3 Easy Teacher Health Hacks

by Guy E. White on 10 February, 2015

Automate your health, feel great, and change the world.

I read a book about automating my savings a few years ago. Since then, I’ve saved thousands of dollars and made much, much more on investments. So, I thought, what would happen if I started to automate my health as well?

I’m a creature of habit, and it just so happens that many of my habits are bad ones. It’s far easier for me to walk across campus to the faculty lounge to grab a soda than it is to make it to the supermarket, get a bunch of bottles of water into my car, and get all of that to campus. It’s far easier to eat unhealthy, packaged foods, because, let’s face it, convenience is king.

Two years ago, I started wondering what would happen if I started taking daily, automated actions to change my health. This are the healthy habits that worked for me. As a disclaimer, I’m not a physician: talk to yours before you change anything in your diet or exercise habits.

Teacher Health Hack #1: Subscribe to Water

Recently, I discovered that Amazon offers a subscription service for goods of all kinds, including a case of 50oz FIJI Natural Artesian Water. I have three of these shipped to me every month. Each bottle becomes an ornament on my desk: a monolith of vitality that I must consume by the end of each day. Now, the trick is figuring out the timing so I don’t have to go to the bathroom between bells.

Teacher Health Hack #2: Stand At Your Desk

I’ve been long awaiting the Apple Watch to make its debut on my wrist. One of the articles on Apple’s website talks about the “stand” metric that will be used to help poor folks like me enjoy a greater level of health. This poses a significant problem for those of us that have school district issued desks from the 1970s that were probably created using the hulls of decommissioned Navy vessels. Ergonomics did not exist when these desks were created. So, what’s a guy to do?

Ikea provided the answer with this BEKANT Ergonomi motorized desk that can actually raise and lower to exactly the right level for your body. Goodbye thunder thighs.

Teacher Health Hack #3: Time Your Sit/Stand/Walk Periods

First, if you don’t have a smart phone and are somehow reading this, it’s time to get one: seriously, close this window, visit Apple.com and order your new phone. If you are, however, already an owner of the most powerful hand-held device ever created by man (you have access to the sum knowledge of humanity in your pocket, after all) then it’s time to set up some regular alarms on your phone to remind you when it’s time to stand and move. Also, these alarms can help you keep track of your classroom’s rhythms. If you are a primary school teacher that does not have the cacophony of bells blaring at you and your students all day, set a timer for the top of each hour (this is the time to move). For teachers with bells, let’s just make the bells the signal for you to get off your duff and start moving. Second, set a timer for 30 minutes into the period, this is time to stand. The assumption is, based upon the natural rhythms of most classes, you’ll probably move for about 15 minutes, getting students into an activity and providing instruction. Then you’ll sit down to take attendance. Once that timer goes off, time to stand.

A Favor

I’d love to learn more about the health hacks you’ve implemented in your own classrooms. Post a comment below, send me a photo, or simply comment on the post in which you discovered a link to this page. Cheers to your health!

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