COLLEGE PROFESSORS/ INSTRUCTORS???

Not officially an instructor but I pretty much live at the university between my masters, being a research assistant and tutoring. Staying on top of fitness at uni is easy for me. I walk about 5+ miles a day at university alone. Anytime I could be standing and moving rather than sitting or standing still, I do it. Even when I'm tutoring to the students, I walk back and forth. It keeps them engaged and not feel bored.

That plus in this weather the girls are wearing some really nice clothes which is a great motivation!

I'm a doctoral student and undergraduate tutor at my university. Can't think of any health and fitness issues or tips that are specific to this line of work, but assuming you have access to a staff kitchen bring your own lunch and snacks (my favourite snacks to bring to work are raw nuts, and an avocado that i just cut in half and eat with a spoon), and take the stairs instead of the lift if your office or teaching rooms are a few floors up (I do this for convenience as there is just one lift in the building where I usually work and it always takes ages to call it, but it's great for your legs, especially if you take the stairs two a time!). I also cycle to and from campus, which is about 10 k each way. I mostly do this because I prefer it to public transport, not for the exercise per se, but it also means that even if I don't have time for a proper workout I still get some kind of physical activity in every day.

During the academic year, I have to cook on the weekend enough food to pack a lunch for the week. I microwave my lunches in our department office (I don't like sandwiches). Mid-semester gets very difficult and I sometimes resort to fast food, but we have a Habit near campus that does a grilled chicken salad that isn't a bad option. My exercise tends to suffer a bit, but I walked to work spring semester and I'll do so again this fall, so I'll have 3 mile daily walk at least (summer has been too hot, so I have stuck to the treadmill).

The last year, I've also used my slow cooker a lot for dinners - since I live alone, that means eating the same thing over and over again though since that's usually a big pot of something. Saves time though to just cook once and heat 3 or 4 times during the week.

I'm not a Professor of any kind, but I have attended community college, and I think I have some advice for you from a student perspective. College in general is about learning, and even as the teacher, this by no means should exclude you: try and see campus life through your student's eyes by doing what they do, under the same circumstances. Run to the lecture hall on the opposite side of campus in the 10 minute break between blocks, even campus food, take cat-baths in the fountain if you feel like "pulling a Dilbert"... Excessive? Sure, but it should really get your heart going, if for nothing else but the nostalgia. I think it would also scare the crap out of your students, which for me, would be bonus points

I'm only teaching one class this fall (thankfully! I'm burned out from back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back cycles without a break. Each cycle was two-to-three classes, and I teach online, so I have a lot of "sitting time," unfortunately). My SO and I signed up for a Taebo class in the evenings, and we're walking a lot. We're also dusting off the Zumba DVDs. He works online as a content-writer, so he sits a lot, too, so we're doing anything we can to get our hearts pumping! We're doing C25K, also, so that's part of the motivation.

I'm a university reference/instruction librarian. There are three main things I do to help keep things under control. The first is to pack a huge bag of healthy food and water. No matter how much it offends people, I turn down whatever is in the break room for snacks. The rest of the faculty is welcome to eat pizza and cake while I munch on fruit and veggies. They know I'm watching what I eat so there is no surprise. The second thing I do is run up and down the stairs 10 times every hour. Our library is only 5 floors, but that can be quite a workout throughout the course of the day! Usually when I am forced to get up, I will stand for a while and walk around more. I usually work the late shift which can be pretty dead, so if I didn't make myself get up, I could be stuck at the reference desk for hours! The third thing is that I do things for myself! I have student assistants who could run all over campus for me, but I try to do my errands on my own so I get in some extra exercise. Plus, it helps me make stronger connections with people on campus.

I think the issue the op is highlighting is more about creeping academic workload, rather than campus life. A typical term time workload for me takes 50-70 hours a week. A lot of this is done at home. Work life balance goes entirely out the window. The wrestle is making sure you carve some time to take care of yourself into that.

As I said previously, there's no particular trick to this, other than deciding you *will* do it.

For those students suggesting we look at campus from your pov ...try returning the favour. Bear in mind every lecture we give is the equivalent for us of writing an essay - it takes as much reading time, we need to build an argument, we need to consider presentation, just as you do for every essay you submit. I lecture 8-10 hours a week - so the equivalent for you of writing about 8 essays a week. (even if i'm just updating lectures, this still takes about 4 or 5 hours of my time per hour of teaching, if I'm doing it properly). I also have to attend meetings - about 6-10 hours a week. I have to supervise research students (I have 10 doctoral students, 10 masters and 8 undergraduates - spread out this translates to 6-8 hours of supervision time in the average week, and that's before we think about things like reading draft chapters). I manage programmes, coordinate modules, answer student queries - and in the age of email, there is a deluge (in term time, my email peaks at about 150 a day). And then there's the marking.... About 20 minutes for every essay you write (multiply that across all the students we have, and all the classes we teach). On top of that I need to attend to my own research - write 2-4 journal articles a year, a book every few years.... it's quite a feat, managing the academic workload, and juggling that with self care, family life etc is very tough. I don't think our work is unique in this, but I'm not sure many students really appreciate what our job actually involves. I love my job, I love my students, I feel privileged to do what I do. But the complexities of managing this lot against a healthy lifestyle can be quite tricky to negotiate.

I imagine this is what the op is struggling with....