Fitness Fellowship 2023: Week 34 Check-in

[sylvanwitch]

Welcome back to another week of gentle accountability!

How has the past week been for you in terms of fitness (or in any other terms as well)? I hope it's been a passable one, if not great!



This week has been a wash in terms of weight gain/loss. I think I'm about where I was last week? Maybe a little higher? Leaving aside the excuse my anniversary provided for cake-eating, I haven't been sticking to my eating window, instead eating sunflower seeds late into the night while reading, which means I also have not been good about sleeping.

This behavior is familiar: It's my adult equivalent of a child's temper tantrum about having to adjust my sleep schedule in preparation for a return to teaching hours.

I have done a bit of meditative breathing, largely to control anxiety, and I have been a fiend where exercise is concerned, making sure to get at least 30-45 minutes every day, often much more than that as well.

I've also been very good about hydrating.

So, for the week ahead, I've already given the last of my sunflower seeds to the birds and squirrels, eliminating that temptation. I've also spent a good part of the early day today cooking and baking, so I have healthy meal elements and a delicious but also healthy dessert (zucchini bread, if you were wondering). I'm going to watch my calories, avoid eating outside of my eating window, continue with the exercise, breathing, and hydration, and do my best to adjust my sleep schedule for work hours. I have one more full week off before three days of faculty and freshman orientation stuff, and then I'm back to full-time teaching on 4 September. I can do this!



Here's hoping the week ahead brings you every opportunity for success!

Comments

[oschun]

The idea of going back to school is always so weird at first, I find, but then you just get caught up in the rush of it again and feel like you've never been away from it. This time of year I always think there aren't many jobs like ours where we have this extended period of time where we get to be a more real version of ourselves, and then in September we suddenly have to readjust into being A TEACHER.

I feel like I'm only just getting into having the time and headspace for other things. I joined the gym this week, have done three pilates classes, did a lot of walking, and cooked up a storm of vegan recipes. (I am the Tofu Queen.) I'd like to think I'm going to continue these things when I go back, but we'll see.

[sylvanwitch]

You've perfectly described a feeling I've never been able to put into words, re: "a more real version" of myself.

When I was younger (and a total A-type workaholic), summer break actually caused me significant anxiety. I mean, who was I if I wasn't exhausted with constant work and stress?

But in the last few years, I've found that I can actually relax and become my "real version" in the summers. This coincides with a total change in my approach to schoolwork; I no longer bring grading home, for example, unless it's absolutely unavoidable (i.e. exam essays, which have a definite deadline for completion), and I've built more work time into the curriculum, both to give the students an opportunity to get the work done at school rather than at home and also to give myself in-class grading time.

I felt guilty the first year I tried that approach, like I wasn't working hard enough, but I found that my students learned the same amount with the reduction of my workload as they had before I'd changed things up, so after that, I felt okay about it.

Now, going back to work fills me with both excitement--I'm still a person who's lived her whole life in academic years--and dread, the latter because I miss the person I am when I can cook, read, write, conform to my body's natural sleep schedule, hike and walk, and just generally relax. *sighs*

But you're absolutely right--a couple of weeks into the new year, I'll have returned to my school-centric self. ;-)

Go, you, for enjoying all the recipe-making! All hail the Tofu Queen! *grins* I wish you all the luck in maintaining these healthy habits when you go back to being A TEACHER. Please wish me the same! :-)

[oschun]

I DO wish you the same!

And I hear you on anxious summers of trying to remember that you're not just a workaholic. For me, that kind of thinking only came on later though. When I was younger I taught so earnestly and haphazardly. I felt like I had the keys to the kingdom because I'd discovered the world of literature and wanted to pass that on to my students. I thought it was that easy. Now, I obsessively plan units of work for my department (there are ten of us) that take me hours and hours of work and they're strategically matched to the assessment objectives of the exams. But exam results are bullshit. There's a whole political thing going on over here with our current exam results. Maybe you've seen it. I don't know. Maybe the only thing that matters is that we're teaching art - the beauty of language and the way that literature makes you really think.