A Letter to My Student About Goal Setting, Body Image, and Healthy Living

I’ve talked about goal-setting before on educationrickshaw.com, including the SMART model. As my school nears Student Led Conferences, using Seesaw as our digital portfolio, my students have all set goals to achieve during the remainder of their time under my care. While most of my students chose goals centered on improving in a particular academic subject or skill, one athletic student set the goal to completely eliminate unhealthy foods from his diet. The following is a letter I sent to to this student and his family after he had just resisted the temptation to eat junk food during a class party. 

March 28, 2017

Dear S,

I’m writing you tonight to tell you how proud I was when I saw you pass up the opportunity for sweets and junk food during the class party. It was your first big test that you faced since you set the ambitious goal to completely eliminate unhealthy foods from your diet. I was even more amazed when you looked ahead to your birthday and considered not having any sweets at your own birthday party! Since we are partners in this goal-setting process, I thought I’d e-mail you to talk more about the subject of body image and healthy living before student-led conferences.

The most important message that I want to communicate is that you must make sure that you are choosing to eat healthier not because you want to “lose weight”, but because you truly want to lead a healthier lifestyle. Losing weight and healthy living are two different things. There is no reason that you should be thinking about weight loss at your age. As you grow, sometimes you may gain weight because you are gaining muscle, or because you are growing taller, or for reasons that have nothing to do with being healthy. As small changes in weight happen throughout your life, you must always remember that you have an amazing body that is unique and special. Healthy living means maintaining positive feelings towards your body. You are perfectly YOU, and you should be proud of the body you were given.

As you go forward, I also want to make sure that you are taking care of yourself. As you continue your regimen, remember that eating less is not your goal. You still need to consume the amount of calories necessary to keep your body active and healthy. This will require plenty of fruits and vegetables, and reasonable portions of whole grains, meat, and dairy. When you are playing sports, monitor your energy. If you are feeling light headed and dizzy, it might mean that you need to be eating more healthy foods and drinking more water to make up for the lost calories in your diet.

I look forward to hearing how it goes throughout this year!

Sincerely,

Mr. Zach

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