WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS
“No matter how great
your idea is, you’re just a lone nut until someone follows you and transforms
you into a leader. Thanks from the bottom
of my heart for following me to start the real momentum behind Instant
Recess. Now if every one of us shares
this idea with others, we’ll have a real MOVEment on our hands! That’s my wish for the New Year – that Instant
Recess becomes an unstoppable MOVEment helping us to turn around the obesity
trends in this country.”
(from an email sent by Dr. Yancey to colleagues at the beginning of 2013)
Toni Yancey, MD, MPH
1957-2013
Believing that you are on the right track is important, no
matter what your goal. Solving America’s
obesity epidemic will be done by setting goals and finding the right track to achieve them. Have faith that achieving your fitness goal or goals is important for parents.
How do you get to a healthy weight? One way is to eat less of the bad foods and
more of the good foods. Another way is
to eat smaller portions and to not skip meals and snacks. You can eat less and exercise more. To STAY at a healthy weight, however, requires
increasing the amount of regular exercise you get. Without the exercise, most people who lose
weight tend to gain it back. This has been verified over and over again in the key habits of successful losers, a national database of people who have lost weight and kept it off for more than a year.
I strongly believe that as parents, we must be good role
models for children. Especially when it comes to fitness. The funny thing is, when we have a Growing
Healthy Kids education project and we talk about what the physical activity
recommendations are (60 minutes a day for kids, 150 minutes a week for adults),
the kids always ask why the recommendation for adults is less than half what it
is for kids. Great question. Maybe we would be healthier as a country if adults set the bar higher for their own fitness goals.
Did you know that a minimum of 10 minutes of exercise gives
you cardiovascular benefits? A lot of
people I talk with say, “I don’t have any time to exercise.” What we teach parents is to break your 30
minutes a day recommendation into either three 10 minute or two 15 minute
exercise period. Finding 10 minutes to
take a walk then becomes an easy goal to set and keep.
The fact is that most Americans are getting far less
exercise than our bodies require to work right.
Many diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, can be
prevented by staying at a healthy weight.
Dr. Toni Yancey has been working in the field of public health to
educate churches and communities that fitness is essential to the prevention of
obesity-related diseases. She was a
nonsmoker who died April 23 at the young age of 55 from a year long battle with
lung cancer. Dr. Yancey believed in
short bouts of exercise, just 10 minutes, and she created a MOVEment called
Instant Recess because isn't recess the best part of school that everyone looks forward to?
 |
| Dr. Toni Yancey, creator of "Instant Recess" |
The Growing Healthy Kids movement to reverse, halt, and
prevent childhood obesity pays its respect to Toni Yancey. We have lost a leader who fought to protect
public health. Her MOVEment and her
message lives on. To learn more about
Instant Recess, click here.
Now, I'm off for 10 minutes of Instant Recess. On with the walking shoes and that's me out the door!
In gratitude,
Nancy Heinrich, MPH
Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.
