A New You: Health for Every Body: Helping Adults Adopt a Health-Centered Approach to Well-Being

Abstract

A New You: Health for Every Body is a health-focused, multimethod, experiential curriculum built around the principles of pleasurable and healthful eating, enjoyment of physically active living, and respect for body-size diversity. It creates a framework to help participants move away from unhealthy attitudes and behaviors in the areas of food and eating, physical activity, and body image and into a gentler, nondiet approach to well-being based on enjoyment of active living in a healthy body.The goal is for participants to develop new attitudes and gain new knowledge and skills to live and enjoy a healthy lifestyle (see the Program Philosophy sidebar). As shown in Table 1, the curriculum is organized into 10 1-hour sessions, with 1 supplemental lesson. However, there is flexibility for combining and adding lessons and activities, and guidance is provided for teaching the program in 4 2-hour sessions. The interactive lessons use a variety of audio/visual media, discussions, and small-group processes. Each lesson incorporates a physical activity break to get participants moving (Figures 1 and 2). “Words of wisdom” or WOW (quotations selected from WIN the Rockies qualitative research, which involved collection of people’s narratives or life stories) are incorporated into lessons and activities, adding context to and perspectives on the lesson topics.“On your own learning” activities provide opportunities for participants to practice the concepts taught after they leave the class and prepare for the next class. Educational and Theoretical Underpinnings