Read to find some helpful tips to be a healthy teacher and add walking to your day. Reap the awesome benefits and walk your way to renewed teacher health.
I’ve been on a mission to improve my own personal wellbeing and I truly aspire to be a healthy teacher.
Improving my health will go a long way towards helping me pull myself out of the burnout that I’ve experienced recently.
My Journey to better health
I’ve been trialling many strategies to help lift my spirits and relieve my work-related stress; firstly by making myself a priority.
But I just can’t seem to add exercise to my daily routine. It’s remained a struggle to implement over the many years I’ve been a teacher.
I get home exhausted. Drag myself inside with my heavy teacher bag and then look for the nearest couch. I remain there for most of the night, not moving much.
You know what it’s like – the sheer exhaustion from dealing with so much through our teaching day.
Many of us ask ourselves, “Why is it so hard for me as a teacher to put my own needs before anyone else’s?”
In reality, it’s because we are Just. Too. Tired.
How do you become a healthy teacher?
How do we break this cycle?
How do we prioritize ourselves in the midst of an exhausting profession and work our way to be a healthy teacher?
It starts by taking the first step – putting one foot in front of the other.
We are busy. I know. We are teachers, wives, mothers and then lastly a person.
But, my teacher friend, if we don’t take our health into our own hands and look after ourselves, who will?
So, start by MAKING TIME for yourself and add some walking into your day.
See it as a way to begin the road to a better balance in your life and prioritise your health and happiness.
Related Article: 8 Simple Habits of Self-Care for Busy Teacher + Free Printable
How can walking help you to be a healthy teacher?
There is a pretty obvious answer to this question. Most of us know that any form of exercise is good for our health, but why walking?
I see teaching as a pretty active profession. I don’t know about you, but I’m on the go all day and I very rarely sit down – not even to eat!
But, I think, as teachers the need to walk doesn’t really lie in the need for exercise. I think walking is all about helping us to relieve stress. Getting out into nature and the fresh air, leaving work behind and freeing the mind has become a necessity to be able to continue to work long-term in teaching.
It’s the act of taking yourself away from the ‘every day’ that is so therapeutic. It’s gentle. It gets you outside and it helps free up your mind of the clutter that comes with the teaching job.
It’s an awesome stress reliever, and will also boost your energy if you just start.
Related Article: Stress Management Tips Every Teacher Needs to Know
This is a must for any teachers to deal with the demands of the job.
In my research of walking, I found so many health-promoting benefits of including this easy exercise into your life, I thought I’d share them with you here:
The key benefits of walking for teacher health
The Highly Effective Teacher discusses the importance of daily exercise for teachers in their article called: How Exercise Boosts Teacher Wellbeing.
They outline the key benefits of just 30 minutes of exercise being:
- Improving happiness levels
- Relieves stress
- Reduces feelings of anxiety and depression
- Gives a sense of fulfilment
- Reduces the risk of heart disease
- Better sleep
- An energy boost
- Improves memory and boosts brainpower
- Increases self-confidence
- Better performance at work
- Longer life
- Greater creativity
- Inspires others
In addition, in the article Walk Your Life Instantly Better, in the Prevention Magazine, it describes the power of walking to transform your life – to help feel calmer, fitter, more centred and energised.
The article specifically details the benefits of walking to give you energy, stave off cravings, boosting your mood, reduce stress eating and helping you to sleep better. Not forgetting building muscle and improving productivity.
Wow! This is an awesome list of health benefits.
I need these! How about you?
Unfortunately, being a hater of exercise, I have found it a huge struggle to get moving and to keep it going.
Do you relate?
No? then you can stop reading here because you’ve got it all in hand. LOL!
Know you need help? and I know I do, then this is for you.
Make some healthy changes for the new decade. Keep reading for the helpful tips I’ve found to get both of us started.
To help keep us motivated, we can keep these wonderful health benefits of walking and exercise in our sites.
Are you with me?
Related Article: 10 Habits for Healthy Teachers + Free Printable
Tips to get started with walking
Here are some suggestions to slowly bring walking into your life if you’re not a seasoned exerciser.
Decide to start – this is simple, but if you don’t make that mental decision to start, the busyness of our teaching life will always help us think up excuses why we don’t have time for walking. Say to yourself now, “I will walk for my health and I will start now!”
Make a plan – decide beforehand when and how often you will walk each week. Start off small; maybe 3 days per week for 15 minutes.
Sometimes, our guilt can tell us to be all ‘gung-ho’ and we think we need to walk for a long time. That’s what I do. But we need to realise that starting off big is not sustainable and just won’t keep happening.
Start out small and get into some good habits first, something that you can follow easily in your daily routine.
Start at school – This is a great idea to get out of the classroom, off the school grounds and get some fresh air – brilliant for destressing. Don’t forget to know what days you’ll be walking and take your runners to school – put them in the boot of your car. (fewer excuses, that way).
Start a walking log – The Healthy School Campaign says that keeping a walking log helps you to keep track of your progress and help you walk your way to better health.
Many of these suggestions are ‘making or changing a habit 101’, but as humans, I’ve found that we often need to hear things many times, and from many sources, to actually move forward and make the good changes needed in our lives.
A beginner walking schedule
Wendy from Very Well Fit states that to achieve the health benefits of walking we need to brisk-walk for 30 minutes per day. She suggests that beginners can build up to this and has a great schedule to get any beginner walker started:
Here are her suggestions, which are very achievable:
Week 1 – begin walking at an easy pace for 5 days per week at 15 minutes per session. This will create a habit, but make sure to include rest days on maybe day 3 and day 6.
Week 2 – Add 5 minutes per day until you are walking for 20 minutes for 5 days per week.
Week 3 – add another 5 minutes per day, so you are walking for 25 minutes, 5 days a week.
Week 4 – add 5 more minutes to your walk per day until you are walking for 30 minutes per day for 5 days a week.
Busy Teacher Tip – if you run into a busy week or you have difficulties, repeat the week rather than add more time. Do this until you are able to comfortably progress.
Once you are able to comfortably walk for 30 minutes you are then ready to add variety in your walk and also increase the intensity.
Final thoughts about walking being a healthy teacher
These suggestions for an incremental schedule, make me think that I CAN achieve greater health by walking. But firstly, I will need to change my limiting thinking about exercise.
Walking is not hard. If we can follow this simple plan, start out small like this, I can see that it will be easy to get into much healthier habits and gain the health benefits needed in our busy teaching lives.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be a healthier teacher.
I’m tired of my excuses. I want to be happier and tackle teacher stress in a more positive way.
Join me in a healthier life. Let’s start tomorrow my friend. Whose with me?
PIN ME FOR LATER!
Articles to read next:
- How to Set Boundaries as a Teacher & Why it’s So Important
- Mindful Mornings for Teachers: Bring on a Calmer Teaching Day!
- How to Improve Teacher Wellbeing with Gratitude Journaling
Remember, you’re worth it!
Michelle x
Let me know in the comments how you’re doing. Did these tips to help you get walking?
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