Kids Fitness, Health & Wellness

Lunch Box Makeover

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:59:52 +0000

During the course of packing a school lunch for the kids, I ask myself these three questions:
- Is it healthy?
- Will they eat it?
- Is it the “same old thing”?
Until recently, I never really thought about a couple of other questions…Can I save money? Can I have less impact on the landfill? I looked at my typical lunch packaging and estimated that I spend about $3 per week, per child on plastic bags, wax paper, aluminum foil and the like and another $7 per week (conservatively) in extra costs for individual serving sizes. $10 per week total! No one is endorsing a specific brand, just the concept of reusable lunch containers and packaging. I purchased two sets so I could have a chance to clean out the other while one is in use. Even if you go “high end” and buy two matching sets like the one in the photo, you should get your money back in savings in 6-8 weeks.

Disney & BCBS: Odd Couple Build New Epcot Exhibit

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:51:01 +0000

“As an insurance company, we have the information kids need to be healthier,” said Tony Jenkins, regional market president for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. “Our challenge was to tell that story in a fun, engaging way, which is what Disney does better than anyone.” The insurance company’s goal is to encourage healthier habits among kids so they will improve their health while lowering health-care costs.

Read the full story here.

Strong4Life – Effective Message?

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:22:10 +0000

There is some debate about the effectiveness of the new campaign being run by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. The Strong4Life campaign features obese children and the effect this condition is having on their lives. Some feel it is a powerful message and “what needs to be done”. Other feel it does more harm than good, setting the overweight children up for additional ridicule.

ABC news and Diane Sawyer cover the story and post the ads on their site. You be the judge.

GoTrybe (still) Available to East TN School Districts

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:51:23 +0000

Many have asked about GoTrybe access. For those that don’t know, GoTrybe’s grant funding ended June 30,2011. GoTrybe will extend the program offering through the end of the 2011/12 school year for those school districts who currently have access.

This extension is provided at no charge to the school systems, teachers or students. Everyone at GoTrybe hopes Trybers will continue to use the program and enjoy the benefits of leading an active lifestyle.

GoTrybe Receives Most Unique Resource Award!!

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:33:22 +0000

GoTrybe is delighted to announce that our organization has received the Most Unique Resource Award from the TOS Homeschool Crew. The TOS Home School Crew Blue Ribbon Awards are given on an annual basis by crew members who are given the opportunity to nominate and vote for their favorite vendors from the current year. The TOS Home School Crew had eighty different vendors this year, so we feel particularly pleased to have been chosen for an award in such heavy competition. Twenty-five vendors were nominated in our category alone! We are proud to have received such an honor and look forward to continuing our friendship with Old Schoolhouse Magazine.

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.

GoTrybe Review – Milk & Honey Mommy

admin — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:14:31 +0000

See the full review at Milk & Honey Mommy. Here is an excerpt…The segments are short enough to keep the children interested and not completely tire them out. Although my children are really active, something their daily play/exercise has missed is a focus on technique. By this I mean, we have not spent much time on the correct form for doing a jumping jack or for doing push-ups which is something we will be concentrating on more. The fitness instructors take the students through the routine and also show them how to do the movements correctly. My kids love doing the palm tree.

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