WIN Wyoming and WIN the Rockies

Thought Bullets
for
April 2004 

Positive body image - Insights from Lewistown, Montana

Last month I had the opportunity to present an in-service training on body image to all employees of the public schools in Lewistown, Montana. I’ve now been promoting the concepts of WIN Wyoming for almost six years. Except for water skiing, elk hunting, playing Aunt Betty, running with my dog, and a few other passions of my life, I’ve done few things for more than six years without boredom and apathy setting in. I’m now adding promotion of our principles as one of the great passions of my life. As I read the evaluations after the program, I sat in awe and wonderment of the insights offered by these amazing school teachers, school administrators, and school food service workers from Lewistown. Here are a few of my favorite insights.

• I need years of this kind of positive message on healthy living. Two hours just isn’t enough.
• I love the quote from WIN the Rockies narratives that said, "Food is just a whole bunch of guilt." Finally! Someone actually said what I’ve been feeling for years.
• This program caused me to reflect on my life. I spent most of my life getting bigger and bigger. What’s really surprising is I’ve never seen myself as big. When I see myself in pictures with other people, I’m still surprised by how large I really am.
• This program reaffirmed my belief that fitness and overall health can simply not be measured by a scale.
• Would you come home and help me convince my wife that I really do need to hunt four times a week to stay fit?
• The idea that fitness may be more important than body weight was a new concept for me. I had no idea someone could be overweight and still be very fit. On the other hand, I know from personal experience that you can be thin and unfit.
• The part of the program that asked us to think of one part of our bodies we don’t like, and then ponder what things we would not be able to do without that body part caused me to consider how many things I would not be able to do without my substantial, yet extremely necessary, buttocks.
• Taking time each day to become healthy and fit is important. What am I doing now that is less important than that? Surely I can find something.
• I look in the mirror and always think I need to lose 10 pounds. I now realize that I should concentrate more on becoming fit and worry less about losing some certain amount of weight.
• This program helped me view myself in a more thoughtful fashion, and helped me appreciate myself for my own unique features.
• The one thing I’ll remember from this program is this: "Be kind to yourself and others. Life is too short to obsess in front of a mirror."

Source: Selected evaluations from "Size It Up!" program presented by Betty Holmes; In-service training for school district personnel in Lewistown, Montana; March 2004

Compiled by Betty Holmes, MS, RD, Regional Project Coordinator, WIN the Rockies;  bholmes@uwyo.edu

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