Fit To Teach-Rejuvenate Yourself

I love my Saturday mornings!  My husband sleeps in and so does my mother-in-law.  I enjoy my coffee and catching up on some reading on blogs from others that I follow.

Today this article caught my eye,  "The Teacher Dropout Crisis".  It breaks my heart to hear of the struggles that face each educator today.  This article spot lights an alarming rise in teachers leaving the profession.  Our children are our future.  Who is going to teach them?

There are many factors that are causing this rise.  But my purpose is not to write and discuss those factors.  My purpose today is to write about how I am surviving the toughest year of teaching in my short career in this profession.  Why I am not waving the white flag of surrender.  Why I am not part of that rising statistic.

I am simply taking care of my health and fitness.  I have rejuvenated my body and mind.  In return, I can take on the challenges that are facing me not only in my classroom this year, but in my personal life too.  (At the start of this school year, we began moving my mother-in-law who is in the beginning stage of dementia into our home.  This has been a huge challenge for us.)  I have more energy, no sick days, more restful sleep, and a better relationship with my husband (wink, wink!).

I am not doing this on my own.  I have proven, guaranteed to work fitness programs and eating plans.  I have the top personal trainers that show up in my home every time I choose to press play on my workouts.  I have incentives to achieve my new goals.  I have help and support from a Coach--a FREE coach.

There is no magic pill for achieving success in your health and fitness.  But I truly believe that the above combination does have some "magic" to it that can help anyone who is ready to commit and follow a proven plan that works.  That is why I am now a Beachbody Coach.  And this Beachbody Coach wants to "Pay it Forward" to her other colleagues who need to rejuvenate their own health and fitness so they can be a stronger, more confident teacher in today's classroom.  I understand the challenges and want to help you become stronger and healthier.

My first TEACHER only Challenge Group will be beginning on February 6th, 2015.  If you teach a child or a classroom filled with children, this group is for you.  For more information on this group, please contact me at kdgwolf14@gmail.com

 

My Typical Day of Eating

Lately, I have friends and family asking me what do I eat during the day.  So after several requests, I decided the best way to communicate this information would be a blog post!

My typical day of eating…

5:00 am  Wake up and have 1 cup of black coffee.

5:30 am  Grab a glass of water and workout.

6:15 am Make a Shakeology recipe for hubby and I for breakfast.  Recipe usually has a banana and almond milk added.  This is my healthiest meal of the day.  It is not a diet shake.  It is not a protein shake.  It is simply perfection in a shake that tastes like a cheat.

Off to work we go…

8:15  I have an apple with almond butter OR steel cut oatmeal with cinnamon, nutmeg and some raisins.

11:15  Lunch:  Salad with Homemade Dijon Dressing, veggies and hummus, chicken and broccoli.

1:00  Snack:  Might be trail mix that I made myself, an apple, or an orange…just depends on the day.  Sometimes this meal is too close to lunch for me and I will save it for after school (3:30)

6:00  Dinner:  This is where I change it up in the evenings.  We may have cod with veggies, lean cut of steaks, turkey chili, zucchini spaghetti with lean ground turkey.  Once in a while I will cook lean pork loin.  I use the crock pot for roasts too.  I try to have fish twice a week and more turkey than red meat…but we love the red meat in our house.  This can be a struggle.  

Veggies are side dishes.  We like peas, carrots, broccoli, among others.  (These are prepared plain in the microwave.  I add a tad of butter to the family portion before serving.)  My husband also likes whole grain rice.  I find rice does not like me.  Therefore, I may prepare a red skin potato, sweet potato, or just have a smaller amount of rice.

8:00  Before bed…a pink grapefruit with a tad of honey to sweeten it.

I always have a glass of water with me.  I fill it twice at work.  I probably have another 3-4 glasses when I am home too.  

I hope this helps…I am a creature of habit.  So once I find something I like to eat, I keep eating it.  

What is God’s timing?

I originally posted this to my fitness journey on Facebook.  (You can follow it here.)  I decided to add it to my blog because someone might stumble upon this story and be encouraged to keep going when things get tough.

To understand what God’s timing means to me, I need to tell you a story. A personal story…

My husband and I were enjoying our new stage in life—Empty Nest. Both our children are out on their own and making their way through life. Our focus was now on each other. We had a plan laid out that was working to pay off our debt. We got to have “dates” and enjoy each other.

My husband had settled into a new IT position at a local University. This job has less stress but the same pay and benefits of his previous position with the same University. He took this position to relieve the stress that was mounting in his previous department. He even offered to work for less pay because his pay was higher than others in the new department. His department head told him they were trying to evaluate salaries. His salary would actually help in this study and not to be concerned about it. Not much more thought was given to this study. He was happy to be in a solid department with solid leadership. Life was good!

Then on one Sunday this past August, it became very clear that some family members needed some extra care and attention. The kind of care and attention that would cause us to lose what had become comfortable. Empty Nest gone. Financial freedom postponed. There was no one else who could step in and help. My husband knew he had to have us step in to help. The stress that my husband had left in the previous IT job did not come close to his new stress--dealing not only with my emotions but his family’s emotions.

For me the biggest stress was found in finances.

Things got tight, really tight…really quick. Going from paying off credit cards to having to use them to help meet needs was very discouraging. Telling my grown children that there would not be a gift from mom and dad this year was very difficult. They both understood, but it hurt this momma.

Even with everything going in the opposite direction that we wanted to go, my husband and I did our best to stay focused on God and His love. We had had other rough times in our marriage. God pulled us through then and He would pull us through this. We just did not know how and when.

God’s timing…His timing of blessings started last Friday. A larger than expected insurance check heading our way from damage to our home during a hail storm. God is good.

Yesterday…Thursday, December 18th…God decided to bless us not once, not twice, but THREE times. First, an earlier than expected deposit into his mom’s account for a tax refund on a previous year of taxes. Second, a better than expected market analysis on his mother’s home that will need to be sold in the near future.

Before I tell you the third blessing from yesterday, I have a side note about the previous ones. We HAD knowledge about those items…we knew we were getting some insurance money, we knew mom had a refund coming but were told not to expect it until Mid-January, and the realtors had some positive remarks about mom’s home.

The last blessing, we had NO foreknowledge. But God did. He knew what our struggles would be on Thursday, December 18th. He knew that we would be claiming His promises in the midst of this storm. So three years ago in an IT department that my husband was NOT a part of yet, God saw a salary study was begun. About a year later, God guided my husband to apply for a job in this department. A job he would have taken with a cut in pay to just relieve stress, but was told why he would receive the same pay—a salary study.

A study that was all but forgotten about until yesterday at about 3:30 pm when my husband and his coworkers were invited to private 10 minute meetings. My husband had the first meeting. He was given a slip of paper listing his new salary based on that salary study. An increase that will help put us back on track.

This is God’s Timing…Can I get an AMEN?

My First Why & How it Changed Me

Our son is a Marine and proposed to his high school sweet heart while on his first deployment in the Spring of 2014. This was great news! However, that meant photos that will last a life time. My husband and I had let our busy lives take over our waist lines.

One Saturday morning in June 2014, my husband and I both watched the T25 infomercial. Hubby said that we could do 25 minutes and Beachbody had helped us in 2002 lose weight with the original P90. I dialed the toll free number and placed our order.  We needed to get into shape for our son's wedding.  This was our first "WHY".

Shaun T's Focus T25 arrived 2 days before our summer vacation. We received an email from our Coach, Katie Reilly. I joined her fitness page on facebook and we packed the DVDs but sadly they stayed wrapped up in the suitcase the whole time we vacationed.  ("It's the thougt that counts" saying does not work well with fitness DVDs.)

My parents were able to join us in Orlando for some fun at Disney. My dad loves taking family pics and I usually love him taking them. However, once photos were posted on facebook I was shocked at how overweight I looked in the pics!   I had on my favorite summer shirt and shorts that I thought made me look "thinner".  My hubby was the smart one in this photo--he hid behind me!

That was my "Aha" moment.  This was when my "WHY" became real in my mind.  That overweight woman who thought she looked "skinny" in her favorite summer attire was FAT.  I did not want THAT woman to show up in my son's wedding photos.  

We got home and both started T25. Three weeks into the workouts, we decided to add Shakeology into our lives.  I became a "discount" Coach because I wanted to get the best price possible on our Shakeology.  We immediately felt different.  We had more energy and felt satisfied with eating healthier meals.  Cravings for sugar and sweets started to diminish.  My need for coffee when down to one cup a day.

I completed T25 and got my FREE "Nailed It" t-shirt.  (Hubby had the need to lose some weight first with Shakeology before picking up the workouts...I will save his story for another post.  He lost weight by using Shakeology without working out.)

Then I started my next workout, PiYO with Chalene Johnson as my trainer.  Wow, did my body tone up!  By the time November 2014 rolled around, I was shopping for a size 8 dress not a size 16.  And guess what?  "That fat woman" did not show up in our son's wedding photos.

As I reflect about my first "WHY" today, I am realizing that I was working for a dress size, but I have gained so much more than that!  I have energy and the ability to keep up with teaching my Kidnergarten class.  I walk more confidently.  I have my self esteem back.  My first "WHY" changed more than a dress size.  It has changed my whole life.

Have I inspired you?  Are you ready for a change?  I would love to help you make that change.  It can truly change more than just a dress size or pants size.  Leave me a comment below or follow me on facebook, @kdgwolf on twitter or instagram.