Better Health & Living
Healthy Eating 101 For Girls
A school program targeted to teens at risk of becoming obese changes eating habits--and lives
Published in Saint Paul, MN local spotlight | 0 Comments, Talk about this article »
Martha Freeman, a junior at St. Paul’s Johnson High School, used to play softball and soccer but stopped when she started high school. Feeling fat (though she wasn’t), she started skipping meals. When she did eat, it was mostly fast food, chips, and other junk.
Yet Freeman and her pals thought of this as “dieting.” In reality, their poor eating habits were launching them on the road to obesity. But New Moves, a school program for inactive girls at risk of becoming overweight, teaches teens new habits that will help them stay slim and healthy for life. Freeman participated last year and took away just what New Moves’ architects hoped for: a can-do attitude about exercise, eating right, and feeling good—and even a love for hip-hop dance moves.
“Now I eat till I’m full,” says Freeman, who now chooses more home-cooked meals than bags of chips. She walks regularly around Lake Phalen near her home in St. Paul.
New Moves was started by Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, PhD, associate professor of public health at the University of Minnesota and an expert on how teens think about eating, exercise, and weight. Her recent research shows that 66 percent of girls whose parents encouraged them to diet were still overweight five years later, compared to 44 percent of girls who didn’t diet.
Now in its second full year, New Moves recruits girls like Freeman who aren’t into sports and don’t like traditional gym programs. It lures them with fun activities, such as salsa dancing and hula-hooping, and provides ongoing social support at weekly lunchtime gab sessions. By spring 2009, Dr. Neumark-Sztainer and Colleen Flattum, RD, intervention director for New Moves at the University of Minnesota’s division of epidemiology, hope the program will be implemented at other high schools.
Making Exercise Fun
At every school, New Moves kicks off with a semester-long exercise program, which breaks the ice and gives the girls a taste of different activities. One day they may be kickboxing and another doing yoga or dancing. The girls are on the move at least 50 percent of class time.
Instructors help the teens find time for exercise in their crazy-busy schedules, which often include after-school jobs or caring for siblings. Teens also learn how to stay active during the region’s sub-zero winters. “We come up with ideas like taking their younger siblings sledding or ice skating,” Flattum says.
Learning the Basics of Better Eating
New Moves’ weekly lunch sessions offer salads, fruit, and deli trays and provide a safe place to talk about eating in the real world. The girls can bring along curious friends. “Sometimes we bring in takeout food to show the girls good choices,” Flattum says. In “Coffee 101,” the teens learn, for example, that a Starbucks 24-ounce Java Chip Frappuccino with whipped cream contains a whopping 600 calories, roughly the equivalent of two slices of cheesecake.
Girls also learn the basics of portion sizes; how to listen to “hungry” and “full” cues, pack a lunch, and avoid overeating after school; and the importance of a good breakfast. Many girls have to be on the bus by 6:45 a.m., so the morning meal is challenging. Flattum helps them problem-solve: “Could you eat a piece of fruit and a glass of milk? Could you put a breakfast bar in your backpack?”
Freeman says skipping breakfast left her exhausted, and she’d often fall asleep in class. “When I started eating breakfast, I was definitely more awake,” she says. Studies show kids do better in school if they’ve had a good breakfast.
Instructors help the teens find time for exercise in their crazy-busy schedules. Teens also learn how to stay active during the region’s sub-zero winters.
Finding Ongoing Support
New Moves encourages parents to learn what their daughters are doing in the program and to support their goals. The administrators also urge friends to take the program together. Besides being fun, Freeman says, New Moves still inspires her, even when she just can’t meet a daily goal like eating breakfast. “One of the most helpful things was this pink card they gave us that says, ‘You are phenomenal,‘“ she says. “I put it in my room to remind myself every day.”
What Can I Do?
If you think your teen needs to lose weight, don’t say so. “The gut reaction of parents is to encourage kids to diet,” Dr. Neumark-Sztainer says. “But our research shows that when teenagers diet, they gain weight over time.”
Instead, she says, talk less, especially about your own weight. Don’t buy diet books. Make healthy foods easily accessible and minimize the junk. As much as you can, watch less TV, be more active, and encourage more activity for the whole family.
“Wait for them to bring it up,” she says. “When they say, ‘I’m, like, so fat,’ find out what’s really going on. Do they really think they’re fat, or were kids mean to them? Or did they flunk a test?” If weight is the issue, she says, steer their focus to actions they can take—but avoid the urge to offer advice. Be supportive, but let your teenager set her own goals.
“Ask, ‘What can I do to be helpful?‘“ Dr. Neumark-Sztainer says. You might get, “Stop nagging me!” but your teen may also ask you to go shopping with her. And there’s your first new move.
Sara Aase, a Minneapolis-based freelance writer, is a regular contributor to Better Health & Living.
Get The Book
Check out Dr. Neumark-Sztainer’s book, I’m, Like, So Fat! Helping Your Teen Make Healthy Choices about Eating and Exercise in a Weight-Obsessed World
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