summer camp!
It's time to start thinking about summer experiences for your child! Consider YMCA Residence Camp or Day Camp -- an experience of a lifetime!
Wendy's Night
Thank you so much for making our Wendy's fundraiser so successful! Over 300 YMCA members volunteered their time to support the YMCA. Wendy’s will donate 15% of all sales to the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign (SKC), and it was a wonderful turnout.
Fall Programs
Fall Registration!
Registration is now open for the Fall program session!
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volunteer
Enjoy a rewarding experience while serving your community. A variety of opportunities are available from teaching programs to being a camp counselor.
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Features this Month:
View Our Fall Program Guide
Our program guide contains a full listing of the programs that will take place this Fall season, along with schedules and other events, in printable format. You can use the program guide to select programs and register on our website or at the front desk.
For future reference, the program guide is also available on our website, so you can return to read it any time. Look for this button:
Project (Stuff a) Backpack 2009: Support The YMCA Campaign To Help Shoulder Back-To-School Load
Average family will spend some $93 in school supplies alone, more than $549 in total
The YMCA of Metro Detroit today announced “Project (stuff a) Backpack 2009,” a month-long event to collect backpacks and school supplies for low-income families with school-age children. Back-to-school shopping expenses will run the average family $549 this year, according to the National Retail Association.
The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit primarily serves Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties, where families with school-age children represent 23 percent, 9 percent and 8 percent of the population respectively, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Financial demands surrounding school-age children—clothing, child care, school supplies, among others—place additional hardships on families struggling to manage scarce resources,” said Reid Thebault, president and chief executive officer for the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit.
“The gift of a backpack stuffed with school supplies and accessories will help equip a student for success and relieve some of the financial stress his parents are shouldering,” Thebault said. “This small contribution can be a significant one.”
To support the Stuff a Backpack Campaign, community members can simply bring to their local YMCA typcial school supplies (or backpacks), such as pens, rulers, calculators or notebooks. Last year, community generosity enabled local YMCAs to distribute thousands of school supplies to school children.
The YMCA is offering consumers financial incentives to participate in Project (stuff a) Backpack, including significant savings on joining fees and for members, the chance of winning programs. Visit www.ymcadetroit.org for a list of locations and hours of operation. Project (stuff a) Backpack concludes Aug. 31.
Need Help Getting Started in your Workouts?
Have you been struggling to get in the habit of exercising regularly? Here is a list of some of the reasons why you may have struggled and some suggestions to help you overcome the problem going forward!
by Michelle Huff Wellness Coordinator at South Oakland Family YMCA
The Main Problems
Why do most people have trouble making exercise a regular habit? Well, there are probably a number of factors, but here are the main ones as I see it:
Too Difficult
People set out with a lot of ambition and enthusiasm, and start out with a big goal. “I’m going to go to the gym for an hour a day!” or “I’m going to run 30 minutes every day!”
The problem is that the goal is too difficult to sustain for very long. You can do it for a few days, but you soon run out of energy, and it becomes a drag to do it.
Too Many Goals
Often we set out to do too much. We want to run, and lift weights, and eat healthy and quit sweets, and stop drinking soda.
Well, those are multiple goals, and you cannot focus on the exercise habit if you’re trying to do all the others at the same time.
Or we might start with one goal, but then get caught up in another goal (to stop procrastinating, for example), and lose our focus on the first one.
Not Enough Motivation
It’s not a lack of discipline; it’s a lack of motivation. The most powerful motivators, in my experience, are logging your habit and public pressure. There are many others that help as well.
It could be using an online log, or on a forum, or through email, or the phone, or just by telling your co-workers what you did this morning. But be sure that they know your goal, and that you are going to report to them, and be sure that they are expecting it every day.
The 4 Simple Steps
So how do we solve those problems? Keep it simple. Here are the 4 simple steps to start the exercise habit (and keep it going). I should note that you can use these 4 steps to start any habit.
1. Set one easy, specific, measurable goal.
There are several keys to setting this crucial goal:
- Written: Write this down. Post it up. If you don’t write it down, it’s not important.
- Easy: DO NOT set a difficult goal. Set one that is super, super easy. Five minutes of exercise a day. You can do that. Work your way to 10 minutes after a month. Then go to 15 after 2 months. You can see what I mean: make it easy to start with, so you can build your habit, than gradually increase.
- Specific: By specific, I mean what activities are you going to do, at what time of day, and where? Don’t just say “exercise” or “I’m going to walk”. You have to set a time and place. Make it an appointment you can’t miss.
- Trigger: I recommend that you have a “trigger” right before you do your habit. For example, you might always brush your teeth right after you shower. The shower is the trigger for brushing your teeth, and because of that, you never forget to brush your teeth. Well, what will you do right before you exercise? Is it right after you wake up? Right after your coffee? Right when you get home? As soon as you take off for lunch? A trigger that you do every single day is important.
- Measurable: By measurable, I mean that you should be able to say, definitely, whether you hit or miss your goal today. Examples: run for 10 minutes. Walk 1/2 a mile. Do 3 sets of 5 pushups. Each of those has a number that you can shoot for.
- One goal: Stick to this one goal for at least a month. Two months if you can bear it. Don’t start up a second goal during that 30-day period. If you do, you are scrapping this goal.
2. Log it daily.
This is the key habit. If you can log your workout, you will start to see your progress, and it will motivate you to keep going.
You have to make it a habit to log it right away. Don’t put it off, and say you’ll do it before you go to bed. As soon as you’re done working out, log it. No exceptions. And don’t make the log complicated — that will only make you resist doing the log. Just the date, time, and what you did.
3. Report to others.
I think this is key. You can do it on your blog, on an online forum, with your spouse, or friends or family, or a workout partner, or a coach, or a group, or a class. However you set it up, make it part of the process that you have to report your daily workout to other people.
It could be using an online log, or on a forum, or through email, or the phone, or just by telling your co-workers what you did this morning. But be sure that they know your goal, and that you are going to report to them, and be sure that they are expecting it every day.
4. Add motivation as needed.
The first three steps might be enough for you to get the habit going. But if not, don’t just give up.
If you miss two consecutive workouts, you need to look at why, and add a new motivation. Rewards, more public pressure, inspiration, whatever it takes.
You can add one additional motivator, and then see if it works. If you miss two more consecutive workouts at any time, add another motivator. And so on, until the exercise habit sticks.
Talking with Kids About Weight
Talking about weight is a sensitive issue, especially with children and adolescents. Here are some tips to keep in mind when talking to your child about weight and ideas for how to promote positive lifestyle changes at home.
• Focus on healthy changes in your child’s behavior (e.g., eating more fruits or vegetables, or drinking less soda) rather than just weight loss. Losing weight is difficult, and is not the only measure of success. Be sure to acknowledge and praise your child of the positive behavior changes that he or she is making.
• Children are more likely to be successful in making healthy changes if the whole family is taking steps to make improvements in their lifestyles. Parents need to model healthy behaviors for their children, and create an environment at home that makes it easy to eat healthy and be physically active.
• Be aware of the language that you use about weight. Avoid labeling people as “fat” or “bad” or making negative stereotypes about people who are overweight. Use words like “above average weight” rather than “chubby” or “obese”.
• Be aware of comments that you make about your own body in front of your children. It’s common, especially for women, to make negative comments about their bodies (e.g., “these pants make me look fat”). When children hear these comments, it can send a negative message about body image and self-esteem.
• Avoid “should” statements with your children. For example, avoid making comments like “You shouldn’t be eating that” or “You should be eating something healthier”. If your child has made an unhealthy food choice, wait for an appropriate time to suggest an alternative or to model eating a healthier choice.
• Encourage self-esteem in your child. It is important for you and your child to recognize that self-esteem comes from many sources – not just appearance. Celebrate your child’s successes and behaviors that have nothing to do with their body, and be sure to compliment them on these qualities. (e.g., qualities like kindness, being a good friend, doing well on a school assignment, working hard to achieve a goal, taking good care of a pet, etc).
• Identify triggers for your child’s eating. People eat for many reasons besides hunger, including stress, feeling bored, angry, depressed or anxious. If you see this pattern occurring, talk to your child and learn what is going on and how you can help them cope with these feelings in healthier ways.
• Be a support partner for your child. Be available to listen to your child during times of frustration, to help your child stay on track in making healthy changes, and to celebrate your child’s successes, no matter how small they may seem.
Courtesy: The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity www.YaleRuddCenter.org
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