Episode 21: More Naps in the New Year – Kids Share Realistic Resolutions

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. If you have already lost all hope of hanging on to a new year's resolution, you're not alone. It is something entire family struggle with this time of year on this episode of the super cast health and wellness specialist, McKinley Withers shares his thoughts on realistic resolutions and how to make them last working together as a family. But first we have some fun with Riverton elementary school students who have their own ideas about the best resolutions, like taking more naps in the new I'm Dr. Godfrey, what's your name? Kenneth. I want to ask you, do you know what a new year's resolution is? No. No. Do you have any guesses? Yeah. What do you think it might be?

McKinley Withers:
It might be where like, I, it, like, if you were like, promise yourself that, that like, to eat more healthier or to work out more.

Anthony Godfrey:
How did you know what my new year's resolutions were?

McKinley Withers:
Cause my mom does it, have you made any new year's resolutions? Yeah. What is your new year's to get, take, to give my dog more attention.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, did your dog ask you to do that as a new year's resolution? I've got an idea. Good luck with your new year's resolution. I'm Dr. Godfrey. What's your name? Hi Brock. Can you think of any new year's resolutions you would want to make

McKinley Withers:
At Marvin? I think I should nap more. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you want more naps? Do you like naps? What do you like about naps?

McKinley Withers:
The pivot gives me more energy to play.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's very cool. So you decide, I invest in a nap and I can play with more energy. What do you like to play

McKinley Withers:
Tech tag?

Anthony Godfrey:
So you take a good nap and there's more tag left in you, right? Do you know what? When you're my age, you'll probably like naps even more. So you have a lot to look forward to tell me your name, Megan. Hi, Megan. What grade are you in? Do you know where the new year's resolution is?

McKinley Withers:
It's a goal that you make for the new year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Very good. Did you make any new year's resolutions? Oh, tell me your four resolutions. They're up here on the board where we're standing outside of Megan's classroom. And there's a, there's a card for a set of four cards, 2020, and each one has a number on it and each one has a resolution inside. So will you talk us through your resolution scan?

McKinley Withers:
So my first resolution was, I will serve people by looking for the, for those who need help, at least every Wednesday. And I can help them. And I drew a picture and it's like,

Anthony Godfrey:
You're saying, let me help. Who are you helping in the picture?

McKinley Withers:
Just some random person that can't tie their shoe.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Oh, they can't tie their shoe. I see the laces there. Okay. Let's see.

McKinley Withers:
The second one was, I will continue to learn my Spanish. Tell me something in Spanish. I don't know.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. That's a good resolution. I love that. Yeah.

McKinley Withers:
And then my third one is I will try to be kinder to everyone by being more patient with everyone. Always. My last one is I'll get better up here. Know by practicing at least 15 minutes every day, all day, wait, 15 minutes a day, every day. And then there's a picture of me doing PT.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a really good drawing. And I like that. Your hands are up and your fingers are out and you're just ready to bam on the keyboard. All right. Thanks for talking to me, Megan. Good to meet you. I am Dr. Godfrey. Tell me your name. Naomi. Naomi, do you have any ideas for what you might do as a new year's resolution?

McKinley Withers:
Being nice to others?

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great one. So what are some things you could do to be nice to others?

McKinley Withers:
Help them get up and play with other people.

Anthony Godfrey:
A lot of people have trouble keeping their resolutions and your resolution is to be kind to other people. How long do you think you can keep that resolution

McKinley Withers:
For like 50 years?

Anthony Godfrey:
For 50 years. But in 50 years in your sixties, you're just going to say forget it. It's over. I'm not being nice anymore.

McKinley Withers:
Oh, well, my mom told me I have to be nice to my big sisters. I have three sisters.

Anthony Godfrey:
Can you think of any new year's resolutions? Your parents might've made?

McKinley Withers:
I don't really know if they made one.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Can you make a guess at what they might've made? What are some things they might do?

McKinley Withers:
Like keep, so they might make me clean my room every day.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, their resolution would be to maybe make you do something. Yeah. Oh, all right. It sounds like my type of resolution. Do you need to clean your room more often? Naomi. Okay. Do you? Yeah. What happened?

McKinley Withers:
I have a lot of stuff on my floor

Anthony Godfrey:
By Steph. Do you mean clothing? Ah, do you just stuffed things under the bed and into the drawer? Do you put them where they go?

McKinley Withers:
Sometimes I, you stuff it under my bed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you, are you surprised that I knew that you put things under the bed?

McKinley Withers:
Yeah, but my sister got sick of me, like sleeping in the room. Cause I was snoring a lot, but I don't actually snore. I keep telling her

Anthony Godfrey:
Now you keep telling her that.

McKinley Withers:
Yeah. And that's why you have her own rooms now

Anthony Godfrey:
Because of your snoring that never really happened now. How do you know you're not snoring if you're asleep when it happens?

McKinley Withers:
Well, I don't know. I'm just breathing quietly. Any Lisa calls it snoring and she took a video of me sleep.

Anthony Godfrey:
She took a video of you sleeping. Wow. You guys were going to end up in separate bedrooms from the start and you can see this coming a mile away. So she filmed you snoring? Yes. And yet you still say despite video evidence that you were not snoring,

McKinley Withers:
But you at least deleted that video. Cause you didn't want me to see,

Anthony Godfrey:
She didn't want you to see, I saw it on mom's phone. Oh, so she deleted it, but your mom still had a copy?

McKinley Withers:
No, my mom like video in it too.

Anthony Godfrey:
Really? So there are two videos of you snoring and you still claim it didn't happen. Yeah, really? Wow. Okay. Well I'm, you know what, there's more to you than meets the eye. I'm pretty impressed. I'm Dr. Godfrey. What's your name? What grade are you in? Sam. Do you know where the new year's resolution is? What is it?

McKinley Withers:
It is a goal for a new year. That goes until the next year. Most of the time.

Anthony Godfrey:
Very good. Most of the time? Yes. Sometimes that's right. People don't always make it all here. Did your parents make any new year's resolution? No idea. Okay. Do you have any guesses what they might make if they're making a resolution?

McKinley Withers:
My dad would definitely do try to go to Buffalo, wild wings.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think that's a good resolution. Tell me your name. Ava. Eva. Do you know what a new year's resolution is? A new year's resolution is something that mostly adults make and their resolution is because the new year is starting. They think, well, in this new year, I'm going to do something different. If you were to make a new year's resolution, something you wanted to do differently in 2020, what would you do?

McKinley Withers:
I would want to go swimming, everything,

Anthony Godfrey:
Go swimming every day. That would be your new year's resolution. Any guess what? Your mom and dad might've made as a new year's resolution?

McKinley Withers:
I think they were like not working anymore,

Anthony Godfrey:
Not working anymore. That's a good new year's resolution, but it does come with consequences. Doesn't it? You might not get to swim as much if they didn't work, their new year's might interfere with your new year's resolution.

McKinley Withers:
That's awesome. Thanks to all the students at Riverton elementary school for sharing their thoughts on new year's resolutions that kids can keep. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back health and wellness specialist, McKinley weathers has some advice for parents and students on how to make our resolutions last be, you want to know what's going on in Jordan school district, maybe see your child or a friend featured in a school story, check out our website@jordandistrict.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Jordan district let's connect today.

Anthony Godfrey:
It says McKinley. Weather's third time here with us. He's our health and wellness specialist for Jordan school district. But he's also one of my favorite people to talk with just because he has such great ideas and such insight into how to improve life just on a day-to-day basis, by changing our perspective, changing some of our habits and just changing the way that we approach life and the many things that it throws at us. And I know we're in a mode with the new year either. You're trying to keep your new year's resolutions or you've already abandoned them because many of them don't last very long, but there are some things that we can do to take better care of ourselves and to better meet our goals and, and to really advance and, and, and the little decisions make a big impact. And, and Mr. Mr. Weathers has such great advice on this front that I thought it was timely to have him back and, and talk with us about how we can improve our lives with small decisions and small changes in perspective. So welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be back. You're the first, you're the first person with friend of the show status. So there may be others to come, but it's I'm grateful

Speaker 3:
For that. And it's definitely going in my gratitude

Anthony Godfrey:
Journal. Now that's perfect. That's a perfect segue into the gratitude journal and that's, that's one aspect of having a healthy, healthy life style and, and really good self-care is, is gratitude. That's one important component of self-care. So tell us a little bit about that. Mckinney

Speaker 3:
Is actually it's funny that we, that we started here, but there's actually some research that people are more committed to goals who are, who experienced gratitude more often. So you are more likely to stay committed to, you know, even something like a new year's resolution, if you're experiencing gratitude more often, because you're thinking a little bit more about your future. You're thinking a little bit more about what's gotten you to where you are. So having a practice of gratitude actually does habits. So,

Anthony Godfrey:
So gratitude is a way of reflecting on what has gone right in your life, or what has helped you, or what resources you have available to you. And then assessment of those aspects of your life can really be a good launch to making improvements and actually achieving the goals that we set,

Speaker 3:
Right? Yeah. It, it kind of, it can help instill a sense of hope that your goals are worthwhile and meaningful and that they are going to pay off. If you approach it, starting with you don't even have to be grateful for anything related to the goals, but experiencing gratitude often will help you be more

Anthony Godfrey:
Committed. How do you think parents can help their kids be more grateful and be focused on gratitude?

Speaker 3:
There are, there, there are a lot of ways to increase gratitude. And I think that it's important to find what works for you and your family, because if you force your child to write down three things they're grateful for before they can have their dinner, it may not be, you know, as effective as, you know, something that they choose or that they're a little bit more invested in having a little bit of choice is important, but gratitude journals are a big one, you know, just having, or even just the daily family practice of hunting, the good things that have happened, hunt the good stuff as a way of phrasing that. So, you know, just identifying three positive things that have happened rather than maybe the, the few negative things that have happened can instill kind of that appreciation for the things that do go, right? Because in any given day, there's at least a few things that have gone well.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've heard you talk about this a couple of different times in front of different groups, students, administrators, teachers. And the thing I find interesting is that as I listened to the advice, we've heard a lot about gratitude. We've heard a lot about being grateful, various ways that we can do that. It's deceptively simple. And I think some of the things we'll talk about today are deceptively simple. It seems like it would just be so easy to do that. We overlooked the power that pausing and really focusing on being grateful can have

Speaker 3:
Yeah, it, it really is a, it's a simple strategy, but knowing that gratitude matters is not enough. It's, it's all about making it a repeated practice that feels natural and easy to, to, to continue. So whatever that looks like, if it is a gratitude journal, if it's going to be a pain for you to get out your gratitude journal, and you're not going to want to do it, pick a different goal, right? Find another strategy that you're actually going to look forward to, or you're going to be invested in. Are there other, some other for students

Anthony Godfrey:
And parents that they can use besides a gratitude journal?

Speaker 3:
Well, one, one way to also foster good relationships is pausing to think people. So that's also an ex a gratitude practice. So if there was, you know, once a week, you wanted to call somebody or reach out to somebody and just thank them for something that had that, that had happened. A handwritten note or letter can mean a lot. I had a principal that was really good about that. And I, I think that the interesting thing about gratitude is the benefits of the gratitude giver may actually outweigh the benefits to the reader.

Anthony Godfrey:
[Inaudible] Writing a letter, reading an in person, even just having a daily practice, calling them out.

Speaker 3:
Yeah, yeah. Thinking

Anthony Godfrey:
That that will really boost the giver as well as the recipient in terms of their overall health.

Speaker 3:
And a lot of people might might use prayer as a gratitude practice. There are a lot of ways to find gratitude.

Anthony Godfrey:
Awesome. Ideas about gratitude. The idea is to act, not just think about it. I'm grateful you're here. Yeah. Thanks for [inaudible]. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back more self-care tips and how to maybe take a better approach to thinking about those new year's resolutions. When we come back with McKinley weathers, stick around.

McKinley Withers:
Hey, you okay? Yeah. I just have a lot of stuff going on in my head. You need to talk, dude, stop hiding behind the happy face. Talk with no filter, get the safe UT app, download it now available on the Apple app store, Google play or safe ut.org

Anthony Godfrey:
Back with McKinley weathers. Thanks for joining us. I just said, thanks for joining us. Someone experiencing gratitude, and I am very grateful for our listeners out there. Thank you for, for tuning in and making us a part of your lives. Mckinley's here to talk with us about self care and making those resolutions stick or meeting the goals that we've, that we hope to achieve. And gratitude is a big part of that. We talked about research that suggests that those who are grateful also are able to better meet their goals, but there are some other things that we need to do just in terms of self care, in order to even be in a place to make advancements and, and improve our situation. And you've talked in the past McKinley about the need for ongoing self care. Tell us, tell us a little bit about that.

McKinley:
Well, if you think about wellness in general, it's not something that can be saved up or stored. Everything that you do to improve your wellness will work, but it's not going to last. You can't have a really good year and then stop or you're just never going to have another struggle again. Right? So it's important that we are constantly maintaining it. It can't be saved. I like to call it the wellness waterfall, so it can dry up easily if there's not something feeding it. It's more like a waterfall, not a reservoir. You can't store wellness and then rely on that really good year when times are tough. You have to maintain the same rituals, habits or routines when times are tough and when things are going well.

Anthony Godfrey:
How do we do that? That seems overwhelming to try to keep constantly feeding that need for self care.

McKinley:
It can seem overwhelming, but that's why it's really important that we focus on small changes that are very easy to maintain. An example of that would be, some companies have created what they call an irresistible staircase to encourage people to use the stairs more. So it can be hard if you're faced with either an elevator or stairs and you're going to the sixth floor. You'll probably naturally default to the easiest option, which is the elevator. But if the elevator is difficult to find, and before you get to the elevator you face the most beautiful staircase you've ever seen, oak stairs with big windows and an amazing view. That's going to be more attractive than trying to find the elevator. Finding ways we can make our healthy habits a little bit more irresistible.

Anthony Godfrey:
Parents working with students. If your child has difficulty getting to homework, the irresistible staircase comes in where you create an environment where doing homework pleasant. A well lit spot, maybe with a snack that's quiet. That's a place where you want to be.

Having some way that it's not choosing between, I have all of my favorite video games right here on a comfortable couch and amazing snacks. And then there's that dingy table over there with a textbook on it and a pencil. Any kid is going to go for the video games. So how can we make it more specific?

Anthony Godfrey:
This was my dad's theory with television, because we had a black and white television all through the eighties. It was the nineties before we got a color television and you actually had to turn the TV off and on for the horizontal hold to take place. Otherwise, the picture would just kind of scroll. It was impossible to watch. I didn't realize that M.A.S.H. and Happy Days were actually filmed in color until the nineties, because his theory was kind of like the opposite of the irresistible staircase. If we have a terrible TV, maybe the kids won't watch it. I still got my pop culture fix, but I think to an extent, it's true. It was kind of a miserable experience compared to what it could have been. Yeah. And so, actually in a previous podcast where we talked about nutrition, the idea is to have healthy snacks easily available and readily available. And the problem for me personally is that there's a lot of convenience associated with foods that are terrible for me.

McKinley:
Yes. I think it's very convenient to pull out my phone and burn time as opposed to do the things that they should be doing.

Anthony Godfrey:
And that's probably very true for students too. If it's irresistible to you to pull out the phone and it seems very resistible to be working on homework, then where are you going to end up spending your time. With the things that are easy and attractive

McKinley:
Yeah. There's actually a way you could join those two together with it's called temptation bundling.

Anthony Godfrey:
Bundling temptation does sounds like something that Verizon offers, right?

McKinley:
They might bundle and save. So if you can find something that is tempting and enticing for you that you actually enjoy, you can bundle it with the thing that you should do, but you're not as inclined to do. I think it's important that you find ways to actually look forward to the thing you have to do. So if that means every time, if you like soda rather than just say, you've got another goal that you're working on, every time before you're about to sit down and do homework. If that's going to motivate you to do something that you need to do, have the Big Gulp by your side and enjoy it through the process so that you can have something to look forward to.

Anthony Godfrey:
At the break, Sandy, one of our producers was talking about cauliflower crust pizza. I have a lot of other goals to meet before I start eating cauliflower crust pizza, let's just put it that way. I have a lot of other things to work on in terms of how food, before cauliflower gets involved, a last resort for you. I don't use those two words in the same sentence. Generally. I admire all of you out there who do. I just have a lot more steps to get there. And speaking of food, I love food analogies. Tell us about the hamburgers of happiness and how that relates to self-care and meeting our goals and expectations for them.

McKinley:
Okay. So before we talk hamburgers, I'm going to just clarify. When we're talking about self care, it can be easy to think of, for some reason, the image of MaCauley Culkin in Home Alone when he is in the hotel room with all the ice cream and he's watching whatever he wants and just enjoying the moment. That can sound like self care. And to some degree, maybe it is. Every once in a while, it's good to have that indulgence, but treat yourself right. But on the opposite end, sometimes we think self care is only eating cauliflower pizza. If you spend your free time at the gym, you haven't really you've stopped enjoying life because you're taking such good care of yourself.

Anthony Godfrey:
Exactly. So where is the middle between those two?

McKinley:
That's what the hamburgers of happiness is. This is from a psychologist from Harvard named Tal Ben Shahar. There are a lot of different kinds of hamburgers in the world. Some are better than others and you want to find the hamburger that tastes good now, but is also healthy enough that it's good for you later. So it might make it easier to understand if we think about the contrast. There are some hamburgers out there that taste really good now, but are probably bad for us later. There are junk food burgers out there. There are some that are delicious, but they have absolutely no nutritional value, no health benefits. So they're bad for us later. That would be kind of one end of the scale where our self-care would be ice cream, TV shows,  just indulging in the present and we're enjoying the present. But it's to our future detriment that's not good.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just so you know, my punch card is almost full at the hamburger restaurant that offers that exact thing.

McKinley:
Okay. Okay. Okay. So you're, well-versed in the junk food burger I'm familiar with. Yes. All of us are. And I think that's important not to beat ourselves up if we're not hitting these exact really high goals. But just doing the best that we can to make small adjustments makes a difference. So, another type of hamburger is called the rat race burger. So that's where we give up the here and now. That's where we're only eating cauliflower pizza. We've sworn off all sweets, all desserts. We spend all of our free time at the gym. That would be like a hamburger that's so healthy that it tastes bad now, but it's really good for us later. That's not what we want. We want the balance of what tastes good now and it's good for us later.

Anthony Godfrey:
So for students, what the burger analogy can teach us is don't sacrifice all of your present for a future, that may or may not be what you expect it to be.

McKinley:
Right. there are a lot of ways we can try and enjoy the good behaviors a little bit more. There are a lot of ways we can make them easier. A lot of ways we can make them more enjoyable,

Anthony Godfrey:
Any parting advice on how to improve our self care, and as a result, get closer to the goals we've set?

McKinley:
I'll give two parting tips. One is just to remember that willpower is never enough. You're just relying on trying harder, or just your willpower. If you've set a goal to eat less candy, but you still have candy in your pantry and you still buy it when you go to the grocery store, your willpower is not going to resist that.

Anthony Godfrey:
I feel like that's a very personal message, by the way, but go on.

McKinley:
And then the other is gratitude. I think that gratitude facilitates staying committed to goals. Sleep, our willpower is also very heavily reliant on whether or not we're getting enough rest. So if we're setting new goals or we're trying new hobbies or routines, we've got to prioritize getting enough sleep. Your willpower needs rest to in order to function. So I would just say sleep is very, very important.

Anthony Godfrey:
We know for students that's  a big problem. That's a big issue. And so focusing on kids getting enough sleep, so they're bringing their best selves to the challenges they face throughout the day.

All right. Well, thank you for joining us again, McKinley.  I'm grateful for what you do for our District. And I'm grateful to the listeners out there. Thanks for joining us. And remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you.