The Teacher Burnout Podcast

Self Care for Educators Part #2: Prioritizing Healthy Eating
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Today I have a bonus episode for you. That's part of my self-care for educators series that I did a couple of summers ago. And I am sharing it with you again as a bonus, because I think it's so important as educators. To prioritize our self care in the summer. And these episodes are great tools to do that.
So this is a four-part series that I hope you find helpful. And I hope that you take away something to really focus on your self-care this year and focus on your own wellbeing.
Welcome to the Teacher Burnout Podcast, where we explore the challenges of burnout for teachers and share practical strategies to support teacher well being. I'm your host Barb Flowers. If you're a teacher looking for ways to prevent burnout or an educational leader searching for strategies to support your team, this podcast is for you.
Let's dive in. Hey everyone and welcome to the teacher burnout podcast. Today we're going to be talking about self care for educators. This is the second part of a [00:01:00] series and we're going to be talking about prioritizing healthy eating. So I think this is such an important topic and when we think of self care we usually don't necessarily think about eating healthy.
So we're going to talk about why that's so important today. So I wanted to start by just reminding you the importance of what self care does for us. So according to an article by Psychology Today, I shared this last time, quality self care is linked to improve mental health with benefits like enhanced self esteem, self worth, and Increased optimism, a positive outlook on life and lower levels of anxiety and depression.
It also can help build your resilience so you can bounce back from stressful situations better. So that's why we talk about self self care so much and why it's so important is because there's so much that you can do. link to our mental health with self care and it helps build that resilience. So if we get stressed, we're able to bounce back versus, maybe getting overwhelmed or chronically stressed, which [00:02:00] eventually will lead to burnout.
So I wanted to start by just talking about how nutrition has an impact on our overall mental, physical, and emotional health, because I don't know about you, but when I eat healthy, I feel so much better. Not only do I feel like Yes, I got this. I'm so healthy and you know, I'm gonna lose a few pounds because I'm on plan with a nutrition program or just feeling better about myself because I could stick to healthy eating, but there's also so many other benefits.
The first one is energy levels. Having a balanced diet ensures that you have an adequate intake of healthy carbohydrates. which gives you energy because some diets and plans that people follow take out carbohydrates and you need those Carbohydrates to give you energy it also helps with our physical health and disease prevention So this is probably the one we know about the most that nutrition helps us Have a healthy body weight it supports optimal organ function and it reduces the risk of chronic [00:03:00] diseases such as heart disease diabetes cancers obesity So having that diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats, it provides our bodies the essential nutrients and antioxidants that promote cellular health but also protect our body against stress.
So it not only helps us physically, but it helps against stress. It helps disease prevention. There's just so many things nutrition does for us, but, it also helps our immune system function. So, I don't know what type, what level you're teaching at or an educator in, but But I'm in an elementary building where kids are always sick and they don't have the best hygiene practices.
So their noses are snotty. You have to remind them to sanitize and wash their hands. And so there's always sicknesses going around and having adequate nutrition is crucial for building up your immune system. So having nutrients like vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, and antioxidants support immune function that will help fight [00:04:00] off those infections and all the sicknesses going around in your school.
And it also will help have faster recovery. So if you do get sick, you should be able to recover faster. Good nutrition also helps our skin health. So your skin looks better, especially if you're hydrating a lot. It protects against sun damage. It promotes collagen. So your skin just looks better when you eat healthier.
It also helps our digestive health. So having a healthy diet that has fiber rich foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, it promotes good digestive health. The biggest thing I think for me that nutrition does that I wanted to focus on is mental health and cognition. So nutrition influences our brain function and mental well being.
I think this is the area we don't always think about when it comes to nutrition. We think about how it affects our weight and our physical health, but it really does affect our mental health. Certain nutrients, such as omega three, fatty acids, B vitamins, and antioxidants are linked to improve cognitive function, [00:05:00] memory and mood regulation, which is why, you, I don't know if you've heard, but about fish oil being so important for you, because it really does help with your memory and your mood.
On the other hand, diets and high processed foods It's unhealthy fats, added sugars. They're associated with increased risk of mental health issues like depression and anxiety. So having healthy foods helps improve our cognitive function and having unhealthy foods actually helps, um, to make us more at risk for depression and anxiety.
I wanted to share just a couple of studies with you as well. According to an article from Very Well Fit, diets high in processed foods usually mean that less real food is consumed, which results in the body becoming deficient in vitamins, minerals that are needed to support your mood, emotional health, and overall well being.
According to an article from Harvard in 2023, People who eat diets high in ultra processed foods, such as packaged cereals, frozen meals, sweets, they have a [00:06:00] higher chance of feeling depressed and anxious than those who eat fewer of those foods, and they have an increased risk of cognitive decline. And then according to an article from the New York Times, a 2022 study that followed nearly 11, 000 Brazilian adults over 10 years found a correlation between eating ultra processed foods and worse cognitive function.
So their ability to learn, remember, reason, and solve problems. So there's a lot of research just right there. And I know there's a ton more that talk about just how processed foods impact your brain health and your mental health. I read a book called Hooked, which I would recommend by Michael Moss. He does a lot of research on how foods are made to be addictive.
Processed foods are made to be addictive in labs. They actually, they, formulate it so that I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in just a moment, [00:07:00] but first, I want to I hope you enjoyed this video. Bye! If you just have a package of Oreos open and you start eating them, it's really hard to stop.
It takes a lot of willpower to stop. And that's because the food was designed that way. So that's a really good read if you want to know more about how addictive foods are. And he actually talks about how now, like Oreos back when, you know, 20 years ago versus Oreos now aren't even the same because they've learned how to make them more addictive so that we can't stop eating them.
So. Like I said, a lot of times we beat ourselves up for not being able to put some of these processed foods down and we feel bad about ourselves for not eating healthier, but they are made to be addictive. So if you can avoid processed foods, That's just the best way. Not to say you can't have any, but you do have to be careful and having more knowledge about that really helps.
So when you eat healthy, your body functions better and you feel better. And as an educator, we [00:08:00] want to make sure that we're taking the time to be the healthiest version of ourselves so we can be healthy and not only our professional life, but our personal lives as well. So now I want to talk about practical tips for incorporating healthy eating habits, because, one of the trainers I work out with, I love that she says being prepared.
Isn't half the battle. It is the battle that's autumn Calabrese. And I love that saying, because if I'm not prepared with healthy eating, Then I just don't eat healthy, you know, if I everybody is always like, oh you do so good you always meal prep that's because I know if I don't meal prep and Prepare then I'm not gonna eat healthy because it's so much easier to just grab packaged foods or just grab something That's not healthy.
So The best way to have a healthier diet is meal prepping. So I like to meal prep on the weekends and I try to meal prep on Thursday nights because then I'm meal prepped for the following weekend and it helps me, eat healthier, but it also helps me save money because I'm very, like [00:09:00] I create a meal plan for myself and then one for my family and what they're going to eat for the week.
Not that we always eat different things. Um, but then I can make a grocery list and I try to buy just what's on my grocery list. grocery list, which helps me save money. And I do grocery orders so that it saves me time. I can sit in my kitchen and, um, you know, I shop at Meijer, shop at Meijer online, put in my grocery order, see what I already have in the pantry.
a ton of time. But if you don't like doing that, some people don't like it. Still having a grocery list that you stick to is really important because when you go in the grocery store, it's so easy to walk by snacks and be like, Oh, that looks good. I'll have to try that. And one it's money you don't need to spend, and it's extra food that you're going to want to snack on if it's in the house. , just a tip there, but tips for meal prepping. So there's different ways that you can meal prep. I would say right now is probably the easiest time to find ideas for meal prep, because it's all over social media. [00:10:00] Instagram has so many meal ideas and meal plans for healthy eating, and you can find people doing all kinds of different nutrition plans and get lots of ideas.
I love to follow people online and see how they meal prep. So I've done it a couple of different ways and I wanted to share that. The first way I've done it is I prepped foods as individual meals. So for example, I make these, healthy gluten free banana chocolate chip muffins, and I would make 12 and a serving is like three of them.
So I'd put three in a container and. I have containers for each day so that when I go to work I can just grab a container and there's my breakfast. I've also done prepped breakfast sandwiches where I prep the sandwich, put it in the freezer, and then when I'm ready to heat them up I just heat them up at work so I can just take a sandwich I'm ready to go.
Same with like lunch and dinner. I have everything like a salad, I'd have it already made and ready to go in five containers, one for each day, and then maybe a piece of fish or [00:11:00] chicken with it in five containers so that I just grab my food and I go. So I've done that before. It is a little bit more time consuming, but if that's the case.
Something that's helpful for you. You could do that. I've even had like veggies in little bags of snacks that I could grab. But what I do now that saves me a lot of time, and it seems to be the easiest, is I prep foods in bulk. So like I'll make a bunch of chicken or a bunch of fish and I'll just have it in one big container.
And then each day just grab what I need. I'll make a big salad. I make mashed sweet potatoes, things like that. I cut up a bunch of veggies. Like I'll just have a big container of cucumbers and just grab what I need then each day. And then I also do it for my kids where for dinner, if I don't feel like cooking or it's a busy night, I just take all my meal prep food, put it out, heat up what I need to heat up.
And we kind of have a buffet of healthy foods that they can pick what they want to eat, and I pick what I want to eat. So that's another easy way to do it. Also get foods that are easy to prep or kind of already prepped. So foods like [00:12:00] rotisserie chickens. I love to get those when I go grocery shopping.
You know, just get protein pasta and you can get the frozen meatballs. That's an easy dinner I make with my family and add in some frozen broccoli. I love to buy like canned chicken, canned tuna, things like that, frozen vegetables that you can steam, just things that are really easy. So, yeah, that's one way to save time and eat healthy prepped foods.
And then another thing I've done in the past, I haven't done this as much recently, but I made crock pot freezer meals. So there's a lot of people online you can follow that you can make like 20 meals at once and have them in the freezer and just add simple sides, like steam some vegetables, make some rice, whatever you want with it, and thaw them out, and you throw them in the crock pot the next day.
So that's another great way is you bulk like meal prep once a month and make those 20 meals or whatever you need, and then you can have those for dinner and have the leftovers for lunch. So another way to do that, so I've done that with stuffed [00:13:00] peppers, pork roast, chicken with like peach toppings.
There's all kinds, like I said, if you , Google it or look it up on social media. There's so many people that are doing that. So that's another way that can help you stay on track and meal prep and be planned for the week. So now I want to talk about overcoming challenges because I've been As educators, I feel like there's a lot of challenges with food everywhere.
There are so many foods that are unhealthy that are out. I know we have parents who will donate, donuts and drop off. We get pizza. working in an elementary school, students always have birthday treats, holiday parties. There's always something going on and definitely like, around December, the treats are insane.
So certain times of year are worse, but, there are treats everywhere. So you need strategies to deal with that. So one strategy I wanted to share is with birthday treats from kids. So I rarely eat the birthday treat from a kid. If they give, give it to me at school, I usually take it [00:14:00] home for my husband or my kids, or just say, no thanks.
If it was like a present from a parent or, you know, a family, they got me something special. What I'll do is I'll take that home and I'll have a bite or two with my family. But that way I'm not just sitting in my office eating it all. And so one, one way I keep myself accountable is I'll text my husband and say, Hey, I got a really delicious donut.
I'm going to bring it home. So expect to see that donut when I get home. Because once I text him that, then I'm like, if I don't bring that donut home, he's going to be like, Barb, you ate the donut. So. That's my little accountability when I get a bunch of treats from kids. And then another tip is to get co workers on board with healthy eating.
So in the office that I currently work in, you know, we've all been kind of on our own journeys, but focusing on our health, which is great because it makes it less tempting to bring in treats because the other ladies I work with are doing so well, I don't want to sabotage anything that they're doing.
We've also done Weight Watchers at our school, so that was fun because there were about 15 to 20 [00:15:00] of us all focusing on eating healthy. So we would share ideas, we were excited in the lounge, you know, to show what healthy things we were eating at lunch. So that's an idea. And then we've had healthy luncheons where you bring just healthy sides.
People who don't watch what they eat, didn't like that as much. , but we do try to have healthy luncheons or at our luncheons, we try to have healthy options like salads and veggie trays and things like that. So there's always something good to eat. Another tip is to bring your own healthy snacks. So if you have the desire to snack on something, you're snacking on something healthy that you brought.
And with that, I want to give you the. So I just wanted to avoid trigger snacks and keeping them at school. So for me, like, I keep hearts of palm. Canned hearts of palm are amazing. I love them. I keep those in my desk. I keep tuna in case I forget a protein. I keep a protein shake so if I'm really hungry I can have a protein shake.
But I used to keep, like, Weight Watchers, chocolate bars, things that weren't terrible but [00:16:00] I knew that those were trigger snacks for me. If I was stressed or if I didn't have a lot going on, I would want to just eat those snacks. So be careful with that, especially in your classroom. If you have candy for the kids, it's easy to have lunch and want chocolate and say, Oh, I know I have candy for my students and go grab it.
So be careful with snacks that trigger you. So if you do want candy for your students or something like that, pick candy that you don't that way or not. You know, wanting to go eat it. Another tip is to practice stress, stress management techniques, like taking deep breaths, going for a walk, just taking a pause.
Because one area I know I'm really bad at when it comes to unhealthy eating is I am a stress eater. I eat when I'm emotional, you know, eat based on emotions. Because if I deal with a stressful situation at work, I am like reaching for, I'll look in the cupboards, like where is, The chocolate where is something that I can snack on.
And so me being aware of that has helped also just pausing and being mindful before reaching [00:17:00] for food is always helpful. And then having an accountability partner. So if it's a teacher you work with or someone else in the school that you can say, Hey, don't let me have, you know, another cookie. Or if you're in the lounge and there's cookies and you're sitting there talking, say, I'm not going to grab a cookie.
As soon as you say it out loud and tell people, you know, they'll hold you accountable. So. That is really helpful. And then my last tip is to stay hydrated. Remember to drink at least half your body weight in water. I feel like right now the in thing is these big water bottles. From Amazon. I just got one that is 64 ounces.
I love it. So I try to drink two of these a day, but making a habit to drink water before you eat can be helpful because sometimes when you're hungry You're actually thirsty, but your body is giving you signals that you're hungry. So drinking lots of water is helpful. So now that we've talked about strategies for how to avoid those temptations, I wanted to just give a couple of quick tips on how to eat or what nutrition plan to follow [00:18:00] because there's so many nutrition plans and the thing that I will say is Most nutrition plans will work if you follow it, but the biggest thing you want to figure out is what is going to be s s sustainable for you, because, for example, keto works to take out carbohydrates.
You lose weight quickly, but if it's not sustainable, you'll gain the weight back and you'll feel bad about yourself. It's, it's not a good mental game. So you want to pick a nutrition plan that's good for you mentally, And it's good for you physically. So you want to focus on on process foods, fruits, vegetables, healthy carbs, lean proteins, healthy fats.
So you don't want to cut any food groups out. Me personally, I follow the to be mindset nutrition plan where there's no calorie counting, not that calorie counting is bad. It's just for me, sometimes mentally, it can be hard on myself. I can be really hard on myself about it. So if, if you like calorie counting, if you like counting points, then that works for you.
That's great. , for me, it doesn't. [00:19:00] My plan, I focus on tracking food. I focus on drinking lots of water, eating vegetables. I try to focus on the foods I can have versus obsessing over what I can't eat. I Because my goal is to just change my relationship with food so that it's healthy, so that everything I'm thinking around nutrition is just what's good for me, what's good for my mental health, what's good for my physical health, and it's not about depriving myself.
So if you are interested in that diet, I have some information. You can fill out a form in my, if you click the link in my bio on my beating educator burnout Instagram. You'll see that I have the link there, that you can fill out about a self care plan and I can help you with that. But really, any nutrition plan will work if you're focusing on nutrition overall and just eating healthy, having a healthy mindset about it and not beating yourself up.
If you do eat processed foods or you do go off track, the goal is just that you are trying to better yourself and be more aware of the nutrition that you're [00:20:00] having and what impacts it has on your body. So, and remember, you know, our nutrition, it has a huge impact on our physical, mental, and emotional health.
And, If we just want to be the healthiest versions of ourself, then nutrition is a component that we need to work on with our self care and eating nutritious foods. It can just do so much for having a positive relationship with our bodies, with ourselves, and just being happier overall. I hope that you found this episode helpful.
If you are a teacher who wants to overcome stress, burnout, and overwhelm, join me in the resilient educator academy.
This is such a great place to get group coaching Monday, motivation access to all of my courses, which I add new courses throughout the year, and just a supportive community of like-minded educators. Thank you so much for joining us today for another episode of the teacher burnout podcast, make sure to follow me on Instagram at Barb flowers, coaching.com. If you like the show, share this episode with a friend.
Keep in mind, you have the power to shape your life. According to [00:21:00] the mindset you choose. I hope you have a great week and I'll see you back here next time.
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