
- Author: Hannah Lee
Easterby Elementary kindly invited UC CalFresh to join their Spring Carnival on May 12th this year! UC CalFresh Nutrition staff, Hannah and Maira, spent a sunny evening sharing nutrition education and physical activity with Easterby students and their parents. Take a look at the pictures below to get a glimpse of the fun!
Miss Strawberry is ready to share MyPlate!
UC CalFresh incorporated physical activity with a Tic-Tac-Toe toss, and had a station for students and their families to create healthy meals using MyPlates and food pictures.
Maira discusses the benefits of physical activity with an Easterby Tiger.
Thank you to everyone at Easterby for welcoming us to their campus and giving us a chance to share our work with the Easterby community!
- Author: Elizabeth Lopez
- Contributor: Emily Harris
On Saturday, April 29th, UC CalFresh attended Coalinga's Week of the Young Child Event at the West Hills College Child Development Center to honor the center's students and their families. With various vendors in attendance, families had the opportunity to enjoy many activities, including a petting zoo, a silent auction, a book fair, a gardening opportunity, and so much more!
- Author: Hannah Lee
Ayer Elementary's staff lounge got a new Nutrition Corner just in time for spring. As warmer weather sets in and kids start to have time off from school, there's so many more opportunities to be active and eat fresh, sweet fruits and vegetables.
Here's some tips to "bee healthy" this spring:
- Stay hydrated! It's important that both kids and adults drink enough water as the weather warms up. If you're not a fan of plain water, try adding whole fruit for a sweet twist without all the sugar.
- Get enough sleep! After our wet winter, it's nice to get outside and be more active, but to stay healthy, we need to be sure to get enough sleep.
- Be active! Swimming and biking and hiking, oh my! With spring and summer breaks and long sunny days, there's so many ways to stay in shape in the warm months. Adults should encourage their kids to get moving for at least 60 minutes every day.
- Eat your MyPlate foods! Eating healthy foods is vital to having the energy and strength to do everything we love and keep our body working properly. It's tempting for kids to give in to less healthy foods as they start to have more leisure time, but it's important for all of us to be sure we're eating a quality diet.
We'd love to hear how you stay active and healthy as the new season rolls around. Share with us in the comments below!
- Author: Austin Cantrell
- Editor: Emily Harris
Many people find it difficult or intimidating to incorporate strength exercises into their routine because they don't know what exercises they should do or what muscle groups each exercise targets. Strength exercises increase the strength of bones, muscles and connective tissues, lowering the risk of injury and increasing muscle mass, which makes it easier for the body to burn calories. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends that individuals engage in strength or resistance exercises at least 2 times a week.
Source: http://bit.ly/2ouZPxb
Image Source: http://bit.ly/2ne7kHK
When creating your own resistance training program, it's important to include all the major muscle groups of the body and exercise them all equally. Focusing on one muscle group and neglecting others will lead to a disproportional body, and possibly injury. Multi-joint exercises are the best for you and are the most time efficient because they include multiple muscle groups and joints. Examples of multi-joint exercises are the squat, bench press, row, pull-up, overhead press, and lunges.
Don't know where to start with resistance or strength exercises?
Well good news! You don't need a gym membership or expensive equipment to do muscle strengthening activities. Below is a sample routine and guide to help you strengthen all the major muscle groups. Complete each round 3 times with 8-10 repetitions of each exercise.
Round 1:
- Push-up
- Row
- Squats
Round 2:
- I's, Y's, T's- Shoulder Exercise
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you try this workout routine?
Let us know in the comments below.
/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/h2>/span>- Author: Hannah Lee
- Contributor: Emily Harris
In January, Ayer students started their Food Friday Campaign with the goal of eating more fruits and veggies. A total of 559 servings of fruits and veggies were eaten during the four Food Fridays - way to go, Ayer Bears! Congratulations to Mrs. Lee's first grade class for having the largest increase of fruits and veggie consumption over the four weeks! Her class ate almost twice as many fruits and vegetables on the last Food Friday in comparison to the first.
To celebrate Ayer students' hard work with Food Friday, UC CalFresh hosted a MyPlate obstacle course! Check out all of the fun below!
UC CalFresh team members Chris, Hannah, Austin, and Maira, Fresno State Dietetic Intern Alicia and NFCS Advisor Mandeep, couldn't be more excited!
Austin shows kiddos the Fruit Hoops.
Chris the Carrot leads the way across the field.
Students stretch their arms with Hannah.
Maira provides some push-up motivation for these strong students!
Thank you to everyone at Ayer Elementary for helping us put on this wonderful event! Students had a great time and were reminded to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day.