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 Staff photo/Katie Yantis: A truck dumps dirt along the Miami and Erie Canal towpath where it crosses Ohio 66. The project will make it easier for those using the towpath to cross Ohio 66.
By KATIE YANTIS
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — Hiker, bikers and walkers in the region will notice a
difference in a few sections of the Miami and Erie Canal towpath trail
starting this week.
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New Challenge Unveiled |
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 |
By ANGELA WEAVER
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — A local hospital is expanding its successful weight loss
program include an American health epidemic — childhood obesity.
Joint Township District Memorial Hospital will be debuting a follow-up program to its popular Grand Health Challenge — the Grand Health Family Challenge in January.
According to a news release, the Grand Health Family Challenge is “modeled after the current successful adult program and utilizing evidence-based research as a foundation, modifications will be made to address the needs of children and their families to tackle the childhood obesity situation in a way that would otherwise be impossible.”
The hospital, along with its partners in the adult weight program — The Evening Leader, Wapakoneta Daily News and the two YMCAs, as well as area schools, the OSU Extension Office, local physicians, Dannon Corp., Wright State-Lake Campus, area businesses and other organizations — are offering the Grand Health Family Challenge to the community. The program will be targeting 50 families representing 200 area men, women and children.
“The teams will just be the family,” Joint Township Community Outreach Coordinator Anne Larger said, noting the families have to include children under the age of 18. “The children have to be involved.”
The Grand Health Family Challenge will include the same setup as the Grand Health Challenge with each session having a different program.
Some of the program officials will be representatives from Joint Township, Larger said.
“We’ll have Carol Modica, the cardiac rehabilitation coordinator — Kristine Mullenhour, a certified diabetic educator — Sue Wiseman, a registered dietician,” Larger said. “We hope to have a clinical psychologist on board, but that is still pending.”
Larger noted one of the challenge’s partners — the YMCA.
“One of our partners is the Ys who have provided certified aerobic instructors to lead us in exercise programs,” she said.
Like the Grand Health Challenge, the Grand Health Family Challenge will be open to anyone in Auglaize, Shelby and Allen counties, Larger said. She said the official weigh-in will be Jan. 4, and the program will continue through the end of June.
Modica said the program is six months in length “because it takes approximately 28 days to break a bad habit and to develop a new habit.”
“But to sustain that habit, you need to increase the length of that over a period of time,” she said, noting the six stages featured in Pochaska, Norcross and Diclemente’s “Changing for Good” — precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance and termination.
“Then, after we sustain the habit, in times of stress, we have to maintain our level of awareness because that’s when we slip back into old habits.”
Modica, who holds a master’s degree in exercise kinesthesiology from the American College of Sports Medicine, said the six steps will be one of her presentation topics during the challenge.
The Grand Health Challenge began in 2007 and will start its fourth year beginning in January. During the first three years of the adult program, 1,300 community residents lost more than 12,000 pounds, or six tons, of weight. The overall outcome goal of the Grand Health Family Challenge is to enroll up to 50 families and to have an average weight loss of 5 percent of body weight for the family.
To be a part of the Grand Health Family Challenge, Larger said participants should call her with registration questions at 419-394-6132. Special registration forms will also be available at The Evening Leader and Wapakoneta Daily News.
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