Weekly Feature: Worker Bee
1 Oct
Welcome to the Worker Bee series – a weekly feature that will highlight food bloggers who are also full-time working professional every Thursday night during my fall semester.
There are many days where I feel like I can’t fit it in, so I look to other bloggers for inspiration and guidance. This series is a way to see what some of our favorite bloggers do for a living along with how they incorporate healthy living!
First up on our list is Mara from What’s for Dinner:
1) What is your profession? I’m a middle school Spanish teacher in the suburbs of Chicago
2) Did you see always see yourself in that field? It’s totally nerdy, but yes I did! I can remember being a very little girl and telling my mom that I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. With the exception of a couple years where I wanted to be a musician (I played the flute), I never wavered from that path. The more specific “Spanish teacher” thing came a bit later, maybe Junior year of high school.
3) Does your day job incorporate healthy living? That would have to be a big fat (no pun intended) no! As teachers, we’re pretty much isolated into our one classroom for the day without much time to even move around much. There are constantly treats in the teachers’ lounge, and while “eating healthy” is mentioned a ton, it’s really not an emphasis or priority.
5) How do you incorporate healthy living into your job? I do my best to get OUT of my classroom and hand deliver notes to other teachers as often as I can instead of emailing. I almost always eat a healthy lunch, and I just recently shared my blog address with my whole staff! I keep healthy snacks in my desk, and while they don’t last long, they allow me to snack while everyone else eats the coffee cake and cookies in the lounge!
6) Can you provide readers with any tips on how to balance healthy living and working? What are some tricks you’ve picked up along the way? I have learned, after gaining almost 50 lbs my first year teaching, that its much easier to make the time to COOK a healthy meal than it is to just get fast food. No matter how tired I am at the end of the day, I’d be much more tired if I gained weight back. Pre-prepare things like chopped vegetables, browned ground beef, grilled chicken, marinated tofu, etc. so that when you get home, you just have to throw together a meal, rather than prepare the whole thing.
7) Where do you see yourself in 10 years? (professionally, personally, health-wise – this question is open ended!) Hopefully, I’ll still be in the same job as it’s really my dream job. BUT, I know I’ll be married (since that’s happening November 28!) and hopefully be a mom. I’m hoping I can be a good influence on my future children to love food and eat healthfully, as well as be as healthy, if not healthier, than I am now.
Thanks, Mara!
If you’d like to be considered for the Worker Bee series, please email me at onalobsterplacemat AT gmail DOT com.
What a great weekly column idea! I look forward to reading more of these!
This is a GREAT idea! As a full time + worker bee who started my blog in the summer when it seemed like a lot of people had tons of time off (and I had none!), I am always interested in reading about other bloggers who work as much as I do but still make the time for doing what they love!
MARA IS AWESOME!!
I love this new series!
And I completely agree with Mara – the time it takes to prepare healthy meals is so worth it!
Great idea! I love this!
Love Mara! I’d be proud to have her as a teacher to my girls: in Spanish and LIFE! She is a gem.
What a cool idea!!! This will be a great way to share how we all get by on a day to day basis with not enough hours in the day
this is awesome! What a great idea, Rose! I’d love to do one for you if you need people.
I love the new feature idea Rose. Very cool. I love hearing about how everyone fits it all in. I find I barely have time, just with school.
yay for my Mara!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yet another fab new feature! Love Mara:)
Cool feature!
this is a great idea Rose! Love it!
Great interview!
I Love Mara! This is such a fun feature on your blog, and look forward to reading other ones!
This is such a good idea! And What’s For Dinner is an awesome blog!
All your comments have made me blush! Thanks for the interview Rose
Great interview. Mara is so sweet. I love that you’re doing this series. I am still in awe of bloggers who work full time like myself and still post as often as they do. ROCK on!
What an awesome feature! I love it and can’t wait to read more!