Starting off the New Year Right


January 12, 2011

Group of students in yoga class performing downward facing dog on yoga mats

By Jennifer Eder

After the endless amounts of Christmas cookies, holiday parties and eggnog, it’s time to make a New Year’s resolution.

But making a resolution and sticking to it are two different things.

“People make the same New Year’s resolutions year after year. It’s not in our human nature to set goals that are attainable,” says Amy LaFalce, registered dietician at both the Learner Health and Wellness Center and the George Washington University Hospital. “Saying that you want to lose 10 pounds by Feb. 1 is not realistic. You want the goal to be realistic for you and your lifestyle right now. And ultimately you want to be able to be successful at reaching your goal.”

Thankfully GW offers a wide variety of wellness programs that can help students, faculty and staff stick with their resolutions.

Students can receive a 30-minute initial nutrition consultation at the Health and Wellness Center for $10. Ms. LaFalce or Kelley Vargo, a certified lifestyle and weight management coach, will discuss basic nutrition with the student and offer strategies for how to meet the student’s weight management goals. The same consultation is available to faculty and staff for $20.

“It’s a huge bargain, but I think a lot of people aren’t even aware that it’s available,” says Ms. LaFalce, a graduate student in the School of Public Health and Health Services.

After the initial consultation, students can purchase a package of three nutrition sessions for $100 or a package of five sessions for $150. The same packages are available to faculty and staff for $110 and $180.

“One of the biggest benefits to meeting with a nutritionist is having a professional develop strategies to help you meet your goals. There’s a lot of information out there in the media and on the web, but unfortunately it’s not always correct,” says Ms. LaFalce. “It’s really valuable to meet with a professional who can give you individualized attention. Everybody is different, and what works for one person is not necessarily going to work for another person.”

Ms. LaFalce says it can be particularly difficult for college students to stick to New Year’s resolutions that have to do with eating healthier because they have less control over what type of food is available to them.

“For the first time in their life, they are responsible for their own eating habits. Not to mention the stress and busy schedules that students have at GW. Their schedules can be jam packed from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.,” says Ms. LaFalce.

Ms. LaFalce suggests GW students include fruits and vegetables in all meals and snacks, eat breakfast daily and get enough sleep. Other advice includes eating every four to six hours to ensure you don’t get too hungry in between meals. She also advises students to slow down their eating.

“The slower you eat, the more likely you are to be satisfied with a smaller portion. When you eat in front of the television or when you’re multitasking, you’re less aware of what you’re putting into your body and you don’t feel full as quickly as you would if you’re just focusing on eating,” says Ms. LaFalce.

When making a New Year’s resolution, she recommends using SMART goal setting – goals that are specific, measurable, adjustable, realistic and timely. And don’t view eating healthy as being on a diet or just a short-term fix, Ms. LaFalce says. Instead, practicing healthy nutrition is something you should be able to maintain throughout your life.

Ms. LaFalce suggests studying a food’s nutritional information when choosing what to eat. Sodexo, the food service company which runs most dining facilities on campus, provides nutritional information for most of its entrees. Beginning this semester, Sodexo will designate specific food items as a healthy choice to make it easy for students to pick nutritious options. And starting in February, students will also be able to meet with a dietician once a month free of charge.

But eating nutritious food is only half the battle for losing weight and having a healthy lifestyle.

All students have access to the Health and Wellness Center, which offers group fitness classes and personal training. With over 45 group fitness classes ranging from cycling to kickboxing to yoga, there’s something for everyone. New this semester is a hip hop zumba class.

Faculty and staff can purchase memberships to the Health and Wellness Center at discounted rates.

Students can also receive a fitness assessment from one of GW’s 15 personal trainers for $10. Faculty and staff can purchase a fitness assessment for $20. The trainer will test a member’s heart rate, blood pressure and upper and lower body strength as well as measuring the member’s body fat composition by doing a skin caliper test.

Following the fitness assessment, students can purchase a package of three personal training sessions for $170 or a package of six sessions for $323. The same packages are available to faculty and staff for $204 and $387.

Paul Berry, the Health and Wellness Center’s personal training coordinator says a lot of people don’t know how to achieve their fitness goal. Personal trainers, however, can structure your workouts accordingly and teach you how to use the equipment properly.

If you can’t afford personal training, the Health and Wellness Center offers a free program called Extreme Training – a high-intensity workout led by personal trainers and designed to burn calories and increase strength, endurance, speed, agility and core stabilization. Extreme Training is offered on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Health and Wellness Center’s fourth floor gym.

Erin Maguire, the Health and Wellness Center’s assistant director of fitness and wellness, says the most important part of sticking to a fitness regiment is making it a part of your routine.

“Put it on your calendar like you would a class, an appointment or a meeting and have a set schedule of when you work out,” says Ms. Maguire.

She suggests working out with a friend and doing a variety of physical activity so you don’t get burned out quickly or put yourself at risk for an injury.

Every year beginning in the fall the Health and Wellness Center offers a free incentive program to encourage students to work out throughout the school year. This year the program is called Westward Bound: A Cross-Country Adventure. When students, faculty and staff register, they receive a tracking book to document every time they make it to the gym. Points are earned by working out in the fitness center, attending a group fitness class or extreme training, having a personal training or nutritional session or participating in club or intramural sports.

For every 40 points members earn they receive a free prize. The first four prizes are a canteen, a GW T-shirt, two GW drinking glasses and GW sports towel. The fifth and final prize, however, is a surprise.

“The idea is to get people motivated to be here on a fairly regular basis,” says Cherie Cremona-Simmons, the graduate assistant for marketing and facilities at the Health and Wellness Center.

At the end of the year, the Health and Wellness Center will choose one male and one female participant who not only completed the program and received the fifth prize but who had the most variety in their workouts as the 2010-2011 Campus Recreation Champion. In addition to being named the champion, they will receive another surprise reward. Last year, the two winners received a free roundtrip ticket on JetBlue to anywhere in the U.S.

Ms. Cremona-Simmons, an M.B.A. student in the School of Business, encourages students, faculty and staff who are not already enrolled in the program to sign up this semester.

“We want people to feel like they are getting something out of it,” says Ms. Cremona-Simmons. “Aside from the physical benefits, they get some free stuff, which can really keep them motivated.”