The interrelated ills of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity hit African Americans and Latinos harder than whites. So a program aiming to reduce those racial disparities has more than 300 local folks walking, dancing, and engaging in karate, water aerobics (like this group pictured at the YMCA pool ), tai chi, and yoga. They’re also setting nutritional goals for themselves, and recording measurable results on a bright yellow card.
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The program, called We WIN (for We Walk in New Haven), is funded by the Connecticut Health Foundation and began in 2003. It’s designed to address specific health disparities through nutrition and fitness. So far, 900 individuals have registered with the program, providing detailed personal health assessments — valuable research data, says project manager Sharon Bradford. Just over a third of those people have gone the next step to actually participate in a group activity, like the water aerobics class in this video.
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And about 85 percent of them are women, says Bradford (pictured on the edge of the pool at the YMCA on Howe Street, where the class is held).
“We’re trying to get more males involved,” Bradford says, “but that’s the way males are — they wait until there’s something wrong with them before they seek help.”
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The 20 or so participants in the water aerobics class (they were all women) seemed to be having a fine time, following an instructor who led them through choreographed moves to music. Participants were of various body types, but program health coordinator Mimi Zoladia says, “Water aerobics is one of our most popular classes for women who are morbidly obese. Once they get in the water, it lessens the effect of gravity so they can do aerobics they couldn’t do on land. Also, no one sees you, as opposed to going to a gym.” In fact, she says the class was organized at the urging of a morbidly obese woman who said walking was fine for others, but she couldn’t walk.
The program runs at 13 indoor sites all over the city, in addition to outdoor walking schedules in seven New Haven neighborhoods, led by trained walk leaders who are all CPR and first aid certified. Participants are given pedometers to count their steps and are encouraged to walk 10,000 steps per day.
Twelve-week sessions are sandwiched between health assessments, “designed to assess whether we’re achieving our goals of closing the gap in those disparities,” Zoladia says. The most recent health assessment was just completed for 200 participants, which includes checking blood sugar, blood pressure, height, weight and percent body fat (body mass index, or BMI), and waist and hip measurements. Zoladia says that abdominal obesity — a waist measurement of 35 or more inches in women; 40 or more inches in men — is one of a cluster of six medical disorders that comprise metabolic syndrome, a condition that places an individual at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes — diseases that the program hopes to reduce.
Now, what about those yellow cards? They’re the written contract a participant makes with herself or himself with dietary, fitness and overall health goals. “We strongly encourage participants to exercise at least 30 minutes a day for four or more days a week,” Zoladia says, “in line with CDC (Center for Disease Control) and the Surgeon General’s guidelines. We find people are more likely to reach goals if they write them down, make them specific, and keep track of their progress. People can do things on their own, and/or take their classes, which are free — but just write it down.”
Zoladia, who’s a registered dietician with fitness and health certifications, explains the dietary goal. “I decided to make it very modest to keep motivation going over 12 weeks.” The program urges participants to reduce their daily caloric intake by 100 calories. She says over 12 weeks that would result in a ten-pound weight loss over a year. The recommended number of calories per day varies with gender, age, and level of activity, but, for example, for a 40-year-old woman who exercises less than 30 minutes a day, the recommended daily intake is 1,800. And we all know most Americans take in a lot more than that. Click here to consult government charts with specific suggestion on kinds and amounts of food for good nutrition.
Jene Flores, who lives in the Hill, has been participating for more than two years, along with her three teenage daughters, and sometimes her 7‑year-old too. “I have one daughter who’s overweight, but all my girls like it. They do it to keep fit.”
“I work at Vincent Mauro School, and I’m a parent there,” she says. “We started a walking group for parents and staff. Walking around our school four times is a mile. In the summer we walk at Edgewood Park or the West Haven beach.” She walks three times a week and does low-impact aerobics once a week.
Flores’s goals are modest, but she’s making progress on them. “My biggest goal was just to maintain myself healthy — I have a lot of health issues that keep me from losing weight (hyperthyroid, high blood pressure). My weight fluctuates a lot, but I have lost inches.” She’s hoping for even more results since she gave up soda two months ago.
Flores says the New Haven school district has a big emphasis on physical fitness (doing what it can to make up for the fact that daily recess has been cut back or eliminated) and good nutrition. It has one of the strictest policies in the state, prohibiting most junk food.
“I’m on the wellness committee at my school,” she says. As far as good health and nutrition, she adds, “We have to start at home with our kids.”
