to my office, get on the Internet and look at the local newspapers to see what has gone on in Blount County. I'm reviewing the day's news while I'm breakfasting.

"(On this particular day, I attended) a 7 a.m. breakfast meeting, which was hosted by Career and Technical Education Teachers and Leaders. We had two constituents at that breakfast, Alisa Teffeteller from Blount County Schools and Carlene Brooker from city of Alcoa. The purpose of those sorts of breakfasts are for folks to let us know about bills they may be interested in, positively or negatively, and to keep an eye out for them."

8:30 a.m.

"I then had a meeting with a representative of the Tennessee Medical Association, talking about pending legislation including medical malpractice reform, which is an area I've been involved with for four or five years."

9 a.m.

"Meeting with a representative of the Tennessee Healthcare Association, because I chair the House Healthcare Facility Subcommittee; often representatives from health care-related fields will want to talk about bills that are in the subcommittee."

9:30 a.m.

"I had a meeting with several representatives of the Board of Probation and Parole, who wanted to talk about a bill that I'm cosponsoring with state Sen. Jamie Woodson, R-Knoxville, and state Sen. Tim Burchett, R-Knoxville, House Bill 2585, that requires sex offenders to provide Internet account information, such as e-mail addresses, user names and aliases to the sex offender registry and requires probation and parole to notify the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation of any changes."

10 a.m.

"I had a meeting with the president and CEO of the University of Tennessee Medical Center, who wanted to review and discuss the impact of TennCare on UT Medical Center and talk about the economic impact of the UT Medical Center involving our region and the trauma center because it's been an interest of mine to provide funding to trauma centers."

10:30 a.m.

"It was time for the meeting of the full Health and Human Resources Committee.

"Right now there are not a lot of bills going through the system, so we heard reports from the commissioner of the Department of Health, Susan Cooper, on her department's efforts to promote a healthier Tennessee. ... She talked a lot about the problems of diabetes and obesity and some changes and additions to the Department of Health Web site to promote healthier lifestyles in our school children and adults."

11:30 a.m.

"There was a luncheon hosted by the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and there were constituents there -- Joe Dawson, Bryan Daniels, Joe Tipton -- and this was to hear concerns from the business community about issues pending before the legislature."

1 p.m.

"I had a meeting with Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and the Department of Revenue Commissioner Reagan Sarr to talk about a bill I'm sponsoring involving Tennessee's inheritance tax laws. That is House Bill 2479. The purpose of that bill is to try to bring Tennessee's inheritance tax laws in line with federal tax laws so there's not a 'gotcha.' Many times people plan their estates with federal law in mind and Tennessee's law will sometimes require a tax being paid there the federal law does not. This goes a way towards matching those up."

1:30 p.m.

"I was presenting two bills I'm sponsoring in the Public Transportation Subcommittee. One bill hearkens back to a bill I had last year, the Jeff Roth Memorial Bicycling Protection Act. This bill would authorize the issuance of a 'share the road' specialty license plate. That had favorable consideration from the committee. There was a bill suggest by folks ... a bill that I'm sponsoring with Sen. Woodson, a specialty license plate to raise pubic awareness about autism.

"That took up to the budget hearing in the Finance, Ways and Means Committee. That lasted until 3 p.m. From 3 to 4 p.m., I was in the legislative office responding to constituents' e-mails and correspondence and phone calls. At 4 p.m., I was in the house speaker's conference room for a meeting on the budget subcommittee, which we do on Tuesday afternoon to preview bills for next day's budget subcommittee. We hear from state attorneys and fiscal review to review the impact of the bill so we're all familiar with the bills the next day.

"After that, I was back in the office, dealing with correspondence and e-mails and returning phone calls prior to attending a reception hosted by the Tennessee Bankers Association. That took us up to a dinner with the Blount County Chamber of Commerce. That was a pretty typical day of interspersing meetings with constituents and meetings with representatives along with committee meetings trying to keep up with the flow of e-mails and correspondence."

The end of the day is usually spent at a reception or dinner with constituents or fellow lawmakers.

"I am an avid reader," Overbey said. "Ever since I was a child, the way I unwind at the end of the day is to read a book. I just started Thomas Freedman's book, 'The Earth is Flat.' I may be the last person reading that book, but I've just started."

First elected to the House of Representatives in 2000, Overbey is a member of the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee, Health and Human Resources Committee, the Select Committee on Ethics and the Joint Select Committee on Children and Youth. He is chairman of the House Health Care Facilities Subcommittee and a member of the Budget Subcommittee.