Area’s overall fitness focus of college course

With fried food, double servings, huge side dishes, and of course our sweet potato pie as simply a way of life in southeast Louisiana, sometimes it becomes a little too easy to forget about our health.

This is especially true for college students who rely on eating fast food and care packages from home due to their perceived lack of money.

In fact, a great deal of Nicholls students from our area grew up in the culture and the belief that “you’re going to eat grandma’s cooking, and you’re going to eat all of it, because she’s been stirring that pot all morning.”

But one day these college students will be on their own and will have to make food and lifestyle choices for themselves.

That’s why Nicholls and Thibodaux Regional Medical Center have collaborated to establish a “Living Well” course that can be taken for class credit.

“We were approached by Thibodaux Regional as they were looking for an outreach program,” said “Living Well” faculty chair Simone Camel. “At the same time, we on campus have been attempting to create a healthier campus environment for the students, so it kind of all came to fruition at the same time.”

The course is part of the Department of Allied Health Sciences and is designed to promote physical fitness, weight control and other healthy lifestyle choices in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of obesity-related diseases later in life.

Camel said the course consists of about 10 to 15 percent physical activity with the remainder being lecture class periods.

“There are a few course periods where they go and exercise, whether it be weights or aerobics – some of them go to yoga – but a lot of [the physical activity] is done in addition to the class time,” said Camel. “In the class time, they’re learning about the reasons why they need to do these things, so they have lectures on nutrition, lifestyle coaching and physical fitness lectures as well.”

The course currently runs as a pilot class with only residential students being allowed to take it, but in the fall the university will open up the class to all students. Students receive three hours of credit and can take this class as an elective.

“Our goal is to have it be an on-going class that will count for the students as a physical education class,” said Camel. “We hope that what will happen is that we have more activities on campus, and we’re going to use this course as a catalyst to change some more things on campus.”

Camel would like to make the Nicholls campus a healthier place, because she feels that a person’s environment is just as important as the person’s health intentions.

“Even though we ask the students to choose healthier snacks, if our vending machines don’t have healthy snacks in them, they can’t do it,” she said. “Part of this course is teaching them how to remove some of the barriers, while we at the same time are working on the environment.”

Camel noted that she has viewed some student reports and has received positive feedback from many students so far.

“Even though we’re almost at the half way point, I have had some students report some weight loss, some increase in activities, some changes in their eating habits,” she said. “I’m looking forward to seeing those midpoint evaluations, because it seems like they’re doing it.”