Texas Health HEB pilots program to help families with nutrition, exercise

Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford Community Health just wrapped up the final session of the Families CAN program.  The program was held in collaboration with Texas Health Sports Performance HEB and Texas Health Fitness Center HEB.

Families CAN, which stands for Confidence, Activity and Nutrition, is a program designed to improve the health of the entire family.  Approximately 10 families participated in 3 consecutive Saturday sessions. 

During each session, children ages 8-12 received one-hour of fitness training, led by Mike Moore and Bobby Allison. Mike and Bobby led the children through activities to improve their strength and fitness. The children thoroughly enjoyed each session.  One young girl even stated “this is way better than my gym at school!”

While the children were receiving their fitness training, parents sat down with dietitian, Emily Bullard, to discuss and learn how to make quick and healthy snacks and meals.  As a busy mom herself, Emily understands the difficulties of getting kids to eat healthy.  Time and money constraints, as well as picky eaters, can all add to parents’ frustrations of finding healthy meals/snacks for their families. 

After each session, the parents received a bag of groceries containing the ingredients needed to make the healthy meal/snack they learned in class at home!

Our hope is through this program, the parents and children will take the “tips” learned the classes and incorporate them into their everyday lives—which we hope leads to better health in the future.
Texas Health HEB hopes to host the event again in the future.

Jessica Reading, MPH
Community Health Educator
Texas Health HEB

Not just for turkeys

Each year as Thanksgiving rolls around most people’s thoughts turn to turkeys and thanks and seeing relatives. But one thing that often is neglected is fitness.

That can be a dangerous combo.

The average American consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day and more than 229 grams of fat, or more than 2.5 times the average daily calorie count recommended and nearly 3.5 times the daily fat count recommended, according to the Calorie Control Council. The council also estimates that individuals may consume enough fat at Thanksgiving feasts to equal three sticks of butter.

I don’t know about you, but those numbers are a bit frightening to me and spurred me to look for tips on ways to combat the added calories.

So I turned to Mike Lofland, director of the Texas Health Fitness Center HEB.