Kids Fitness, Health & Wellness » Fitness

GoTrybe Announces Contest Winners

admin — Thu, 26 May 2011 01:09:19 +0000

Students, Teachers and Coordinated School Health (CSH) Coordinators
Recognized for Their Efforts To Get Healthy and Active.

Funded by a grant from the Tennessee Department of Health through Project Diabetes,
GoTrybe, an online physical activity and health education tool, has been available
to approximately 175,000 students and faculty in seventeen school districts. These
school districts are located in GoTrybe’s home region of East Tennessee and every
year since GoTrybe’s inception, the homegrown program has offered rewards for its top
participants. GoTrybe’s student and teacher winners are chosen based on recording the highest levels of participation in fitness, while the CSH Coordinators are rewarded for the largest percentage of participating teachers in their respective district. As you might expect, the winners each year are people just like you and me that have made a decision to be active and strive for better health.

“We are very excited to reward those who have worked so hard, says Dr. Bill Joyner Co-Founder of GoTrybe. We are focused on making a positive impact and we’re glad to see students, teachers and the CSH Coordinators utilizing our unique program. We’re focused on GoTrybe being a useful, fun, healthy tool for getting fit and fighting childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes.”

GoTrybe has chosen to reward teachers and CSH Coordinators with gift cards to local retailers. We all know that teachers and coordinators are often spending out of their own pockets to fund supplies and activities for the students they serve—these rewards will go a long way to help with those types of expenditures. GoTrybe is also rewarding the students with technology prizes.

“Everything we do is in an effort to support an active lifestyle. We want all Trybers to enjoy being active and healthy because we see, not only the health benefits, but the impact that improved health can have on academics, says Dr. Joyner.”

Good health and improved academics go hand-in-hand and GoTrybe will continue to work with teachers and CSH Coorindators to give Tennessee students every opportunity to live well and excel in school.

Some of our GoTrybe Active Winners:

Teacher Winners:

$1000 1st Place-Beverly Lockhead (Knox Co.)

$750 2nd Place-Patrick Hurst (Knox Co.)

$500 3rd Place-Andie Breeden (Knox Co.)

$250 4th Place-Rachel Dunlap (Johnson City)

$100 5th Place-Lindsey McAllister (Knox Co.)

Coordinated School Health Winners:

$1000 1st Place-Aneisa McDonald (Knox Co.)

$750 2nd Place-Beth Cox (Johnson City)

$500 3rd Place-Don Best (Sevier Co.)

$250 4th Place-Mary Beth Blevins (Blount Co.)

$100 5th Place-Erica Phillips (Hawkins Co.)

GoTrybe is an online, active community dedicated to the health and wellness of our youth. GoTrybe gets young people on the move by developing Active Screen Time™. “Trybers” can interact with fitness, nutrition, motivation and wellness content that supports their journey toward living healthfully. GoTrybe wants to be an inspiring force in the fight to get children and teens active while combating childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes. Gotrybe.com is composed of three Trybes: ZooDoos, up to 5th grade, Trybe180, 6th-9th grade and Nextrybe, 10th-12th grade.

For more information on GoTrybe, contact Stephanie Thompson at 423-926-1583 or visit www.GoTrybe.com and GoTrybe’s blog at www.kidsfitnessblog.com.

A Huge Thank You!

admin — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:02:01 +0000

GoTrybe would like to take the time to thank all of you for using our program and making an effort to change your lives through physical activity and healthy living. As this school year comes to a close, we want to say a special word of thanks to all of the school systems, administrators, and teachers who have implemented our program into your schools and classsrooms. A huge congratulations goes out to the Knox County Schools and the Johnson City Schools for your large interest in our program and the mass amount of teacher usage numbers that you have been displaying. Contest winners will be announced at the end of this month and will be highlighted on our blog like always. We encourage all of our users to keep up the good work through the summer months and remain active. The weather is perfect to get outside and exercise as a family with a bike ride, hike, or even a swim in the pool. We will be working hard to get everyone prepared for the start of the next school year by helping teachers brainstorm ways to incorporate our program into your daily schedule for the maximum benefit of the students. We look forward to working with each of you again next year!!!

GoTrybe Attends Science Day at Town Acres

admin — Mon, 09 May 2011 00:35:52 +0000

GoTrybe participated in Science Day at Town Acres Elementary School in Johnson City, TN on March 28, 2011. One of our very own trainers, Mrs. Sheridan Crockett, presented a class on zumba to small groups of students at the school to encourage them to incorporate physical fitness into their daily routines. By making exercising fun for people of all ages, GoTrybe hopes to change the unhealthy lifestyles that so many Americans have in an effort to decrease the prevalence of obesity and diabetes. GoTrybe targets students of all ages so that they may learn to eat healthier and live longer by adopting a healthy lifestyle at a young age. We look forward to participating in future events that support and promote healthy living.

A Healthier Subway

admin — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:25:02 +0000

The world’s largest food chain, Subway, has modified their menu once again in an attempt to provide healthier food options to their consumers. In 2007, the restaurant began offering a Fresh Fit menu that contains sandwich options with low-fat and low-saturated fat, along with healthy side choices like fruit or baked potato chips, and diet soda or low-fat milk. The new menu changes will go one step further by cutting the sodium in the Fresh Fit sandwich menu by 28% and cutting sodium levels across the board by 15%. Subway has been known as the food chain with healthy options so this is just one more way for them to continue to meet those standards. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that one in every three people have high blood pressure, with someone dying from a heart attack or stroke every 39 seconds! This is reason enough for all Americans to eat healthier and pay close attention to the kinds of foods that we eat and the amount of sodium that we intake on a daily basis. Subway is helping to make these choices easier for us. To get more information on this subject, follow the link below.

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/salt-subway-cut-it-out

Raising Healthy Kids

admin — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:32:48 +0000

If you are a frequent visitor to our blog, you know that we focus on childhood fitness as a way to help prevent childhood diabetes and obesity. Our online fitness program, GoTrybe, is just one way to incorporate fitness and nutrition into the lives of your children. While most parents would agree that they want their children to live healthy and active lives, is it possible to raise healthy kids if you are not healthy yourself? After doing some research, I came across an article from WebMD that discussed how to raise active kids when you are an inactive parent. A study from 2010 showed that parents who watch 2 hrs. or more of television each day also have kids who do the same. This may be due largely in part to the fact that parents spend time with their children by watching tv rather than doing physical activities as a family such as bike riding or yoga. This is a trend that is easy to change by getting off the couch and engaging yourself and your children in an active lifestyle. WebMD recommends starting this active lifestyle at a slow pace so that you do not get burned out by adding a 10 minute walk to your day and building up from there. Remember that you are one of the most important role models in your child’s life. If you do not live a healthy lifestyle, it makes it difficult for your children to.

WebMD offers a variety of activities that are fun and will encourage physical activity in your life. These activities are age specific and will help you get off to a good start on this important adventure that could save your life. Please visit the link below for the full article.

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/raising-fit-kids/move/raising-active-kids?page=2

March is National Nutrition Month!!!

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:26:07 +0000

March is the month that the American Diabetes Association has chosen to recognize as National Nutrition Month! This year’s theme focuses on eating right by adding color to your plate to include healthier food options. Dieticians around the globe are encouraged to blog about ways to add color to your diet and maintain a healthy lifestyle by making gradual changes in food choices that add nutritional value to your meals and color to your plate. Please check out the ADA’s official website created for this initiative to find out lots of wonderful information on ways to incorporate healthier foods into your diet!!! GoTrybe is a huge supporter of the American Diabetes Association and even operates in part by a grant funded by Project Diabetes. We realize the importance of healthy food choices and physical activity for healthy lifestyles.

http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6442462682

http://www.eatright.org/nnm/

Exercise Improves Math and Thinking Skills in Overweight Students

admin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:40:23 +0000

While it is easy to see the health benefits of exercising and living a healthy lifestyle when it comes to losing weight and decreasing the prevalence of obesity and diabetes, a new study shows that exercise actually motivates the brain to help students perform better in school. This study, highlighted in the January edition of Health Psychology, lead researcher Catherine Davis and her team collected data from 171 overweight students who ranged in age from 7 to 11. These students were randomly assigned to either not exercise after school at all, exercise for 20 minutes daily, or exercise for 40 minutes daily. The students who were chosen to exercise were asked to do so at a vigorous pace and to have fun with it Competition was not made a factor in the exercise and activities like hula hooping and jumping rope were encouraged.

At the end of the trial period, all students were given an achievement test, with some students being selected to receive an MRI to track brain activity levels in certain regions of the brain. These MRIs showed that students who exercised had increased activity in the area of the brain that is responsible for self-control, planning, reasoning, and abstract thoughts. The prefrontal cortex also showed increased activity, which is the area responsible for complex thinking and social behaviors. All of these are skills are used in mathematics and problem solving. The achievement test revealed that the more the children exercised, the more points they actually went up in intelligence testing-as much as 3.8 points for those who got 40 minutes of exercise daily for the three month period. So what does all this mean?

After examining the report, it is important to note that this study shows a link between exercise and actual student scores on achievement testing. Exercise motivates and stimulates the brain in the areas that are linked to improving scores in math and problem solving. Considering this latest research, we can see how important it is that our children get up and moving, not only for their physical health, but also for their mental health. The combination of new cafeteria guidelines for more nutritional school lunches and the state mandated physical activity requirements for classrooms are just two ways that our nation is acting on research of this nature. Hopefully, we are on our way to seeing a decrease in childhood obesity and diabetes and an increase in healthier lifestyles. GoTrybe is committed to helping schools make this happen.

http://news.health.com/2011/02/11/overweight-kids-who-exercise-improve-thinking-math-skills-study/

Dean Karnazes Starts Run Across America on February 25th

admin — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:02:55 +0000

Dean Karnazes -famous marathon runner, motivational speaker, and world-renowed author- is at it again with his biggest challenge yet! Dean will begin a nearly 3,0000 mile run on February 25th that will kick off at the Disneyland Resort in Southern California and end in the middle of May at the Live with Regis and Kelly studio in New York City. Though Karnazes has been involved in many marathons and is a pro at this sort of thing, this marathon will be his biggest, requiring him to run between 40-50 miles daily-the equivalent of two marathons! The purpose of this Run Across America challenge is to encourage Americans to get up and moving all across our nation. On-Star, Wal-Greens, and Eucerin have all teamed up with Dean, as well as LIVE, to make this event possible.

Although the run in itself is quite remarkable, Regis and Kelly will be tracking Dean’s challenge every step of the way with live and videotaped portions of his run so that America can take the journey with him. Karnazes has agreed to add to this by updating a blog and taking photographs along the way to keep the viewers informed of his every challenge and success. Many cities have agreed to host 5k running events that are entitled “Run with Dean” where other marathon runners can join in on a small portion of his newest challenge, with all proceeds going to Action for Healthy Kids (a non-profit organization that fights weight problems in kids and helps schools become healthier places by teaching kids to eat right and exercise).

Dean Karnazes has truly been an inspiration to American’s across the nation in his efforts to stay healthy and get our nation moving in the right direction. Dean was named one of the nations “100 Top Influential People in the World” by TIME magazine, the “Fittest Man on the Planet” by Men’s Fitness Magazine, and “Best Outdoor Athlete” for the 2008 ESPY Awards. He has become a best selling author for his books on fitness and healthy living, as well as a motivational speaker for people around the nation. We expect to keep seeing great things from Dean Karnazes and look forward to tracking his journey with him as he makes a milestone in marathon history. Good luck, Dean!!!

http://nutritiondietnews.com/dean-karnazes-running-3000-miles-on-regis-and-kelly-show/851794/

CDC Study Shows Southern and Appalachian States are Least Active

admin — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:25:48 +0000

A new study from the Center for Disease Control, which measured the physical activity level of residents by county, showed that the Southern and Appalachian states were less active than all others. While Colorado proved to be one of the most active states in the U.S., Tennessee was one of the least active! This new data, taken from all 3,141 counties across the United States not only looked at the physical activity of each county, but also the obesity rates and diabetes data in each. According to Ann Albright, the director of the CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation, the Southern and Appalachian states clearly showed up in each of the three categories, showing a definite trend across these three areas. While we know that obesity and diabetes is increasing at alarming rates, we also know that one of the major ways to prevent these two things is with physical activity and a healthy diet. If states in our region are not getting enough physical activity, it is safe to say that this is a trend that will continue to increase and impact our children and communities. Programs like GoTrybe are implemented into our Tennessee classrooms to ensure that students know how to eat a healthy meal and increase physical activity to prepare for a healthier life.

http://www.diabetes.org/news-research/news/diabetes-in-the-news/cdc-report-inactivity.html

Do Working Moms Contribute to Obesity?

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:46:10 +0000

While we know that childhood obesity continues to rise at an alarming rate, we strive to know the causes for this rise and prevention efforts to keep this trend from continuing throughout life. A new study from the Child Development journal says that the more years a mother spends working after her child is born, the more that child’s body mass index increases. While this may make many working mothers feel guilty and the statistics were significant, they were not reported to be jaw-dropping. The increase in body mass index amounted to about one pound of weight. While 70% of mothers are working during these tough economic times, it is easy to see how fast-food and suppers that are not the healthiest are being served around the nation. Time plays a factor in how much mothers are able to prepare a healthy meal and allow their families to sit down and enjoy it.

While the researchers certainly do not mean to point the finger at working mothers, they identify that this is just one of the factors that may affect childhood obesity. This research was conducted through the American University, Cornell University, and and the University of Chicago. 900 children in grades 3, 5, and 6 in 10 different cities in the U.S. were analyzed as the researchers looked at the time that working mothers spent on the job from the child’s birth to 6th grade. The biggest differences in BMI seemed to occur as the students got closer to middle school ages. However, it is also easy to see how students of these ages spend a great deal of time on the computer, social networks, video games, and cell phones. All of these things take away from the time spent doing actual physical activity.

So, are we to assume that mothers should just stop working? Absolutely not. In fact, in most cases, this is not a viable alternative. Mothers are encouraged to make healthy meals that can be prepared in advance for those long work days, have a family meal where all family members sit and eat together, and even make sure children are gettting the proper amount of sleep each night. The study is not designed to suggest that mothers should stop working and stay at home, but rather that they must better prepare to make healthier meals for the family while they have time. Let us not forget how important it is for our kids to get plenty of physical activity each day!!!

http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/04/are-working-moms-to-blame-for-childhood-obesity/