Something amazing happened today. One of my colleagues said, “Hey Jenn, I’ve been meaning to tell you, you look great. Have you lost 25 pounds since September?”  I smiled and said thank you – really it’s been 52 pounds.  It’s not that I’m looking for compliments because I really am doing this for myself; it’s just good to know that the good feelings I have on the inside are showing on the outside. Does that make sense? Everything is improving now that I’m locked into my healthy lifestyle changes.

So keeping true to my goal to READ MY MATERIALS I read:

MAKING ACTIVITY FUN

I thought this was pretty compelling: “Studies show that moving more can boost self-esteem, mood, and sleep quality. It can also reduce your risk of stress and depression.” Penedo, Frank J^a; Dahn, Jason R^a,b I believe this, I think that increasing my level of activity has made this journey more complete.

The materials pose three really powerful questions. I decided to answer them for myself:

1. What is your why?  I want to feel stronger and have more energy.
2. What motivated you to be more active? I have a gym membership and I like to go to spinning classes. When I started going to the 5:15 am class, I was met by a member of my Weight Watchers group (Jen was a blessing) and she encouraged me to come back. The instructor of the class is an amazing person and I think she is pushing me to get even better at spin.
3. What surprised you about being more active? I never would have believed this, but I found that I love going to the 5:15 am class. Now I have some ownership of my day before going to work and it kickstarts my energy.

If you want to include activity as part of this journey these materials are excellent. They take you through a series of questions to help you make some intentional choices. There is a fun quiz that is designed to be a self-assessment for your readiness. And, it gives you some strategies so that we sit less. I heard that sitting is the new smoking.  In fact, my brother is a teacher and his principal has a walking desk.

Overall, Do What Moves You is a nice friendly resource that offers us ways to get some activity into our journeys. If you have not opened it up yet, check it out and just try something. I bet you’ll be surprised.

LEARNING PAINS

If you read my blog, then you know I’m a teacher. My featured image came from a lesson I did with Kindergartners. If you want to be a true student of humanity, spend some time with five-year-olds they are truly wise in every sense of the word. Today, I asked them to piece together a sentence from one of their favorite books, and then to read it. 

This book is a challenging read for Kindergartners. Most children remember the story more than read it. But today, when they had to match the words and use the pictures to “read’ the sentence, they were challenged to push themselves to do more with it. Some immediately asked for help, others just needed encouragement, and some were able to problem solve all by themselves. In the end, they did the work themselves and they felt ON TOP OF THE WORLD. That’s what learning does for us all.

They remind me that anything is possible if we believe in ourselves. Believe it – you can acheive your goals.