The Special Olympics Nevada Fit 5 Program aims to help Special Olympics athletes make healthy lifestyle changes through educating and emphasizing the importance of physical activity, nutrition and hydration.
Fit 5 encourages athletes to complete and track their fitness goals for a 6-8 week period. The program can be implemented by coaches during a sports training season; or individually by athletes and their families. Goals include exercising five times per week; drinking five glasses of water per day; and eating five servings of fruits/vegetables per day.
Are you interested in learning more about Fit 5 or incorporating it into your team practices or family routine? Please email Amanda at amanday@sonc.org.
Fit 5 Testimonial:
Reminder to hydrate - On a daily basis it’s hard to keep track of how much water you drink, with this reminder on the fridge the girls were able to not only remember to drink water but kept track of how much water they drank, and reminded them to drink more water when they noticed they didn’t drink enough.
Reminder to eat fruits and vegetables - We can easily forget to add vegetables and fruits to breakfast, lunch and dinner. This served as a constant reminder that we needed to have vegetables and or fruit to add to the meal.
Reminder to exercise - While exercise is normally on our schedule this was a show of how much exercise the girls were getting daily. They liked that they could fill this column easily on the chart. With this chart when the girls were on a day off from swim practice, they made a conscience effort to get in at least a half hour of exercise as to not leave a gap on the chart, whether it be jump roping, or jumping on the trampoline.
Fit 5 resulted in many changes for this family. The goals were met to keep up with the weekly challenges and it stuck with the girls. Reminding them to always eat vegetables or fruit with their meals and to exercise each day, and with the biggest change being more water consumption. They drink more water now as a result of the weekly goals that needed to be met. This is such a great program and hope to see it continue throughout the year.
- Mary H., Special Olympics Nevada Parent