How Exercise Changed My Life

During the past few years, my personal life has gone through some big transitions. As I reflect, I know without a doubt that I would not have made it without (my faith) and a consistent exercise regimen. When I look back at my picture from a couple of years ago as compared to today, I hardly recognize the guy in the picture as me.  I am not going to ever let myself get back in the shape that I was when I started out as the Principal at BHS in 2007.

Nothing personal to Phil Mickelson, but I am glad to no longer have people saying I look like him. If I had his golf swing, maybe I would think about taking back the 40 pounds?......NAH!




The change in my mindset was simple. I was always someone who would arrive at school well before most others in order to get a jump on my day's schoolwork.  However, when I decided to commit to an exercise regimen and put myself first, I started to use my time at school in the morning to exercise instead of doing schoolwork. The outcome to my amazement is that I get more done during the course of the day after exercising than I did when I dedicated that time to schoolwork.


I encourage everyone out there to make a commitment to themselves and dedicate a specific time each day to exercise their minds and bodies.  For me, I equate exercise with when the flight attendant on the plane goes over the emergency procedures and tells the parents to take the oxygen themselves first so that they can then take care of their children.  Selfishly, I need my time to exercise or I will not be able to take care of the people and things that I need to care of the rest of the day.


One of my hopes is to create a format for teachers to exercise during the school day here at BHS. We have recently renovated our fitness area and created new locker rooms for staff to help with this effort.  I hope that our focus in this area will help us to ensure that our students realize the importance of exercise in their productivity as well.


Thanks to Joan for starting this great blog and I look forward to hearing and sharing about the importance of exercise for all of us!

Receiving

Earlier this week I wrote a post for my own blog at The Inspired Classroom that connected a concept from yoga to my teaching. But there is a need for me to elaborate on this in terms of, well, exercise. It is the idea of receiving.

The Inspired Classroom's summer book group which is reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert spent a morning last week experiencing India as we had a private yoga session with Jeanne Russell of Portsmouth Center for Yoga and the Arts. One thing Jeanne kept coming back to was the idea of receiving. After we came out of a move she gave us a moment to pause saying, “…and we receive…,” at which time I would close my eyes and feel my body tingle amidst my surroundings. I had a sense of accomplishment. My whole body was happy to have been cared for, stretched and noticed. Jeanne went on to say that she likes to give people the opportunity to receive their movements so that they are not moving and rushing right into the next move. This truly resonated with me.

For the past few days I've been trying this idea out as I exercise. (My personal preference at this time in my life: exercise videos!) After I complete a set or interval or circuit, I close my eyes and take in a breath. It has really helped me to feel the good things I am doing as I exercise. I feel my muscles tingle, my lungs working and it gives me a really nice sense of accomplishment. It's a great time for visualization too. I visualize my muscles getting more toned, my fat melting away and my body getting stronger.

When I open my eyes, I'm revitalized to continue with the next thing. "Receiving" is actually something I look forward to as I move through my workout.

Hopefully some of you will try this and get something out of it as well. I am so happy to be part of #temt. Thanks Joan and all of the #temt team for having this blog and giving me new motivation. I'm looking forward to receiving more as we head out of summer and back to the school year!

@eliza_peterson :-)

Getting It Done

Good morning fellow #temters and friends,


I hope you've all been getting active in some way. On my walk each morning, I really have enjoyed the distraction of Twitter. I open my Twitter app, turn on the tunes, and set my timer. On my Interval Timer it adjusts the music depending on a low intensity or a high intensity. I get the opportunity to catch up on my tweets or favourite any that I want to look at later, especially blog posts where I can see it. I'm thinking about buying an iPad just for that reason. I'm going to have to justify it a bit better... Maybe a goal would be to continue to workout each day for the months of September and October. I'm a bit worried that I'm going to let it slide with the busyness of heading back to work. I know you'll all push me to get it done :-). When I've worked out faithfully I'll buy myself the iPad (it'll also give me time to save up for it). Anyways, I'll stop rambling now. My point is if you find yourself addicted to Twitter because of all the good stuff and you still want to get up moving, take your Smartphone or iPhone with you. Just take caution. We don't want to hear of accidents happening.


I'm actually very proud of myself for committing to exercising.  I've gone passed my half way 30 Day Challenge on the Wii (Yay Me!!!) and I'm into my third week of Walking Training. I'm so proud of myself. I feel great. Each day I'm not dreading doing the workouts. I'm finding time to get active in some way. Sometimes, I have to multitask hence the iPhone and Twitter :-). #temt has been such a motivator. When I see others getting out and being active it helps to motivate me to do the same thing.


I've had a goal for the last 3 weeks and it's to get past a certain plateau. Tonight at Weight Watchers I'm hoping to have passed it. I've been here for 5 weeks and I'm hoping the working out is going to help. It did last week, so lets cross our fingers this week. I'm not going to get distracted by the scale because I know the exercise is helping in a lot of other areas as well. It hasn't been that long of a time period. I know we all want results instantly but to see the effects of exercising and eating healthy does take time.

Take time out for yourself, be active and enjoy what you are doing. Remember, we're all here to support and encouragement each other.

Also posted at April's Best Life

The universe will conspire...

Humidity. Rain. Toe cramp. Wind. Harder rain. Still toe cramp. Further distance. Blogpost. In that order.

You can read about it here. (It's much easier for me to keep my blogposts neatly organized in one location. Hope you don't mind.) :)

www.kellypower.ca

Why I joined #temt

I was kind of dreading the 5:30 spinning class.
Don't get me wrong, spinning classes are my absolute favorite classes at my gym. It was just that I hadn't been to the gym in 6 months.
< G.u.l.p. >
During the harsh winter, I fell on ice that left me in a hospital for 4 days and 6 months of recovery. I had a bad contusion around my tailbone so I had a sore *bottom* for a while. Actually, I had so much pain I couldn't walk. I was out of school for 3 weeks.
That's when my blog was born. I couldn't do much so I sat up with my laptop and learned a great deal during the recovery time. My PLN was absolutely awesome and encouraging.

Lately, I've been reading some tweets about getting in shape - phrases like "I just ran..." or "I'm going to go (insert something active), or "I just ousted so and so at my gym" etc. kept popping up. I even heard Jerry (@cybraryman1) give a shout out for #temt from #ntcamp!

It was just the time for me to give exercise a try. I've been scared to sit in the cycling seats, and was not sure if my legs would hold me up.

As soon as I set up my bike, I got on it and started pedalling.
I just smiled like a fool because it felt so good :-).

As a musician, I didn't really try to be good at any sport. Actually I wasn't allowed to play a lot of sports because of possible injuries. I never thought I'd join a gym, but because I loved cycling so much, I joined last year for the first time ever.

Something I love about spinning/cycling class:
1. Love listening to good music while working out (here's a pic of our workout songs).
2. I find myself keeping the beat, counting, and focused, like students in my class. It's quite fun!
3. I love it that you can adjust when to push yourself or relax a bit - I learned to pace & listen to my body.
4. Our cycling room is PACKED every time I go, full of people ready to challenge themselves and being good to their bodies. It's very much like finding such passionate learners in our PLN...every day, any time of the day.
5. It makes me feel really good.

My legs are sore now, but I'm so glad I'm doing this (and my bottom is OK!).
Thanks, PLN for encouraging me to think and take action.

I like this start - and would like to keep it going.

Let's go!
@DoremiGirl #feelingood

Change Your Music, Trick Your Mind!

 This morning on Skype I had a great conversation with my new friend and fellow #temt member, Kelly Power. We were talking about ways we manage to keep ourselves going when running and both noted that it is our minds that are often the biggest barriers to continuing! I was encouraged by Kelly to share this story.

A few days ago, I set out for a run that began a bit differently than most of my other runs. Not only was I a bit nervous about presenting at the Reform Symposium later that day, I also felt overwhelmed by  my mile long to-do list.  Just the day before we had confirmed that we would be moving in the next few weeks!  I had decided to combine running an errand with my real running ; it seemed like a great win-win proposition. One of my personal goals is always to think of ways I can avoid jumping in the car.

I set off listening to the song, "Say", by John Mayer. Something in that song was calling out to me about saying what's on your mind. After it was over, my mind wanted more so I hit repeat and kept on running. Previously, I always began my runs with fast-paced music, thinking my body would need the boost to get moving. Interestingly, the slower tempo allowed my body to decide the rate it preferred and I did not seem to get tired at all! When I reached hills that previously seemed daunting, I ran up without slowing down. Something was definitely happening!

As I ran back home after dropping off my note to our property management office, I decided to mix up the order of my music a bit. As I neared home, I put on a fast tempo song that normally plays at the beginning of my run. I said to myself," Pretend you are just beginning the run," and as I repeated that thought ( in my head, don't worry!) the music took me away and honestly, though I had already been running steadily for 40 minutes, a feat for me, I did not want to stop!  I ran for another 10 minutes, but probably could have done much more as my mind was in a new place, an invigorated excited one where any distance seemed possible. I had to go home when the hour was up as I was presenting at the Reform Symposium later that afternoon!

Perhaps this was a long-winded way of saying,"Experiment for yourself!" See what you can do to trick your mind into going a bit longer or doing something just a tad more challenging.  Try it!

I am sure you have lots of ways that you keep yourself going longer and harder so I hope you take a moment and share here :-) Thanks again for all you do to inspire me to get moving every day. I am loving the energy and collaboration of #temt!

My Journey...My Game...My Passion...

First, I am thrilled to share my story with everyone and thank you to Joan for inviting me to share my story as this is my first post. My running journey started quite a few years ago when I wanted to do something for myself and show people my accomplishment. It started on New Year’s Eve and my resolution to finish a 5k in late March (Cincinnati Heart Mini). I decided to share with people my resolution because I figured if I told people what I was doing, then one I would hopefully have their support and second I have admitted aloud. Next, I signed up for the race because then I was monetarily invested in the race. Needless to say I completed the race and I was thrilled. The following year I decided I wanted to rerun the Cincinnati Heart Mini 5k race and try to beat my time and did I smash my time by 6 minutes!

As my journey continues (a few years later)I lost some of the passion I had for running and did not know why. I realized I did not have a support group and I did not have a goal in mind. At this point I decided to venture out and run a marathon (I have no clue what I was thinking, but I was dreaming big). I signed up for the Chicago Marathon and it was rough! I trained on my own, I was in a city I did not know, and my wife cheered me on from a few locations (which was great)! My whole goal was to finish the race and I did (about 5 hours). When I finished I thought I would never do something that stupid again; however, the following week I wanted to go out and run and work on beating my time. I started to train again (on my own, but I told a lot of people what I was doing, and I read a lot of books about marathon training) for the Cincinnati Flying Pig in May. When race day arrived I wanted to go down to the start and run for me and have a blast. I did! I also beat my time by an hour! I found my passion once again…I loved letting my mind wonder! I was getting into the best shape of my life and I LOVED to run, it was a release of energy and stress! I have continued to run over the years and I just ran this past May the Cincinnati Marathon once again and I am now working on qualifying for the Boston Marathon, which is hard.

I have found I am inspired each and every day by everyone! Each person has a passion for what they are doing on the elliptical, walking, running, spinning, or whatever your game may be! I love it. Without the support and passion from everyone around goals cannot be met! #TEMT has opened a new door of motivation for me as I move into my journey of running…I love it (people all over the world/country inspiring me). I know my goal of qualifying for Boston is different from others, but every goal is important and meeting your goals is an accomplishment from walking a mile to running a marathon or a triathlon. I love the stories and look forward to motivating others as you all motivate me!

~Joe (@jrsteach)