A Journey to Health Begins with a Long Look Back

CaptureI am having a food memory.  I am remembering every detail of what it was I ate, how it tasted and felt in my mouth and where I was when I ate it.  And the memory is almost 15 years old.  I’m not remembering  a fancy French dish served on a romantic holiday or the first plate of spaghetti I shared with a date.  I am remembering a cool, crisp Gala apple eaten after my first grueling hike through the Cascade mountains in Washington State.  This particular apple memory stays with me because it was one of the few times in my life that I was aware of eating food as fuel.  I could feel it immediately restoring me and I remember being fully satisfied after it was finished.  I was more than 30 years old!

I have always had a complicated relationship with food.  In my family it was used as a reward for accomplishments and a comfort to difficult times.  Mealtimes in our family were stressful and food was quickly consumed so I could be excused from the table.  After my parents’ divorce, my mother often included me in late night ‘un-birthday parties’ that involved fancy cakes that only the two of us consumed.  I loved the closeness and secrecy of those moments, even while sensing something was not quite right.

It is no mystery to me why I have such trouble losing weight and keeping it off. Like most women ‘of a certain age’ my metabolism is now slowing and it’s even more difficult for me to shed pounds.  In my lifetime I have been a size 6 and a size 20 with stops at nearly every size along the way.  Somewhere in the middle of that range these days, I am learning to form a new relationship with my body, my size and what kind of fuel I take in.

In order for any change to be successful, we need to take stock of what our current behaviors mean to us, in my case, why is this excess weight I want to lose there in the first place.  This is the paradoxical theory of change that is a key piece of gestalt therapy.   Previous diet attempts that have included restriction of calories and extreme exercises have worked for a while. In fact, three years ago I was at my lowest adult weight ever but now am back to where I was when I started that journey.  I had done the work identifying my motivation to lose and made changes to my exercise and fitness routine but I had neglected to pay attention to how it was I had gained the weight in the first place.

A new course at TeacherCoach.com looks at the psychology of weight loss and breaks the process into three phases: Awareness, Detoxification, and Implementation.  I am learning more about the quality of the food I eat and the support I will need on this journey and I am being gentle with myself as I come to understand that food has meant love, protection, safety and joy over my lifetime.  Accepting this, rather than feeling guilty about it, is helping me find new ways to meet these needs while taking better care of the body I live in.

 

You can check out this course yourself and many others on health and wellness at http://teachercoach.psychpro.com/catalog.php

 

Why Is It So Hard to Lose Weight When You’re a Teacher?

scaleAh, January! 

The time of renewed gym memberships and firm promises to eat better, exercise more and lose weight.  These are tough changes for any of us, but teachers are faced with unique challenges that can make these goals even more challenging.

Focus on Others: The very nature of a teacher’s job is to put the needs of students first.  If you are also a parent, spouse or partner, it may be even harder to put your own health on the front burner and those intentions to care for yourself get postponed.

It’s Not That Bad: Teachers, like many other Americans, may not realize the health risks of eating poorly or being overweight, and may underestimate the benefits of a plant-based diet.

Brains not Body: Face it, teachers are excellent and creative thinkers but with such a focus on teaching and learning, it can be difficult to prioritize caring for the body as well.

No Time: A teacher’s day begins early and often goes non-stop well into the night.  That leaves little time for thoughtful eating and it isn’t always easy to bring or prepare healthy food.

No Energy: On that same note, there isn’t much time left over for exercising or rejuvenating, which leads to low energy, which can encourage teachers to consume sugar and caffeine and thus continues a cycle of energy spikes and fatigue.

Swallowing More than Food: The demands of high-stakes testing, ever decreasing budgets and the growing needs of children and families can lead to a great deal of stress, frustration and anger, feelings that are not always wise to express.  Some teachers resort to emotional eating to swallow or avoid these feelings.

So What to Do?

Take advantage of the New Year to set goals for small, but sustainable changes in diet and fitness.  There is strength in numbers, start a fitness challenge with your co-workers.  Designate a bulletin board where staff can share recipes and fitness tips.  Consider monthly potluck lunches of all those healthy recipes you’ve been pinning to your Pinterest board to try ‘someday’.  Pedometers are affordable and fun ways to challenge each other to increase movement, and wouldn’t you like to know how many steps you actually take in a day as you move around your room and back and forth to meetings?  Add a fruit bowl to the faculty lounge and encourage co-workers to leave fruits, nuts and seeds to share instead of bagels and doughnuts.  Research indicates that dramatic changes in diet and habits do not last more than three or four weeks but small changes to your daily routine and having a friend or group to keep you focused can lead to a new lifestyle of health.