Busy Teacher In Need of Advice/Support

Yup, the best way forward is meal planning/ prep. Made a huge difference for me. Also plan a snack for after work and pack it with you lunch so you're not stopping for a latte and a donut. How about an herbal tea and a protein-granola bar? That latte and donut depending on size would be about 600 calories, allow yourself a 200 calorie snack instead. Something you like.

And after school pick me up is great, especially for you hard working teachers, God bless you!!

How about having a Baggie of (weighed out) almonds? Or some beef jerky? Do you have access to a fridge at work? Take some Greek yogurt. All these foods are high in protein, which will help with the energy. The latte and donut are carb city. Know how ya feel sooo tired after that huge Italian pasta meal? It's those carbs! Just one small change, like replacing your donut will work wonders. Good luck, let us know how it goes!!

Oh honey-I understand! I have been teaching for 13 years--I remember!!! Now I have two teenaged sons and a husband who travels for work all week--I understand busy! What saves me is weekend cooking and making double of everything if possible. Typical items I make are whole wheat-flax banana muffins--easily portable (could sub for your donut!!!), overnight oats--I usually make 3 jars, jar salads--make 3-4. I might put dry beans in the crock pot and make a pot of brown rice for beans and rice lunches. Hard boil a bunch of eggs. I might make a big baked pasta casserole or a pot of soup or chili. My latest obsession is these breakfast egg bake things-layer hash browns, veggie sausage, cheese (or not depending on what calories you want), top with 6 eggs beaten with a little milk. Bake for an hour, maybe more in a 350 oven. Squares of that warm up great for any meal. I probably spend 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon and makes all the difference in the week. I second having baggies of almonds or a small number of crackers already portioned out. Another thing I keep in my desk is healthy multigrain instant oatmeal. If I am really pressed for time, I can eat it for breakfast and lunch and certainly on my free periods for a small calorie controlled snack/meal.
And for gods sake leave that classroom earlier!!!!

Also, hire someone to clean your house once or twice a month.
That way you can have some time to cook and care for yourself.

I'm also a teacher, and this is my 3rd year, but every year seems like the first planning wise, because we keep the same kids (continuation school) so I can't teach the same things for at least 3-4 years. I don't spend nearly as much time at work as you, but I know how you feel. We just started school 2 weeks ago and I already fell into a bad habit of not eating anything during the day other than coffee with creamer, or something small like an apple or a banana, or drink smoothies if I make them (but they're low in calories so they're not really enough).
When I come home I eat, I end up right under 1400 calories, and most of my calories are consumed after 2 pm. The good news is that I log everything, and i don't eat bad food (no junk, fast food, donuts, etc).

So here are some of my advice that I'm also going to take for myself lol
- when you cook dinner, always cook more, and you can take leftovers the next day. You can also make another serving and freeze it, so some other time you can just grab it and heat it up.
- Make a huge salad and fill 5 small tupperware containers, so you'll have a salad for every day at least. You just have to grab one every morning. Keep a bottle of salad dressing in your classroom.
- buy granola bars, protein bars, trail mixes and other lower calorie healthy snacks, and keep at least a week's worth in your desk. Portion out crackers, dried fruit, etc and prelog them. You can keep them in your drawer for quite a while in ziplock bags.
- try to make smoothies the night before, they're best when made fresh, but honestly they'll be fine for 2 days or even more after. They're easy to consume, you don't have to sit, etc., but can be very filling and nutritious. You could just make them with protein powder and almond milk (or whatever other kinds of liquid)
- is your school ok with you eating in your classroom? If so, don't be shy and drink a smoothie, or eat a granola bar while the kids are working, you don't need to rush and you can eat before you get very hungry or exhausted.
- have lot of water at school, keep a few bottles and if you have a fridge, keep them there.
- if you have a fridge (I bought one last year) it makes a lot of things easier. Store yoghurt (non fat Greek is best) and it will be there when you need it.

My main issue now is that I'm too exhausted to go to the gym, I should be there right now taking a Zumba class, and I'm too tired

You probably have to eat more. When you work as a teacher, you're on your feet all day long and you burn a lot ore calories. I started logging right before Thanksgiving and in 3 weeks (right before winter break) I lost 8.5 lbs. I was eating 1400-1450 calories / day, very little exercise. Then during winter break i reduced my calories to 1300 and started doing a lot of cardio: didn't lose not one lb in 3 weeks. We went back to school, upped my calories to 1400 and lost 3 lbs in the first 4 days.
So you might not be eating enough and that's also a reason to be tired.

As far as planning: just in case you haven't met, let me introduce you to www.teacherspayteachers.com. it's full of lesson plans, activities, unit plans, everything. There are things for purchase of course, but there are TONS of things for free. It will save your life, and there are more things for elementary than anything else. I teach high school and I still find good stuff all the time.
And the things you would pay for, you can buy a 1-2 month unit with everything (all activities, assessments, presentations, everything) for $3-5. It's a life saver.

I'm an aide in self-contained ABA - but also a home ABA therapist with a one hour commute and grad school (thank god for online learning!) so I get the long days and bringing work home with you since I write the programs for one of my clients. Oh and I have PCOS.
- I second the recommendation of the PCOSis group. I've learned a lot there and it's just nice to have a supportive community of women who understand how much PCOS sucks.
- I also second weekend meal prepping! I'm kinda at a loss right now because I cracked the ceramic part of my crock pot AND I'm attempting (poorly) to do LCHF... But when I was better at things I would make a big pot of soup on Sunday. And pasta sauce. I'd also cook a grain that way I could just add whatever meat and/or veggies I wanted during the week. My husband works nights (and is also in grad school) and I get home at 8pm three days a week so I try for simple. Cooking for one is never fun for me so making big batches of food on Sunday works better.
- I recently made egg and veggie muffins as a low carb snack for when I get to work. I froze the whole tray of them and just nuke them for 30-60sec when I get to school. String cheese is also a great snack! I used to bring a jar of almonds and dark chocolate but we're nut free this year...

Good luck!

I love all this advice... about not working as hard clearly its very different there not only do lessons all need to be at least good at my school marking has to be both regualar informative and a dialogue between the teacher and the student so im a maths teacher if i set 10 questions and the pupil gets them all right I'm questioned on why i let my pupils do work that is to easy. if they get some wrong you have to identify the error explain it give and example of a problem worked through correctly then give the student the opportunity to have another go... this response much be done and acknowledged. all errors must be tackled in this way... and as i said if pupils get it all right you asked why you gave the child work that was to easy!

now i have 7 classes of 30 and you have to do this every week for each class that you see for 3-4 hours a week.... oh and you must set a homework that has to be teacher marked and differentiated.

I honestly dont know how people do this all with only 3 hours planning and PPA time... Oh and each lesson must have a written lesson plan.

Typically day
5:45 Get up
6:00 Walk dog
6:30 Breakfast / dress etc
7:00 Traveling to work
7:30 30 mins prepping for the day collecting photocopying etc.
8:00 Departmental meeting
8:20 Staff meeting
8:40 Pupil supervision duty
8:50 Form time
9:10 Lesson 1
10:10 Lesson 2
11:10 Quick break for loo coffee tidy up usualy detain a pupil for no homework or lateness etf
11:25 Lesson 3
12:25 Dinner again detail pupils for no homework lateness etc then eat dinner and get ready for the afternoon
13:05 Lesson 4
14:05 Lesson 5
15:05 Revision class for exam students
16:00 Marking
17:30 Home time quick dinner
18:00 Walk dog
18:30 finish marking
19:30: Planning for the next day and writing lesson plans
21:00/23:00 depending on how much work there was to do collapse in exhaution!

twice a week I got to the gym this adds 1 hour and a half into the day...

its alright people saying prep up at the weekend but if you have 7 class and and marking each set takes about 3 hours that leave 3 sets still to do at the weekend because we cant mark on a Monday because we have meetings all evening till 18:00

so thats 9 hours of the weekend gone and then cleaning the house and all the washing and ironing you neglected during the week oh you have only 6 hours sleep in the week so you need to catch up on the 8 hours deficit you have so sleeping for 10 hours each night at the weekend oh yes then you have to do the grocery shopping... and you should work out because your trying to loose weight and its the weekend so you have the time right... thats 4 hours gone so now you have about 8 hours left of your weekend.... do i really want take 2/3 of those meal prepping?


Vent over... its not easy i feel for the OP I think teachers who say leave work at work are very lucky to be able to do that but if you work in a tough school thats under a lot of pressure its just not possible to reduce your workload because I do all the above and im still on a 6 week improvement plan because my marking isnt up to the expected standard....

Its all very frustrating because if you have PCSO here and your overweight you will not be helped to concieve till you shift the weight and remeber PCSO really doesnt like you loosing right

I work out 4 times a week and I do 15k steps everyday I eat healthy and clean which involved a lot of cooking from scratch and yes i only loose very very slowly and water hormones affect my weight a lot. I've lost 7lbs since christmas only

so i suppose the key thing is just keep going done keep junk in the house so your not tempted to snack ill be honest i function a lot on coffee and i find vitamins help with energy levels

I feel you all. The school year is about to start for us here in NZ and I'm determined not to fall into the bad habits I had last year - eating biscuits at morning tea in the staffroom, stopping at the supermarket after work and buying a carb-loaded dinner because I'd feel too exhausted to do anything once I got home, drinking way too many cups of coffee...

I've been meal planning since the start of this year and I've got to keep it up. I know the main thing for me will be having healthy snacks at work to keep me going - hard boiled egg for morning tea, something to nibble on once work has finished, and drinking lots more water (even though this invariably means having to go to the bathroom far more often!). At least I'll be back into moving more - I'm quite interested to see my step counts from my fitbit!

I'm a 3rd year Kindergarten teacher. I understand the drain that age group has on you. I worked similar hours my firs 1.5 years. My first year, I put on a ton of weight, lost it during my second, and now put it back on from the end of the second to now. It can be just so easy to get fast food or stop at the gas station.

I do love coffee, but I try to limit it. If I really need a cup, I'll make it with a little bit of skim milk and Splenda. Otherwise, Green Tea has caffeine like coffee which could help give you that bump in the afternoon. It is also so good for you.

I try to stick with high protein, low carb which has worked for me in the past. In the morning I will try to have a whole grain of some sort. The other day it was an Atkin's Protein Chocolate Chip granola bar. I had not restocked, but they are delicious for only 200 calories and 16 g of protein (I think that's how much).

I am a super picky eater so my meals look pretty much the same every day. But what I do for lunch is either 2 hard boiled eggs or 2 servings of Publix's reduced fat salami. Both high in protein, low in carbs. I pair it with a 80-100 calorie Greek yogurt (Yoplait now has 100 cal Greek Whips which I cannot get enough of!). Then a serving of carrot sticks and light ranch. Sometimes I have a cheese stick. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is highly packed with protein, so I do feel full (and drink lots of water!)

In the afternoon, during their snack time, I have a serving of fruit. Then after they leave and I do any afternoon duty I have, I will have an IdealShape Chocolate shake with unsweetened vanilla almond milk. With the vanilla, I cannot tell the difference between that and skim milk when mixed. IdealShape has a hunger blocker in their shake, so that will usually hold me off for dinner.

For dinner, I use Tyson's pre-cooked chicken breasts found in the freezer section (I CANNOT stand the sight of raw chicken and will not eat it if I've seen it raw - I know, weird). So I pop 1-2 in the oven for 2 minutes. I have a side of the green giant steamers veggies that you nuke for ~5 minutes and some brown rice I made with chicken bouillon. I make a lot of rice and refrigerate it. When I heat it up, I just add a little water so it will be tender again