The Genuine Senior team participates in a healthy body series that includes classes on healthy eating, meal planning, and exercise.
All of the classes are tailored to accommodate their current needs as a high school senior but also to fit their changing needs when they head off to college. With each class my number one goal is to provide awareness. For the large majority of team members this will be the first time they are presented with information that is very specific to them. So with awareness as my first goal, I love to open all of these classes by saying
You will walk out of class today with the knowledge [the power] to take care of your physical health. For many, you’ll be ready to make some changes to your lifestyle so you can feel better & move better. For others you might need some more time. And that is ok. You must always choose what is right for you. Although you may not choose to implement these practices into your life today, you already have done yourself a favor by participating in these classes. And that is one step in the right direction!
The bottom line is that exercise is vital to our health and well being. Whether we take 10 minute walks once a day or 30 minute high intensity exercise classes, we must move our bodies. Science alone tells us this, but the more adults we have sharing personal testimonies of success the more movement we will spark in our younger generations.
It is more likely that we will be well into adulthood before fully investing into exercising habits. And that makes complete sense. Many things in life are like this. Depending on our age, the season of life, our family background, experiences, etc. some things aren’t discovered as important until later. Which is what gets me so excited to have the opportunity to share about the importance of exercise.
I teach about the benefits of baby steps, how we should shift our focus from the big goal that seems unattainable to just the small goals of daily movement. I put a lot of attention on the dangers of comparison and how it sets us up for setbacks or failure. We discuss candidly with each other about the road blocks we will encounter along our journey and so we problem solve together. My favorite part of class is sharing about free resources. Health and Fitness can become very expensive and teens don’t have big budgets. It’s awesome to provide them with the ability to exercise at little to no cost.
While we definitely maintain a level of seriousness during classes, we always approach lessons with a sense of humor and light heartedness – because life can be crazy – perfection does not exist – and we just want to take one day at a time doing the best we can!
The Genuine Exercise Class includes a 30 minute portion of in-class exercising. Due to COVID-19 this year we opted out of the exercise portion. To see clips from years past visit our YOUTUBE channel.
