Help to blossom in spring

Most of us know what it takes to live a healthy lifestyle. As much as we wish there were a magic pill or other quick fix that would help us drop those excess pounds, eat healthier or dissolve stress, we’re well aware of the practical but challenging steps we need to take to improve our overall health.

The successful recipe includes a few key ingredients, including proper nutrition, moderate exercise and adequate rest. For some of us, the missing ingredient might be as simple as an old-fashioned kick in the pants.

Enter “6 Weeks to a Healthier You,” an excellent program for residents of South Snohomish County. Offered by the Verdant Health Commission (which also oversees the agreement by which Swedish runs the former Stevens Hospital; formerly South Snohomish County Commission for Health), it’s a series of healthy living workshops scheduled over a six-week span in April and May.

The program is run by the charismatic and motivational Joe Piscatella, who isn’t some 20-something in a tight leotard bouncing around a high-paced fitness class. He’s a been-there, done-that kind of guy who made significant lifestyle changes after undergoing heart bypass surgery at age 32. Now, 34 years later, he’s a best-selling author, popular speaker and respected resource on the link between lifestyle and health.

It’s a program designed to motivate participants by showing them, quickly, just how much a change in habits can improve the health. Pre- and post-program biometric screening will measure triglycerides, cholesterol, body mass index, glucose and blood pressure, key indicators of a long lists of health risks. By testing before and after the sessions, participants and organizers will be able to track progress and evaluate results.

The tests alone are worth $100, making the $49 program price a bargain from the get-go.

Participants will attend six evening presentations at the Lynnwood Convention Center, with session titles including:

•How to make your health last as long as your life;

Eating Healthy in a Doubleburger.com World;

Move It or Lose It;

Take a Load Off Your Heart;

Healthy Cooking at Home;

Raising Fit Kids in a Fast World.

The folks at Verdant have worked hard to eliminate potential obstacles to participation. They’re offering scholarships to those who can’t afford the registration fee and providing free childcare for participants under the direction of the YMCA of Snohomish County and the Dale Turner Family YMCA.

With so many public health programs eliminated by budget cuts, this kind of public offering is especially gratifying.

To learn more about “6 Weeks to a Healthier You,” or to sign up, visit www.verdanthealth.org.

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THis is an editorial cartoon by Michael de Adder . Michael de Adder was born in Moncton, New Brunswick. He studied art at Mount Allison University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting. He began his career working for The Coast, a Halifax-based alternative weekly, drawing a popular comic strip called Walterworld which lampooned the then-current mayor of Halifax, Walter Fitzgerald. This led to freelance jobs at The Chronicle-Herald and The Hill Times in Ottawa, Ontario.

 

After freelancing for a few years, de Adder landed his first full time cartooning job at the Halifax Daily News. After the Daily News folded in 2008, he became the full-time freelance cartoonist at New Brunswick Publishing. He was let go for political views expressed through his work including a cartoon depicting U.S. President Donald Trump’s border policies. He now freelances for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the Toronto Star, Ottawa Hill Times and Counterpoint in the USA. He has over a million readers per day and is considered the most read cartoonist in Canada.

 

Michael de Adder has won numerous awards for his work, including seven Atlantic Journalism Awards plus a Gold Innovation Award for news animation in 2008. He won the Association of Editorial Cartoonists' 2002 Golden Spike Award for best editorial cartoon spiked by an editor and the Association of Canadian Cartoonists 2014 Townsend Award. The National Cartoonists Society for the Reuben Award has shortlisted him in the Editorial Cartooning category. He is a past president of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists and spent 10 years on the board of the Cartoonists Rights Network.
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