Monroe County Health Department
March is National Nutrition Month
March is National Nutrition Month!
Changing your nutritional habits can be hard, but very important to live a strong and healthy life!
To reach your nutritional goals, try:
- Starting with small changes
- Instead of making HUGE goals, try to create healthy habits for 3-4 days straight, and then increase the amount to 1 week, and so forth!
- For example: Try eating 3 servings of vegetables for 3-4 days straight. Once you have done that, try eating 3 servings of vegetables for one week! Or try eating 3 servings of different colored vegetables for 3-4 days straight
- Be active in your own way
- Focus on physical activity that you enjoy!
- Not ready for too strenuous of an activity? Talk a walk with a friend, walk your dog, dance during commercial breaks, or anything else that seems fun!
- Team up! Find a friend with similar goals and do them TOGETHER
- Celebrate success
- Think of each change as a “win”
- Reward yourself (in healthy ways) when you have reached your goals
Eat Right With MyPlate
Follow these recommended MyPlate guidelines. For more information on MyPlate, click here!
- Make half your plate fruits and vegetables
- Aim to eat MORE vegetables than fruits
- Try to have a variety of color
- Make half your grains whole grains
- Look for whole grains listed first or second on the ingredient list
- Try oatmeal, popcorn, whole-grain bread/pasta, and brown rice
- Vary your protein
- Include seafood, unsalted nuts/seeds, beans and peas so you aren’t always eating meat-based protein
- Choose low-fat or fat-free dairy products
- Opt for unflavored greek yogurt and add your own mix-ins such as fruit, peanut butter, or whole-grain cereal
- Drink and eat less sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars
- Choose vegetable or plant-based oils over butter and other animal-based fats
- Drink water instead of sugary drinks
- Choose fruit for dessert
The Kids Choice Program will be Returning to the BGC
Last fall, the Kids Choice Program visited the Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington – Lincoln Street Unit to teach the K-3rd graders. We are excited to announce that we will be returning to the Lincoln Street Unit this spring, to lead programming for their 4th-6th graders!
What is the Kids Choice Program?
The Kids Choice Program is ran through the Monroe County Health Department and visits local schools and after-school programs to promote nutrition, physical activity, and emergency preparedness. The lessons taught incorporate curriculum from MyPlate, Let’s Move Campaign, Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH), and FEMA’s Emergency Preparedness Guidelines.
Last Fall at the BGC – Lincoln Street Unit:
In September 2016, we began Kids Choice at the Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington – Lincoln Street Unit for the first time. During our fall programming there, we taught lessons to the K-3rd graders on:
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“GO” Activities
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MyPlate
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GO, SLOW, and WHOA Foods
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Healthy vs Unhealthy Fats
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Fruits and Vegetables
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Protein
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Whole Grains vs Refined Grains
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Dairy
These lessons consisted of a review from the last visit’s topic, a brief lesson, non-elimination physical activity games that reinforced knowledge of the topic, and a healthy snack for the members to try!
Favorite Game to Use:
A great “go-to” game for reinforcing knowledge on the teaching topics was setting up signs with different categories and choosing certain actions for the members to do while they moved to that sign.
For example, when teaching “GO, SLOW, and WHOA” foods there were 3 signs – 1 for “GO”, 1 for “SLOW” and 1 for “WHOA” foods. When a “GO” food was shouted, members were to RUN to that sign. When a “SLOW” food was called out, members were to HOP to that area. Lastly, when a “WHOA” food was called, members were to BEAR CRAWL to that sign.
To keep children engaged and always moving, we stay away from elimination games. In order to reinforce learning, members that went to the wrong sign were able to do 5 star jumps to get back into the game. That way, members always remain involved.
This “signs” game was also played to teach members about the different food groups, different types of protein, and can be used for almost anything. It was great because it was simple enough for K-3rd graders to understand, and actively keep everyone involved and moving around.
Kids Choice Program 