I’m a high school teacher so my schedule during the year goes roughly as follows. Wake up: 6 am and maybe eat breakfast, drink 6 cups of coffee. Lunch: whatever I threw together, sometimes meal prepped if time. Dinner: usually a mixture of starved snacking and a meal from 5-9 pm. Yes, the bathroom breaks are nonexistent and yes, we take hours of work home and meal prepping even during the weekend is exhausting bc I finally get to “rest”. HOWEVER I have noticed that my winter break natural sleep schedule has me doing 16:8 so easily and comfortably! I stay awake until about 3, sleep until noon and eat at around 2 pm. I don’t feel like I’m forcing it, I eat normal portions, and I never feel the urge to snack. I guess this has me thinking about the “normal” work schedule and how it doesn’t allow us to listen to our bodies or do what works best for our health and wellness, both physically and mentally. As a scientist and biology teacher of teenagers I already knew this as a studied phenomenon, but experiencing it makes me want to reconsider even my career if it means I am at a healthy weight and simply feel better letting my body do what it needs.
Yes! (HS physics teacher here) While we were home in quarantine 3/2020-8/2020 I did so well with IF and keeping up with running. Even this past summer I decided not to work a summer job and did great at sticking to my goals. The stress combined with a hard and fast bell schedule is such a drag.
I have a degree in middle grades education; graduated in 2008 and jobs were scarce, so I ultimately (and thankfully) followed a different job path. Our biological clocks are important! We can train ourselves to get on a certain schedule, but when left up to our bodies, we often function better on a different schedule. I did a huge research paper about adolescent sleep, and there is a ton of research about teens needing to sleep in later than most other folks – I suspect that, if researched, we’d find similar results among the masses. Some people are night owls. Some people are early risers. Neither is better than the other, unless, of course you consider society as a whole saying we need to work from 8-5.
Regardless of all that, my advice to you is to stick with black coffee, tea, or just water in the morning. When I eat early in the day, it sets off a domino effect of hunger. You said your lunches are whatever you threw together; start working through your lunch period with the goal of having less work to take home at the end of the day. I do OMAD, but you could modify that and eat a small snack after work and then a full dinner around 7.
And ultimately, if you don’t love teaching, you can apply your skills to so many other jobs. Please know that your overall well-being is the most important factor here. You are under no obligation to keep working a job that keeps you from being your best self. I’m so so grateful the stars didn’t align for me to find a full time teaching position after graduation.
Do you actually drink 6 cups of coffee? I know very little of your life but it sounds like you are not satisfied/stressed with your current job. Your post strikes me as someone who is surviving and not thriving. Honestly, i found reading it kind of heart breaking as i can almost taste the sadness in your words. It could just be how you wrote it but it feels like your life is a living death. Im so sorry if im coming off as harsh but that is just how your post made me feel. I really hope you figure out a way to find your groove in life. Good luck