Change Begins With Me

If you’re a Bahamian or if you’ve ever visited the Bahamas you’ll probably know that Paula Dean and her butter aint got nothin’ on us when it comes to our peas n’ rice, cracked conch, fried fish, and of course potato salad, coleslaw, and macaroni and cheese, followed by guava duff, coconut tart and a lot of other tasty delights. By now the average Bahamian reading this, self included is already thinking about Sunday dinner. For this reason many of us are always fighting the battle of the bulge

Believing that a nation’s health is directly related to its wealth officials from the ministry of education have been having a series of workshops with teachers about integrating healthy nutrition choices into different subject areas of the primary school curriculum. The objective is to get the youngest members of our society along with their families excited about making good nutrition choices then we can begin to change our communities, our islands and our nation.

At the end of the workshop we were asked what we learned. The majority of teachers talked about making changes in their personal lives, eating smaller portions, eating more vegetables, reading food labels etc… To an outsider it may seem like what was being said had nothing to do with integrating healthy choices into the school curriculum, however for me it showed that we got it! We realized that if we wanted the change to come to our classrooms and our schools, our communities then it has to begin with us...

This is the way it is with life, if we want changes to come then we have to be willing to become the vehicle of change. So hopefully when September comes, (after much practice this summer), I'll be able to set a good example for my students by making better nutrition choices myself.:)

Note to teens: Remember one of my summer tips was to avoid too much fast food which can cause you to pack on the pounds. So how about joining me in my attempt to make better food choices this summer?