The View from the Classroom

I think transforming my body has been on my mind for some time now. My mom passed away in 2001 and along with her passing went a lot of emotional baggage that I’m not even going to bore you with. I was laid off later that year - that was a GREAT thing - and I decided to change my life. I changed careers and started making lifestyle changes with the main goal of getting back in shape and losing about 40 to 50 pounds.

Progress was slow, but over the next 3 to 4 years I did lose some weight. I started noticing something though…everytime I went to a staff development, which was quite often, I couldn’t help but notice that 80 to 90% of the teachers in the room were overweight if not obese and I was probably in that group!! The more and more I thought about this, the more I started thinking I had to change. After all, like it or not, I was (and still am) a role model for so many impressionable 11 to 14 year olds and everyday I hear something about child obesity.

So, in December of 2005, I got serious. I started going to the gym 5 or 6 days a week instead of 2 or 3 days. I started running even though I had always told myself that I absolutely HATE running. After a few months, I got to a good weight for my height, but I was still not satisfied. My body was still soft and mushy even though my weight was ok according to all the charts.

I started paying attention to how the guys in the gym workout. They didn’t do all that much cardio, why should I? They lift weights, why shouldn’t I do that? So I started lifting. I wouldn’t have called it bodybuilding, after all, I just wanted some "tone". But, something amazing happened - my body really responded - I was actually changing my body, seeing some REAL results.

I went back to school after the summer break thinking I looked a little bit better than before summer break. I mean I had lost a little bit more weight, but not too much. My colleagues were stunned at the transformation. People I had never talked to came up to me and told me how good I looked and many people were interested in what I was doing.

I still think about the make-up of the room every single time I’m in a staff development, but now I’m in the minority. What’s on my mind now, though, is not how do I change me, but how can I use my journey to make an impact in the world? How do I motivate other teachers to realize that they are role models and how can we change the direction of our kids today if we’re not setting a good example? Any ideas out there? Please share.