Be active! Eat healthy! And Stay Involved! A kids' perspective and notes from the YMCA Energize Program

Be active! Eat healthy! And Stay Involved!

A kids' perspective and notes from the YMCA Energize Program

Editor's note: Ashley Davidson is a Master of Public Health major at Indiana University's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. She has spent several months interacting with Bloomington, Ind., fourth-graders as part of the Monroe County YMCA Energize Program. Also an intern in IU's Office of University Communications, Ashley writes about what the youngsters have to say about health and nutrition for Active for Life.

"Having good health to me means that you live longer and you are able to do handstands even when you're 60."
--Richie Melvin, fourth-grader

"I think having good health means exercising, eating foods from all the food groups and taking care of yourself."
--Stephanie Myers, fourth-grader

Photo by Aaron Bernstein

Ashley Davidson, a M.P.H. student at IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, tosses a ball to some elementary students as part of a lesson from the Monroe County YMCA Energize Program.

Are you smarter than a fourth-grader when it comes to health and nutrition? That is the question of the day when it comes to Cameron York's fourth-grade class at Highland Park Elementary in Bloomington, Ind., after the students' weekly visit from the Monroe County YMCA Energize Program.

"This program is important because it helps tackle the issue of childhood obesity," says Nancy Wroblewski, coordinator and creator of Energize. Obesity "is a profound issue in our community. Kids are not going outside to play as much as they used to and due to school funding cuts, there isn't enough P.E. time."

Energize, which enlists the help of health educators such as myself, is one way to help address this problem and also to ensure that kids are knowledgeable about having healthy eating habits.

The Energize Program, funded by grants and donations, began in 2006. Its health educators visit six different classrooms and four different schools once every week. As a Master of Public Health major at Indiana University's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, I get to help with this program, which is led by Wroblewski, IU undergraduate student and AmeriCorps worker Drew Connor from the College of Arts and Science, and Chunyun Wang, a doctoral student in the School of HPER. When we visit a classroom, each lesson includes warm up exercises, tracking food, a nutrition lesson and a physical activity or game, all performed in about an hour. Some classes in the program also incorporate qigong, a traditional Chinese exercise that can improve flexibility and general wellness.

Sample lessons that we have performed involve having the students create heart healthy dinners from a garden of fake foods set up on the classroom floor, writing a creative story that includes foods from the meat and beans food group and throwing bean bags into the correct dairy food buckets that provide the most amount of calcium.

For the physical activities, we may take them outside to play freeze tag, set up a hopscotch relay race or have rotating stations that include jumping jacks, sit ups, running in place, and push-ups.

Kids call it as they see it

I asked five students, Brittany Laffoon, Stephanie Myers, Alex Yamamoto-Castillo, Richie Melvin and Adrian Emmons about their views on health and their experience in the program.

Photo by Aaron Bernstein

Fourth-graders take part in a lesson from the Monroe County YMCA Energize Program.

"I think being healthy means being fit, eating healthy, not living on sweets and doing a lot of physical exercise," says Emmons.

"Having good health means you don't smoke, you don't drink and you get a lot of exercise," says Yamamoto-Castillo.

When asked about what they do to stay healthy, the answers spanned from eating fruits and vegetables, playing outside, doing gymnastics, drinking milk to help bones, and playing football, basketball and wii fit.

When asked if having good nutrition was positive or negative, they unanimously responded that it was a good thing. Having good nutrition is good because otherwise "you would be fat and wouldn't have enough energy and would only sit inside and play video games all day," says Melvin. Also, "your bones would get softer and your blood wouldn't be as healthy and it would be hard to do a lot of stuff," says Laffoon.

The kids also feel that Energize has encouraged them to eat healthier and the message has even spread to their homes, by the kids asking parents to buy whole grain bread instead of white bread and asking for more milk and water to drink.

Energize has impacted the kids in a positive way and shown them the importance of eating healthy and doing physical exercise.

"I've been trying to eat something from all the food groups, play outside more and be more active," says Myers.

Laffoon says that she used to stay inside the house when her cousins would come over instead of going outside to play with them. She says she liked staying inside more. However, since Energize, she's realized the importance of physical activity and has now been going outside to play with her cousins whenever they come over.

Ashley calls it as she sees it

To me the best thing about the Energize program is the fact that we're helping kids understand the value of having a nutritious diet and good exercise habits at such a young and impressionable age. It's a joy to see the wheels in their heads turning when you tell them about the effects that calcium and protein have on your body and how the things you eat and drink affect you. But telling them in a way that's hands on and active is fun to create as well as to see.

The way that the kids react is the most surprising thing about the program for Wroblewski.

"At first I didn't believe that the kids were actually listening, but then I saw a change in their thoughts and attitudes and I knew that something had clicked." She is also thankful of "how the teachers and principals are so open and helpful with what we're doing."

Wroblewski knows that the program works because of individual responses and behaviors from the students. When the kids see Wroblewski walking down the hallway at school as she heads to one of the classes for Energize, they run up to her and inform her that, "I ate a banana today!" or "I had vegetables last night for dinner!"

And the kids aren't the only ones talking to her about the program. Wroblewski was at a health fair when a parent approached her saying, "Oh, so you're Nancy. My son talks about you and eating healthy foods all the time. He normally doesn't like to go to school, but told me that the only reason why he wants to go to school on Mondays is because Energize would be there."

Wroblewski would like to see the Energize Program become sustainable and expand to more schools and classes.

"With obesity being such a profound problem in the States, this program needs to stay in schools to help kids overcome challenges," she said. "With Michelle Obama's Move It Taskforce, going into effect this year our Energize program will be moving in her direction of helping to prevent childhood obesity and to encourage kids to just play and eat healthy foods."

As we say to the every class each time we leave: "Be active! Eat healthy! And Stay Involved!"

Original source article here: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/13727.html