Nutrition & Strength Coach
Kinitro Fitness
Retrospectively, growing up I did not eat bad, but I could have eaten better. Throughout my years of schooling, health and wellness classes barely grazed the surface of nutrition and it's importance. It was always a 3-day lesson here and there in a class which lasted only a quarter of half a semester. After a conversation with my father, wondering how he got myslef and my sister to eat well as children, he said, "he did it because he had to," (referencing eating vegetables).
Knowing that all children are not as lucky to have, or have had parents with the mindset of my father, and limited nutrition education programs in schools, unless it is chosen as an elective in high school or college, I felt more inclined to bring to light basic nutirtional information to the knowledge of school-aged children. Rather than teaching young adults or adults, which is what I had already begun to do through my training and coaching business, I wanted to teach youth to become autonomous in their knowledge and dietary choices, and grow into adults who had a baseline understanding of nutrients and their roles in the body.
Going into a Title I charter school in Houston, Texas, I knew a far greater challenge lie ahead of my reserach than just gathering data. The goal was to have some children further interested in their health and well-being for their long-term, rather than just for a class period. Beyond the success in the results of my 9-week intervention, the real success I felt was walking through the halls of the school, in teacher workrooms, on lunch duty, and engaging in conversation with co-workers hearing about students discussing the knowledge they have been learning from the lessons. For students to take the lessons outside of the classroom and have casual conversations, created an emphasis on the interest, but also the real-world utilization of such knowledge.