29 calories

I’m about 50% heavier than I should be. I’ve been an adult for 20 years. If I assume that for each extra pound I’ve gained, I’ve eaten 3500 more calories than I should have, and that I needed 2000 calories a day, then in total, on average, I’ve eaten 29 calories more than I have burnt every day of my adult life.

29 calories – that’s half an Oreo or 1/10 of a mars bar or half an apple.

Now I appreciate that there are some assumptions here, but overall 29 calories doesn’t seem that much. I was expecting a number much bigger. 29 calories feels like it is less than my margin of error, and for all the days I’ve eaten too much, have I really exercised more, or eaten less on other days. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten 1/10 of a bar, and I don’t count my calories on a daily basis.

There is a huge amount of guilt and shame that seem to come with over eating in the UK. My mistakes are clearly evident to anyone I meet, but less obvious is the fact I don’t drink, or smoke. I read something that suggested that someone had taken this a step further and was handing out cards to “fat” people on a train, telling them to sort their lives out. How have we got to the point that this is considered acceptable behaviour?

Now I’m not in denial. I’m well aware that I’ve eaten too much, and that the solution is to eat less, better and exercise more. But does guilt and shame help that situation? Maybe temporarily – it might keep someone on a diet for a bit, but in the long term? I am also broadly happy with who I am and the choices I’ve made. Sure I’d like to be thinner, but I don’t regret the pleasure I’ve gained from some amazing food, or the comfort I received from eating at tough times.

So I’m going to try something different. I will accept that I am ok just the way I am, but I’ll continue to try to find ways to improve my diet and increase my exercise, that don’t include shame or blame…

The sink or swim approach to learning…

Throwing people in the deep end is a pretty quick and dirty way of working out who has the skills to learn to swim, and who hasn’t.  As a teacher it is easy, let survival of the fittest kick in, the strong will learn, everyone else won’t, either way, you end up with some students who survive and some that drown or get out of the pool.  Of course, I’m really using this as a metaphor, but it occurs to me that perhaps this method of teaching is used a little too often in the real world.  It is effective, but anyone who has been the person in the “pool” knows that it isn’t a particularly pleasant way to learn.   Yes, you may find that you succeed, and that others don’t, but it can be overwhelming, scary and exhausting.  And is it the best way of learning to swim?  Does it weed out the best swimmers, or just those that cope well learning in this way?

The problem is that many teachers learnt this way, and feel that if they survived it, it should be ok for the next generation.  And teachers in the broadest sense (and by that I mean anyone who is helping facilitate someone else’s learning be that at work, or in an educational establishment or on the football pitch) sometimes forget what it felt like, or remember but simply don’t have the time, energy or expertise to create a different way.

I have spent time in the “pool” and I have spent time as a teacher but ultimately whilst a valid method, I think it should be used as a method of last resort.

If you are the person in the pool right now, remember you can ask for help, challenge the process, and ultimately believe in yourself.  If you believe you can do it you can.