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Choosing Health!®
Choosing Health!® is a year-round campaign designed to provide opportunities for members of Mid-Michigan’s Capital Area to learn about and use existing programs to achieve healthy lifestyles.
Comprised of over 120 Resource Partners, the Choosing Health!® movement promotes healthy living that:
- Encourages physical activity
- Develops healthy eating habits
- Prevents substance abuse and tobacco use
- Promotes mental health
The Resource Partners of Choosing Health!® believe we can work together to achieve health and wellness for our families, our community, and ourselves. Through the Choosing Health!® campaign and funding from Michigan’s 4 x 4 Plan grant, CAHA and its Resource Partners have guided 23 organizations in making policy and environmental changes to promote a healthy culture; organized eight community-wide health rallies, connecting thousands of tri-county residents to free of low-cost healthy lifestyle resources; and established relationships among hospitals, physician offices, businesses, restaurants, government offices, schools, and churches to distribute health related educational resources.
There will be Choosing Health!® events throughout the year. You are invited to all of them. Please watch for them and use the resources offered to help in your Healthy Lifestyle quest.
For further information about the Choosing Health!® campaign, and how you can be a part of the movement, please call the Alliance at 517-347-3377 or email connect@cahealthalliance.org.
Let's Walk!
Let’s Walk! is an initiative that promotes walking and creating a more walkable community so that Tri-County residents can have more places to be physically active in safe and fun environment. Through Let’s Walk! CAHA has helped place 140 destination walking signs in 10 communities, created and distributed over 75,000 Capital Area Parks and Trails Brochures to over 250 community organizations and through 65 medical offices, organized Let’s Walk and Talk with a Doctor events at different area parks and trails, and piloted a monthly walking program highlighting Eaton County parks. Visit the Let's Walk! tab for more information about resources and upcoming activities.
Choosing Health!® Rallies
The Capital Area Health Alliance partnered with Community Partners in Health to host the Spring Choosing Health!® Rally on Saturday, May 2, 2015, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Fenner Nature Center. Attendees discovered community resources that are available during the spring and summer to help their pursuit of healthy lifestyles. Over 530 kids and adults came out to sign up for over 35 local organizations’ programs, learn more about healthy eating and physical activity, play games, take mini fitness classes, and go for a walk around Fenner's trails. The Rally was also promoted on billboards throughout Lansing and covered by WLNS News Channel 6.
Be on the lookout for details the next Choosing Health!® Rally in Spring 2016. Visit the Choosing Health!® Rally website to learn about past events and all of the great healthy living resources near you.
Healthy Eating
The Capital Area Health Alliance has worked with numerous partners to increase healthy food options and encourage healthy eating habits. CAHA partnered with Walgreens to promote and utilize shelf space for healthy foods, providing a successful example that can be used to encourage other non-grocery retailers to promote healthy foods. CAHA published the "Cooking from the Pantry" cookbook, with healthy recipes using common food pantry items, and distributed 14,000 copies to food pantries throughout the region. CAHA also launched the Choosing Health!® Restaurant Initiative, which is helping restaurants make and promote healthy menu options (based on National Restaurant Association nutrition standards).
The Healthy Lifestyles Committee (HLC)
The Healthy Lifestyles Committee, as part of the Capital Area Health Alliance, provides the organizational framework for Choosing Health!®. In their monthly meetings, and committee members concentrate on the overall design of the campaign to structure the Choosing Health!® movement and the development of an anchoring website. To facilitate establishment of the movement, a year-round series of events highlights existing community programs that engage the widest possible range of programs, businesses, faith communities and the general public in the community-wide effort to improve lifestyles.
Creating a Culture of Healthy Lifestyles and Community Leaders Breakfast — November 19, 2014.
The Choosing Health!® campaign works to “create a culture of Healthy Lifestyles” by highlighting the full range of existing health and wellness programs available in this region. The Community Leaders Breakfast: Creating a Culture of Healthy Lifestyles is an annual event that joins colleagues from the Capital Region to enhance the tri-county area's healthy lifestyle and Choosing Health!® campaigns.
The November 19, 2014, event was attended by over 70 community leaders in health care, government, education, business and advocacy who enthusiastically shared ideas to shape the community’s future healthy lifestyle agenda. Attendees heard about the progress of launching and growing the Choosing Health!® movement and were asked to help shape the campaign to achieve maximum effect in engaging our community members in improving health.
The consensus vision of the group was for the Healthy Lifestyles Committee of the Capital Area Health Alliance to facilitate the Choosing Health!® movement to enable enhancement and symbiosis of existing community programs and resources to promote healthy living and wellness in the region through collaboration, outreach, and branding, and incorporate the 4 X 4 Tool in further implementation.
MI Health 4 x 4 Tool
The Capital Area Health Alliance, with its partners, has been a three-time recipient of the Michigan Health & Wellness 4 x 4 Plan Grant. The Michigan Health and Wellness 4 x 4 Plan is the State’s plan to address obesity in Michigan; with the goal of encouraging Michiganders to adopt health as a personal core value. One aspect of the Health & Wellness Plan is the 4 x 4 Tool. The 4x4 Tool encourages people to:
Practice four healthy behaviors: Maintain a healthy diet; Engage in regular exercise; Get an annual physical examination; Avoid all tobacco use.
Know four health measures that are indicators of several chronic diseases: Body mass index (BMI); Blood pressure; Cholesterol level; Blood sugar (glucose) level.
Other Information to Help You in Choosing Health!®
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