March is known as National Nutrition Month, and it is a campaign ran by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietitians to raise awareness of living a healthy lifestyle by being aware of your nutrition and physical activity.
This year’s theme is “Bite into a Healthy Lifestyle.” On March 20, Fairfield’s registered dietitian Karen Jew, joined us to run an event to promote National Nutrition Month.
During this event, Jew sought to promote health and wellness through fun exercises such as hula hooping, basketball and jumping rope, as well as a “graffiti wall” displaying students’ favorite healthy foods. These activities were not only fun, but also a great way to burn some calories. If a student participated in one of these activities, he or she was able to enter to win a fitness prize package. Another promotion of physical activity was the information about the fitness classes the Leslie C. Quick Jr. Recreation Complex offers right here on campus.
The RecPlex has a variety of fitness classes available for students at a low price. These classes include yoga, abs and sculpting, Zumba, boot camp, Pilates, kickboxing and total conditioning. The RecPlex also offers intramural sports such as soccer, hockey, basketball and softball. This is a great opportunity for students to get a group of friends together to enjoy playing a game and also to get some exercise. Intramural sports games are held at least once a week. Both of these are great ways to get yourself physically active.
Along with the physical activity component of the event, Jew also made information available to students about eating healthy. Ultimately, when it comes to diet, it is not so much about eating less, but what you are eating.
The “2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans” encourages people to eat more healthy foods such as vegetables, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat dairy products and seafood. It also suggests to consume less sodium, saturated and transaturated fats, added sugars and refined grains.
The emergence of MyPlate, an online nutrional guide published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is a great guideline to eat healthy. MyPlate replaces the food pyramid image and calls for filling half your plate with fruits and vegetables, one-fourth with whole grains and one-fourth with lean protein.
It also allows for a small serving of dairy, preferably, fat-free or low-fat milk. MyPlate gives a better visual guideline for eating healthy.
Nutrition and physical activity are vital components of your health, and you should be well aware of them. Fairfield promotes this concept through the campaign of National Nutrition Month.
Fairfield offers a variety of ways to promote your health through meal options and fitness activities.
Leave a Reply