The staff of First Place is just bursting with excitement these days! We are so excited to soon share with you the First Place 4 Health program – a new and improved version of First Place! A lot has changed since the last revision back in 2001, and in order to provide you with the best program ever for achieving a healthy weight, as well as establishing godly balance in your life, we have been busily researching and writing new materials for this wonderful program that continues to radically change lives after 27 years this month!
In the ever-evolving arena of health and wellness, it is so essential to our credibility and longevity to stay current and fresh. Trust me, you’ll be thrilled with the improvements once you see them. And you can do so by keeping in touch through our e-newsletters, our website, and attending either a Kick-off Event (dates and locations listed here) or our Leadership Summit July 25-26 (the registration form is here). Attending either event will be a sure way to get educated, inspired and plugged in to the new First Place 4 Health program!
We will answer many of your questions at the Kick-offs and Leadership Summit, as well as on our website, in the upcoming months, but for now, allow me to give you a taste of what the new First Place 4 Health food plan will offer you.
A grace-filled way of eating with the primary focus on the “big picture” when it comes to healthy eating – namely, quality and quantity. You will learn how to incorporate your favorite foods into a personalized, colorful, and nutritious food plan. For those who have ever asked, “How do you exchange a doughnut?” you will get a straight-forward answer in the new First Place 4 Health that will transform your cheating mentality into a choosy one. We’ve included a new DVD segment on a fresh component in our Live It plan, the Nutrition Top 10. In it, you’ll see me explain how our list of ten behaviors you can adopt today will greatly assist you in losing weight and keeping it off. In addition, we will no longer be using the exchange program as a way to monitor our food quality and quantity, but rather the household terms of cups, ounces, and teaspoons. The only thing you’ll be exchanging is a complicated and often confusing way of eating, for one we know will be much more practical and realistic for you to follow.
A simple and God-honoring way to look at food. Not as “good” or “bad”, rather how frequently it should be consumed in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle – “often,” “occasional,” or “seldom.” All foods can have a place in a healthy diet, but not all should have a prominent place (see 1 Corinthians 6:12). When optimum nutrition and walking in freedom with Christ are the main goals, weight loss will naturally follow! In another DVD, you’ll take a trip with me to the grocery store and learn about the new and improved Live It plan and how to approach every section of the grocery store.
Because everyone is unique and at different stages in their weight loss journey, we’ve adopted appropriate calorie ranges for weight loss or maintenance by taking into account your age, sex, and activity level. Wherever you are in your weight loss journey or however much you have to lose, we can advise you on how to get started, keep going, or maintain your healthy weight. Personalization is a major component in the new MyPyramid published in 2005, by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, and we embrace it as well. Also, we will no longer be breaking your calories down into exchanges of foods, but rather more intuitive serving sizes using cups, ounces, and
teaspoons as quantifiers. We’re hopeful that this new method of monitoring the quality of your food, as well as the quantity, will be much less confusing and less distracting from the big picture of eating well in appropriate amounts.
Tried and true methods for how to make the transition to healthy eating painless and enjoyable! We’ve evaluated the research and learned from successful losers the most effective and efficient methods for achieving permanent weight loss, as well as enhancing quality of life. By investigating what you want to accomplish and why to a deeper degree, First Place 4 Health will help put you on a personalized track for safe and healthy weight management that is spear-headed by individualized goal-setting. And to show you just how enjoyable the Live It way of eating can be, you’ll also get to join me in a kitchen and see just how much delicious and appetizing food is available to you on another one of our new DVD segments.
These are just a few of the general foundations of the new First Place 4 Health program. Stay tuned to learn more and please consider visiting us at one of our Kick-off Events or the Leadership Summit. I’d love to meet you!
To good health,
Erin Dubroc, MPH, RD, LD
First Place Registered Dietitian
erin.dubroc@firstplace.org
Erin Dubroc is the First Place Registered Dietitian. Erin is a native Houstonian, blessed with a loving family and wonderful husband, Matt. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition Science from Texas A&M University in 2003 and has since been completing her Master’s in Public Health and Registered Dietitian (RD) program at the University of Texas School of Public Health in the Houston Medical Center. Her recent academic career has focused on theories and methods for designing, implementing, and evaluating nutrition and other health education programs.