Fit Kids gets a new name and home – Arizona Daily Sun

The program, now named Northern Arizona Healthcare – Inspire, aims to empower children to live a healthier lifestyle. And though the program is open to participants ages 2 to 21 who have a body mass index (BMI) above the 85th percentile, Inspire is not just focused on their weight.

Nurse practitioner Sherry Walka explained that providing children with positive messages and support about nutrition, physical activity, sleep and stress is as beneficial as any medicine.

“I wish every kid in Flagstaff qualified for the program — not based on weight, but that every kid could come — because the nutrition, the physical activity, the sleep and the stress in our lives all play a role in our health, both now and when they’re adults,” Walka said. “We advocated for changing the name because we want kids to feel proud of this program, we want them to feel good coming into this.”

The program has been relocated from its location in Fort Valley Plaza to NAH’s new Children’s Health Center on Highway 89, north of the Flagstaff Mall, and has a new gym and kitchen space where children can get started on this lifestyle management program, which is typically set at six months, but varies by child as they work to meet their health goals.

Dr. Ron Tuckman, medical director at the Children’s Health Center, said activities often start small to get participants comfortable with their body movements and being in a gym setting before moving into conditioning.

“There’s, unfortunately, a lot of children who have been obese and have gone under criticism from their peers and being shamed at times, and so this is a safe environment to come reintroduce them into becoming active again,” Tuckman said.

He said he has worked with everyone from high school football players who want to get in better shape to younger children who do not fully understand why they are in the program. The overall goal remains the same no matter who is participating.

“Our whole idea is to be able to create a safe environment here for you to get your education and foundation skills to be able to apply that into your life and your lifestyle, to be able to make those changes individually and as a family, because that’s really our focus: to bring them on that journey to get them to a safer, healthier spot,” Tuckman said.

The new gym is stocked with standard equipment such as weights and stability balls as well as specialized devices like an anti-gravity treadmill that fills with air to alleviate up to 80% of the user’s weight.

With the name change to Inspire, the program was also expanded to include the option of medication management — which is housed in the Children’s Health Center alongside other health services including endocrinology, cardiology and orthopedics.

The program serves various families who live in areas outside of Flagstaff, such as Leupp, Winslow and Williams.

Walka said for those who live in remote areas, specific goals — especially related to nutrition — may look different than for those who have more resources close to home.

“We have to get creative. Asking them to eat more fruits and vegetables when they can’t get those things isn’t helpful to them,” Walka said.

Inspire’s dietician therefore helps to set more attainable goals such as reducing portion sizes, increasing protein to balance blood sugar and appetite as well as promoting more sleep to manage hormones linked to an increased appetite and lower energy.

After lessons on how to prepare healthy meals and when produce is ripe, Inspire participants are given “veggie prescription” gift cards to purchase produce at the store of their choice. They are also connected to food security resources if needed.

Walka said the pandemic has added extra pressure for these children and their families but that they continue to try to continue making healthy choices — and oftentimes succeed.

Tuckman added that, though Inspire participants are often those whose health challenges can be seen from the outside, they are not the only ones to struggle with internal health conditions. He said 40% of individuals who have normal BMIs have the same metabolic syndromes as those individuals who are overweight or obese, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

As the cold weather sets in and the pandemic continues, he encouraged everyone to work to find ways to stay active and to do so in a way that works best for them, just like he and other team members strive to encourage Inspire participants to do.

“We’re trying to be able to start early, before these [metabolic syndromes] really set in, to create a healthy lifestyle and then moving on, to also really get to these long-term problems that we’ve just accepted is part of modern culture,” Tuckman said. “We really want to change course of chronic disease in this community. But ultimately, this is just a microcosm of what’s happening nationwide, worldwide.”