Teach’N'Traveller

After any day of teaching, I feel exhausted. I worked three jobs at a time throughout the five years I went to university full-time and I’ve never found myself so exhausted as the years since I’ve been teaching–and I’m getting so much more sleep now!

Add to this, the fact that everyone commutes to work in big sprawly Melbourne (even though I agree the sprawl factor makes it more interesting). Taking the tram from Richmond to the CBD (side-by-side subburbs) takes 45 minutes.

I also have someone in my life, my partner, whom I love to spend time with.

Needless to say, exercise is usually the first thing to get dropped when I get home 12 hours later. I’ve always been active through sports so I didn’t need to really think about being exercise conscious, and I ate what I wanted when I wanted how much ever I wanted.

That was all good when I was 18, but then a few years later I got child-bearing hips and let’s just say, things changed.

So I started making exercise more of a priority, and it was a pain in the butt. But I knew I had to do it, mostly because I don’t believe in dieting and I don’t believe in having to cut back your diet much at all really.

What can I say, I love food, and I love carbs and I’m not giving up French Fries.

I did notice that everytime I started exercising, my appetite increased. I thought this was fine, because, hey, I must have been doing such a good job burning off those other calories.

I was wrong. And I was burning the candle at both ends and not feeling fit. That was annoying.

The Research and My Tips to Easily Tapering Your Bod’:

1. By the time you feel thirsty, you will have lost one tenth of the water your body needs to function. To prompt your brain to respond to this thirsty situation, your body mimics hunger pain, because those stomach cramps are a lot harder to ignore than a bad case of ‘dry mouth’.  I taught myself to  concentrate on drinking more water (NOT COFFEE! You already know this is a diaretic).
2. I noticed than when I was hungry, I was devouring my food and never feeling full. If I drank a glass of water before the meal, I could eat a lot slower, and a lot less.
3. A colleague came in and told me he lost 7 kilos just by cutting back his portions.  I cut back my portions and I, too, noticed serious results.
4. I began to plan my meals a bit better so that when I exercised, I had the energy to cook and eat the proper meal slowly,  without diving into the pantry first. It meant that I could enjoy it, and take my time. I allowed myself to realise that I was full from a smaller portion.
5. When I felt hungry throughout the day, I had many smaller snacks to choose from (a bit of sweet and a bit of savoury will give your packed lunch the diversity to satisfy your fears of boredom.
6. I stopped booking students for appointments at recess, and took a break myself.  Cramming a snack in my mouth because I was in between recess, student meetings and planning the lesson I was teaching in the next 10 minutes, is not healthy and not sustainable!
7. Those little cookies and muffins your workplace provides you “as a courtesy” — are not! If you feel hungry–run and grab your more healthy snacks!