Normal teaching week: 1lb down (stuck to diet, climbed stairs, skipped scheduled exercise once)
Extra-busy teaching week: 2lb down (no time to eat OR exercise formally, lots of rushing across campus, snatched lowest cal snack from machine in passing)
Extra-busy teaching week with meetings: 2lb on (eating meeting cookies to help keep my mouth shut, post-meeting stress = take away feels positively necessary, and a few beverages)
Christmas week: time to cook and relax, time with friends and family, Mum's fabulous Christmas baking, some sweet gifts, and yet... 2lb off. (Cooking includes seasonal soups, I guess, and time with friends included a bit of hiking, but still...)
Grading (120 undergraduate lab reports and 40 honours course portfolios): 3lb on. 50 essays: 2lb on. (marking is PAINFUL and carbohydrates dull the pain...)
Tentative conclusion: to lose weight, give up meetings and grading.
Wonder if I could argue a health and safety case with my Head of Department? Sadly, making only thin people go to meetings and grade so that the rest of us can lose weight probably isn't on the cards...
I'm intrigued by the idea of "walking meetings" that I've been hearing a lot about. I've been trying to think how that could be incorporated into paper conferencing, especially without excluding students with disabilities or who may just not prefer to walk. The ideal setting would be something like a coffee shop that happens to be next to an indoor track, which doesn't exist at my school.
ReplyDeleteI have heard suggested in Management books, but never seen in actual practice, the notion of having meetings standing up, i.e. no furniture allowed. The thrust of the idea is that without chairs, those in attendance will get to the point, things will be discussed in a concise manner, and decisions will be reached promptly, because people won't bloviate if they're not comfortable. Also, there will be no place to put high-carb goodies.
DeleteMy SP (Significant Proffie) has stories of a colleague who won't use one word when she can use ten. It could be a revolutionary idea, but as I've said, I've never seen it put into practice.
Brilliant! This is thesis worthy research. :)
ReplyDeleteI have a colleague who grades while hiking. She is constantly falling down, but she gets her grading done. That said, I do mine online: it wouldn't work as well for me to walk and grade online.
Two words: Google Glass.
DeleteI've heard that a standing desk or stationary bike desk are good also (an actual moving bicycle desk might be a challenge). In my opinion, managing stress should come before managing weight. (Hiking can do that, as well as provide exercise.) You behave differently and your body behaves differently when you are stressed and both undermine the will power to stick to a diet. Get your mind right and the rest can follow.
DeleteI can barely requisition a stapler when mine goes missing. I'm not sure I could get any technology beyond that.
DeleteI agree with the stress comment! That's my main goal in life: reduce my own stress!
Sounds about right to me (and I don't even have meetings -- well, not many of them. Just lots and lots of grading).
ReplyDeleteWe've got one of those wellness programs which are all the rage these days with U.S. health insurers (and which are rather alarmingly big-brotherish, except that they're also automated, which adds a touch of the absurd to the whole endeavor). If one indicates on the introductory questionnaire that one experiences stress, one is then set the goal of "reducing stress," with absolutely no acknowledgment that one's working conditions might be a/the major source of stress. My stress would definitely be lessened (and I'd have more time for walking, which is what works for me for both stress and weight control) if my course load were reduced, and I'm sure I'd also be more relaxed, and generally healthier, if my salary were sufficient to allow me to take summers off (or at least spend them in writing and research, which isn't technically part of my job). More job security (i.e. tenure) would also help, I'm sure. But I don't see anywhere in the questionnaire to choose, or even suggest, those options -- a major flaw, in my opinion.
P.S. Did we already have a hamster-on-scales graphic in the image dump, or did somebody make it for the occasion? Either way, it's wonderful. I'm especially charmed that the white markings, while decidedly hamster-esque, also suggest a bra and panties of the rather utilitarian sort sported by at least some of us middle-aged female academics.
ReplyDeleteGrumpy provided it! It is great.
DeleteThanks! Amazing what you can throw together with powerpoint and a bit of clip-art (the underwear markings were fortuitous but appropriate!)
DeleteI love this hamster graphic. Well done.
DeleteI'm a little peeved that we don't get cookies at our meetings.
ReplyDeleteWasabi peas keep me awake better. When kumquats aren't in season. Part of the exercise in alertness involves the effort to keep a poker face after popping one of these.
DeleteReminds me of Study Hall as a kid when we would see who could eat hot chili peppers without (1) getting caught; (2) changing expression. I developed a fabulous poker face as a result of that.
DeleteKumquats are amazing! My granny had a tree and made jam every other year. :)
I will say this: since getting this job, I have dropped 12 pounds from just the sheer amount of walking, standing, talking, skipping meals, waking up early, staying up late, and never getting a chance to sit down and watch tv.
ReplyDeleteSo there's that.
I took one of my classes for a short walk yesterday while we discussed how to approach a lab. It was a sunny day after a long run of fog. One of the students said "I feel like a little kid! This is so much fun!"
ReplyDeleteWhen we went back to class, they settled into their lab work. I realized partway through that they were all working in absolute silence. 100% engagement, and by the end of the lab, they'd all been successful, and excited about it.
One of my best teaching days ever.
That was worthy of Yaro! I'll have to remember this approach when my new lab class starts.
DeleteI've worn a pedometer to class and found I can walk a mile in a 75 minute lecture. Just back and forth, up and down, around the classroom.
ReplyDelete