Skyline SkyWell : March 2015

Monday, March 30, 2015

Pizza - The Good, The Bad and the Healthy!

The Truth About Pizza

When we launched SkyWell in August 2014, we made a commitment to be pro-choice, meaning we don’t ban cupcakes, pizza, chips, or Big Gulps. Our goal is to make the healthy choice the easy choice by promoting students’ awareness about the consequences of their nutritional habits and increasing the availability of healthy food options in our cafeterias, vending machines, and concession stands.

Pizza seems to be one of those staples in America’s high school diet. It’s quick, easy to get, and relatively inexpensive. In fact, one in five American youth consumes pizza daily. At Skyline, we serve pizza in our athletic concessions and cafeteria, and order it for delivery in a pinch. Skyline loves pizza.

But let’s be honest—will pizza make you smarter? Not really. And unfortunately, it can also add unneeded calories and sodium to your diet. But according to Gina Worful, registered dietitian and owner of Team Nutrifit, “Pizza can actually be a reasonably healthy choice! Instead of the usual pepperoni pizza try lean chicken, extra veggies, and thin crust to create a fresh and fit option! If you're not a fan of the healthier pizza option, have a slice of what you like and balance it with a fresh salad."

Come and join the discussion at the SkyWell Club monthly meeting—try on something healthy for size.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Next Meeting

April 13th, 2015 Monday
B408
2:30-3:30

Friday, March 20, 2015

The Dimensions of Wellness call for a Multi-disciplinary Approach

Careers in the Wellness Industry

Like the multidisciplinary team approach in health and medicine, the wellness industry comprises a multitude of specialists to address a variety of needs.

When I worked at Ford Motor Company coordinating the Total Health Program for salaried employees, our corporate team at World Headquarters in Dearborn included several physicians, MPH health educators, a psychologist, master’s-level social workers, a registered dietitian, an exercise physiologist, and many labor relations professionals. Together, we designed and launched a program for Ford’s North American operations.

What contributions did this team of experts make at Ford? Looking at the many dimensions of wellness, including physical, emotional, psycho-social, and occupational, we launched a set of services to meet the needs of any employee at any point on the wellness continuum. We presented our programs to supervisors on the factory floor and with nurses in the occupational medicine clinics. We reached out to community health providers and onsite fitness facilities. Healthy people trying to stay well, individuals needing support to manage chronic conditions, and employees referred to counseling for personal issues affecting job performance—these real needs were all considered part of the health promotion service spectrum.

Today, wellness is a multi -billion-dollar industry and growing. And many health and wellness professionals are part of the mix. Are you considering a career in the wellness industry?

Come to a SkyWell Club meeting—we plan to host many wellness speakers to tell us more.

Live Well | Think Well | SkyWell

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

A Skyline Culture of Wellness

A Skyline Culture of Wellness

Our school has a major impact on student wellness, as individual wellness has an impact on our school. As SkyWell works to create and foster a campus-wide culture of wellness, students are becoming aware of many factors that influence the decisions they make about health and wellness. Our school can play a major role in reducing the barriers to wellness and helping to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

We can look to national thought leaders for great dialog about “What is a culture of wellness?” The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is leading the discussion at a national level (@RWJF and www.RWJF.org) and locally, #JoinMe at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Blue Cross’s @HealthierMI and the www.5HealthyTowns.org initiatives are all excellent resources.

Here at Skyline, more than 70 students recently met to brainstorm issues about wellness at our school.

Their recommendations include:

· More than increasing healthy food choices in the cafeteria; let’s work together to make healthy choices more affordable, offer healthy vending machine options, and stop selling soda pop at school.

· More than just increasing our physical activity, let’s promote fun ways to get moving like a walking path outside, open up our fitness facilities and fields to everyone, and host a Field Day for all students.

· More than just talk about managing personal stress, let’s have a real discussion about the oppressive amount of homework we have and sponsor a “No Home Work Day” each trimester.

· Let’s spread the word about wellness every day for administrators, teachers and students through student assemblies and a giant billboard with current wellness information.

· Let’s Make Skyline High School the healthiest high school in Michigan. Skywell – lead the way!

Join the conversation at the monthly SkyWell Club – and at www.A2SkyWell.com