Have your family participate in the 5210 Healthy NH program with Salmon Falls for a chance to win a 6-month family membership at The Works Health and Fitness Center in Somersworth!

5210 Healthy NH is a campaign to promote healthy eating and exercise.  It was chosen as a tool to promote healthy lifestyle in our practice and in the community because the message is easy to remember:

5 Fruits and vegetables… more matters!  Eat fruits and vegetables at least 5 times a day, and limit intake of 100% fruit juice. 
2 Cut screen time to 2 hours or less a day.
1 Participate in at least one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.
0 Restrict soda and sugar-sweetened sports and fruit drinks.  Instead, drink water and 3-4 servings/day of fat-free/skim or 1% milk.

Claire Menard brings 5210 to the local schools

In addition to teaching about 5210 to SFFH families, we are sponsoring this campaign at the Maplewood and Hilltop elementary schools in Somersworth. The children are very excited about the program and all have 5210 t-shirts that they love wearing. The classes are competing to see who can best follow 5210 guidelines.

Special events are scheduled quarterly. In December, we had our first “Story Walk” featuring The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Families met at Maplewood School and we walked along a designated route where the book was read aloud to the families at several stops. The Grinch made a surprise appearance and was available for pictures as we shared hot chocolate and healthy snacks.   We look forward to our grand celebration at the end of the school year.

Games and more to teach children and families healthy lifetime habits

At the Salmon Falls office, I am promoting 5210 in many different ways.  Most of the children I see for annual physical exams have an opportunity to complete a healthy habits survey. We can then look at an area that could use some improvement and the children choose a goal tracker to work on for a few weeks.

The goal tracker is specific for the four areas of focus in the 5210 campaign. The children take the goal tracker home and then bring it back all completed in two weeks.

Each child gets a prize and the names are entered in a raffle to win the grand prize at the end of the school year:

A 6-Month Family Membership at
The Works Health and Fitness Center in Somersworth

How YOUR family can participate in 5210

The children leave the office very excited to try new fruits and vegetables and to exercise more.

I also have a display in the waiting room with lots of information about healthy eating and exercising.  Each quarter the display is changed to focus on a different aspect of 5210.  We also have a Guessing Game for which anyone in the waiting room can take a chance at winning a prize by answering correctly.

The Guessing Games to date:

1. First we had a beverage display which demonstrated how many teaspoons of sugar were in various drinks.  Individuals guessed how many teaspoons of sugar were in a bottle of soda.  Matthew  guessed 12 teaspoons and was chosen the winner!
2. The second challenge was to guess which activities burned the most and the least calories from a group of different activities. Bryce was the winner by guessing that watching tv burned the least calories and dancing burned the most.
3. The current game asks everyone to share a fun recipe using lots of fruits and vegetables.  These will be posted on our website and in the newsletter. We have some very fun and delicious recipes to share!

Practicing the principle guidelines from the 5210 Healthy NH campaign can help all of us to live healthy lifestyles.  Join us in this quest.  Check out our website for more information.  The following links also have additional information that you will find informative:

http://www.healthynh.com/fhc/initiatives/ch_obesity/5210.php
http://www.walknh.org/fhc/initiatives/walknh/
http://www.letsmove.gov/
http://www.healthychildren.org
http://letsgo.org/

Look for upcoming activities including another story walk!