Healthy Fit Life is a six month long intervention held at the CLC YMCA. Healthy Fit Life is not a short term diet program, it is meant to be a long-term lifestyle change. This behavior modification intervention is targeting men and women, ages 25-45, who are looking to change their eating habits, lose weight, increase fitness levels, develop coping strategies to deal with stress, and learn mindful eating techniques in order to become more in tune with the body. This is an anti-diet intervention that will not restrict foods or cut out food groups. Instead, the goal is to eat more whole foods over processed foods, exercise more in enjoyable ways, and learn how to deal with emotions via coping mechanisms to deal with stress. The mindful eating component is meant to help create awareness of the body and its eternal cues to hunger and satiety, all while becoming more conscious of what we are putting into the body and the environment in which we are eating.

Weight loss is a journey and the key is to lose weight steadily and over time in sustainable ways. Healthy Fit Life will be a six month intervention with meetings twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 1.5 hours. The Tuesday meeting will focus on educational topics such as:

  • Breaking down how to read nutrition facts and ingredient list
  • Cooking more from home with whole foods
  • How to use portion control
  • Mindful eating techniques 
  • Coping with stress and emotions
  • Digging deeper into the biochemistry of food and our body
  • Importance of drinking water
  • Macro and micronutrients; supplements
  • Heart health, how to combat high blood pressure and high cholesterol
  • Body image
  • Importance of exercise and weight maintenance.

The Thursday meeting will be group and individual exercise. Two personal trainers from the YMCA will help the group learn the way around the gym and how to exercise properly such as maintaining good form in order to prevent injury. Different forms of exercise will be explored such as aerobic exercise, strength training, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and flexibly work such as yoga and Pilates. The goal is for each person to discover which form of exercise they enjoy the most.

Strategies:

  • Health Education and communication Strategies: Healthy Fit Life is a planned learning experience that aims to provide knowledge and skills in a formal educational and hands on setting. Each week will have different lessons and will build upon the new knowledge the participants are learning. The lessons will have a variety of methods for education such as lectures, group discussions, role playing/demonstrations, videos, and hands on physical activity. These methods are intended to create awareness, change attitudes, motivate the participants, and reinforce behavior change (McKenzie et al., 2017)
  • Environmental Change Strategies:  Healthy Fit Life aims to remove the barrier to health education through a sliding scale fee. This type of payment allows the participant to attend the program and pay based on their income and what they can afford. Many times health programs can be expensive and it prevents the people who may need it the most from attending. The sliding scale fee provides affordable access to education and the gym.

Level of Influence: 

  • Lack of exercise and poor nutrition are the leading risk factors associated with obesity and chronic health issues. In Lincoln County, obesity rates increased from 19.8% to 23.8% as well as the percentage of adults who report having less than one serving of vegetables a day from 10.9% to 16.5% (Lincoln County CHNA, 2019). Community forums agreed that obesity is a risk factor for people of all ages. While Lincoln County has many assets in terms of resources there are some gaps/needs. In the 2019 report, “adult education on physical activity/nutrition” was listed as the second gap/need that the community could benefit from (Lincoln County CHNA, 2019).
  • The change is needed in the community and this program would be best with face-to-face sessions where individuals can learn as well as hear from other adults about their successes and hardships as well as having the opportunity for hands on learning. I plan on targeting the community/interpersonal level of influence as I think this is a great start to help begin to make health changes in their life.

   

References:

Maine.gov (2019). Lincoln County 2019 Maine Shared Community Needs Assessment Report (CHNA). Retrieved from https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/phdata/MaineCHNA/documents/county-reports/2019/Lincoln-Report-Web.pdf

McKenzie, J.F., Neiger, B.L., & Thackeray, R. (2017). Planning, Implementing, & Evaluating Health Promotion Programs (7th Edition). Pearson Education.