Maggie Ramold | Sports Co-Editor

Buena Vista University’s (BVU) Health Services and Wellness has recently started BEAVERTRACKS, which is a program offered for students who want to live or continue living a healthy lifestyle. The main focus of the program is healthy activity, healthy eating, healthy hydration, and making better food choices.

“The overall goal of the program is to improve personal wellness by providing simple strategies to positively influence healthy behavior. The program provides the support, reinforcement, and accountability to adopt the healthy behaviors. This is not a diet overhaul or strict work out – this is life, and learning how to live it better!” Director of Health Services and Wellness Tami Laursen said.

This year’s trial run of the program has 13 students participating and each participant meets each Monday during November. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays, each of the students attends a 15-minute educational topic that varies week to week during the time slot. The four topics of the educational sessions are Physical Activity, Fruit and Vegetables, Beverages, and Eating In and Eating Out.

“The program is delivered through 4 weekly module sessions which consists of; a brief intervention, goal setting, weekly curricula packet, a tracking card, and an incentive relevant to the week’s topic,” Laursen said.

Junior Kirsten Van Zuiden is one of the 13 students who is participating in the program, and so far, she has been impressed.

“I think the program certainly has the chance to succeed in the future. Students can learn so many great ideas that can help them make healthy choices that lead to a healthy lifestyle,” Van Zuiden said.

For the students that participate in each of the four sessions, they get pedometers, a drawstring backpack, a work out towel, a lunch bag, and water bottles, among other things. Laursen also said that students enter raffles to win other prizes that help them keep on their pursuit of a healthy lifestyle.

“Throughout my 16 years at BVU as the Director of Health Services & Wellness, there has always been a desire from students for a wellness program that would provide information and tools for healthy eating and exercise,” Laursen said.

Since the program is just a trial run as of now, the future of the program is based on how the current students view the program and if there were positive behavioral changes in the students participating. The unique program offered to BVU students, will hopefully continue so students in the future can benefit and continue to live a healthy lifestyle.

Graphic by Makensie Brown