Me, Myself and I

1. Hello!

My name is Matt and I live in Fredericksburg VA and work in Washington DC as a Music teacher, musician and theater and film actor. I moved to the US 7 years ago from the UK . I love working with kids in music and theater and also love teaching kids how to act and be part of films. I love sports and play and watch soccer in my spare time. Church is also important to me and I love being a part of my congregation and teaching our kids about the bible through interactive dramas.

Here I am leading praise and worship at church

Here I am playing a character and teaching children about the bible at camp.

2. Life Philosophy

My life is based on the teachings of Jesus and I like to help those who are in need and those who are poor. I also treat others the way I would want to be treated just as the bible says "Treat each other as you would want to be treated yourself" Luke 6:31. 

I also like to take each day as a new day and not to waste a single minute of it and take advantage of every situation that is presented to me - "Seize the day!"

3.Healthy Living

I grew up as a child being fed on good healthy food. My father grew vegetables and fruits from the garden and my mother cooked them each day. I would say growing up I was given a very healthy start with nutrition and lifestyle. We took walked every weekend and exercised on a regular basis at school to keep in shape.

Today Life has changed since I moved to America. The convenience of fast food and a faster lifestyle, or slower when it comes to DC traffic, has forced me to eat unhealthy at times. Being unable to grow my own food hampers me as well as I have to shop around for good deals that are healthy and not too expensive. I attempt each day to eat healthy and to make time to cook food from scratch as well as supplement my diet with vitamins and other nutritional snacks. I understand the importance of eating healthy and balancing my diet so I can keep in shape and stay away from the doctor.

4. Healthy Choices

Some of the easier choices are cooking my own food or cooking it and freezing it for days so that I can eat food that has been made rather than just visit a fast food joint. I used a crock pot quite a bit as well as continuing to cook traditional meals from England such as the roast dinner. (see below)

Traditional Roast Dinner, Vegetables are steamed and roasted to keep goodness in.

The hardest choices is to exercise on a regular basis. Working in DC means 3-4 hours a day are sat in a car and when I get home I am tired and not interested in getting out to the gym. During the summer this becomes easier as I work at a summer camp and stay active with the kids. However then the diet becomes worse as we rely on our chefs at camp to provide mass food production which is not healthy. We did change this so that a salad bar was introduced and we could eat better alongside the other meals and have a choice.

Our salad bar at camp

5. Balancing good goals for my health is hard when I am constantly on the go or working for a few months at a summer camp., However it does feel good when I do not eat out and cook. It is nice to see myself save money on cooking at home and it is nice to feel good about myself when I pass on greasy food at camp. I have had some health issues regarding my intestines and have had to add more fibre into my diet and since I have done this I have felt much better about myself in general. I have also added more water into my diet and cut out sugary drinks which makes you feel less dehydrated. Another thing that I have to be careful of is working on film sets there is so much food and loads of snacks and I have to be careful of what I eat whilst waiting for hours just to get on set. One thing I am glad is I do not smoke or drink alcohol which is a big help. I used to when I was younger and the fun aspect of it was great but seeing my body and mind get worse because of it was not good and so giving it up was a great decision and one I do not regret.

I hope you have enjoyed day 1 of my blog.