US Surgeon General’s Announcement

Like you, we have long-been advocates for physical activity. At Healthy Learning, we take our job as an educational publisher seriously. We exist to serve you: a health and wellness professional. Our constituents range from personal trainers to athletic trainers to scientists to physicians and dozens and dozens of other professions. The common link is that all of you are in the “business” of advancing the health and wellness of those you serve.

On January 29, the United States Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., First Lady Michelle Obama, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a new plan to help Americans lead healthier lives through better nutrition, regular physical activity, and improving communities to support healthy choices. Some of the facts shared:

• Two-thirds of adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese.
• 70% of American Indian/Alaskan Native adults are overweight or obese.
• The prevalence of obesity in the U.S. more than doubled (from 15% to 34%) among adults and more than tripled (from 5% to 17%) among children and adolescents from 1980 to 2008.
• An obese teenager has over a 70% greater risk of becoming an obese adult.
• Obesity is more common among non-Hispanic black teenagers (29%) than Hispanic teenagers (17.5%) or non-Hispanic white teenagers (14.5%).

Source: The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation Fact Sheet


You can read the full Surgeon General’s report at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/index.html and as always, Healthy Learning offers one of the most comprehensive libraries of books and DVDs for your professional use.

Brown baggin’ it

School is back in session and it’s been just long enough for the excitement over getting to catch up with friends to have dulled and the old routine to seem, well, just that—old. Students, however, do have the luxury of a summer vacation while most working professionals are not quite as lucky. So what do professionals and elementary kids have in common? Lunch of course. While a bell might not signify the start of your lunch break, around relatively the same time of day we all sit to eat our mid-day meal. For all you moms and dads out there who pack your child’s’ school lunch, do you pack your own as well?

 We’ve heard it before, meal planning is a smart way to go for those trying to stick to a diet or just wanting to become more conscientious eaters. Packing a lunch instead of eating out during the workweek does more than just force you to plan a meal; it also provides amble opportunity to incorporate a more healthy option (i.e. grapes rather than potato chips) in favor of the daily special at that deli located so conveniently right next to your office. No one appeals to this healthy living mindset more than one of our favorite authors and owner of Reality Fitness, Nicki Anderson. Nicki knows there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to plans for weight loss and management and in her new book she highlights basic lifestyle changes that anyone can incorporate for better over-all well-being. So what do you think? Will you be buying extra juice boxes next time you go to the store!

Welcome to Healthy Learning’s Blog

Hi all and welcome to Healthy Learning’s new blog! Yes, it’s official, Healthy Learning has responded to the call for its own blog to share knowledge in the promotion of health and wellness. Whether you are a health and fitness guru with clients of your own looking for tips and trends to keep you one step ahead of the competition, a sports medicine professional, athletic trainer, or a health-wellness professional after the latest in exercise science and sports medicine—you are sure to find insight within the posts that will populate this blog. As we follow current trends and feature experts in the industry, we ask all of you to please comment! We want to hear your thoughts and suggestions pertaining to topics discussed and if there is something you would like to know more about, you need only to ask.