I’m Anna, a qualified Teacher since 2005 and a Registered Health Coach since 2021. After juggling these 2 careers for the past few years, I am merging my roles to bring Health Coaching into education for the benefit of whole school communities.
Throughout my teaching career I have sadly gone through periods of falling out of love with what was my ‘dream job’ from childhood. I entered the profession fresh and keen but found the school environments I worked in year after year being drained of joy with the pressure constantly rising. Unable to take the heat any longer, I have witnessed colleagues being worn down and eventually leaving teaching for the sake of their health and happiness. Good teachers, who once loved their jobs, driven to hand in their notices due to stress and unmanageable workloads having a detrimental affect on their health. Those who felt the demands were too high, the scrutiny was unbearable, that they had lost their individuality in how and what they teach and were seeing children being put under increasing pressure too. Quite understandably, they could take it no longer. Working in the education system is notorious for being highly stressful and demanding, leaving little time or energy for much else in life. For the sake of our children and wonderful staff in the education system, I want to help implement change and I believe health coaching is the powerful conduit for such change. It will ensure that the health and well-being of all members of a school community is placed firmly at the top of the priority list, where it should be.
Having an accident which resulted in me breaking my back in 2020 was a catalyst for change in my own life. During a long recovery as my back healed and I learned to walk again I made a commitment early on to fully prioritise myself and my health for the first time in a long time. I created, and gradually adopted, my own ‘lifestyle prescription,’ taking determined but simple actions to make necessary diet and lifestyle changes and consistently embed these new habits and behaviours into my way of life, at a pace that suited me.
I ate healthily, choosing an abundance of nutrient dense foods, predominantly fibre rich plants alongside good sources of protein and essential fats, whilst limiting refined sugar and ultra processed foods. I prioritised sleep. I moved my body choosing physical activities that I enjoyed and that felt good. I established much better relationships with those around me, communicating my needs effectively, nurturing friendships and setting much needed boundaries. I took serious steps to manage stress levels, which was a key turning point for me as, previously, I hadn’t understood the catastrophic link between stress and poor health outcomes.
These changes supported me to get back on my feet and back to full health. I returned to work as a part time teacher with the knowledge that it was essential for me to maintain these changes in order to survive. To be the kind of teacher I wanted to show up as for the children I worked with, and to balance that with being the kind of Mum I wanted to be and that my daughters deserved, I had to continue to prioritise optimising my own health and well-being.
I had taken control of my life. I had climbed back in the driver’s seat of my health and well-being and there was only one way I intended to go – onwards and upwards! Therefore, I had to commit to taking care of myself first and foremost. If I didn’t do this then I was of no use to my family or my school community. To better take care of them, I had to look after myself first.
With this realisation, I have spent the past 5 years nourishing myself both on and off the plate and, since qualifying as a Health Coach, I love to promote the immense power we all have within our own hands to make positive changes and improvements to our health at any stage of life. I want to inspire others to believe in themselves and to confidently take responsibility for choosing and implementing small simple steps that, overtime, do build up to the big, sustainable win of better health and increased vitality for the longterm.
Nowhere needs this message and support more than our school communities. Our children and future generations deserve to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to improve their physical and mental health and deeply understand the links between the key pillars of health, such as how what we eat affects our gut health and this in turn can affect our mood, how screen time can affect our quality of sleep and how this in turn influences our hunger levels and our motivation the next day. They need to know that we can’t just outrun a poor diet. So often the root causes of most diseases and health issues are the result of our suboptimal lifestyle factors and choices. If we can help these young people optimise their choices we can stand them in good stead for avoiding ill health in the future. They really do have the power within their own hands. They need to know this and trust themselves to do the best for their bodies and minds. It is their responsibility at the end of the day.
Involving the whole school community will embed solid foundations of good nutrition and lifestyle choices to help all it’s members improve their health and well-being and deepen their knowledge of how they can do this easily and effectively. In my role as a Health Coach I now want to be that beacon of light guiding others towards their optimal state of health in order to feel good. I am dedicated to my mission of helping school communities move from simply surviving to truly thriving and I will relish in the joy of being their biggest cheerleader along the way.