Yes YOU Can!

SUMMER official starts on Sunday, June 21, 2015! Spring and summer months bring lots of activities to the Extension Office. Needless to say the last three months around the Extension Office have been busy for this Family and Consumer Science Agent (along with everyone else!) and we’re heading into summer with tons planned for you to get involved with!

Today I started doing my quarterly reports recapping the last few months and BOY it’s been busy around here! And I realized that I haven’t updated this blog lately. OOPS!  Over the course of the past few months I have gotten to participate in some awesome activities and projects along side of my co-workers and hardworking dedicated volunteers.

• We’ve hosted a week of “Body Walk” at Horn Lake Intermediate School.
  
• I got to speak at the Mississippi Master Gardener State Conference on “A Taste of the Tropics”.
  
• I have taught fcsUcate youth to make jam, be creative, and to crochet.
  
• “Farm Fresh” started. Farm Fresh is an FCS monthly outreach booth. Join me May-October the last Saturday of the month 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at the Hernando Farmer’s Market at my FREE “Back to the Basics” BOOTH of family friendly recipes, fresh food tips, demonstrations, samples, and much more! 

 

• I have started presenting an Introduction to Safe Food Preservation (library lectures at each of the 5 DeSoto County libraries) and began planning future Hands-On Food Preservation Workshops for July-October.
  
  
  
  
• This spring I sharpened my sewing skills, made a dress and much more at my Sewing 101 in-services, so stay tuned for sewing workshops to be offered here!
  
• I've been a photographer for a week at the Northwest District Horse Show.
• Yesterday, I helped judge at the Northwest 4-H Project Achievement Day.
• AND I’m sure I’ve missed tons in-between there that I am forgetting at the current moment.

You have three more opportunities to still attend “An Introduction to Safe Food Preservation” at a library near you. Tomorrow I will be in Southaven at 11:00 a.m. at the M.R. Davis Public Library. And next Saturday I will be at the Hernando Farmers Market on June 27 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. with Farm Fresh and then I will skip over to the town of Wall, MS to present a library lecture on “Safe Food Preservation”.  I would love to see you at one of these events!

Safe food is always important, but so are healthy foods and having a healthy lifestyle! Lately I’ve been eating on the go tons and running from activity to activity and my waistline, my health, and my activity level have suffered! My choices have not been the smartest. Honest confession of a FCS Agent, wife, and mother to a 4-legged dog named Lucy (who has been deprived of her nightly walks)! I have let life and busyness be excuses. So changes need to start being made again in my life so that I can be healthy for years to come. 

Are you in the same boat as me? I’m thinking about starting up a new round of Walk-a-Weigh again (a weight loss healthy lifestyle program we offer here at the DeSoto County Extension Office). My goal with re-offering Walk-a-Weigh again would be to help others who have the same challenges as me and hold myself accountable! So if you are interested in this weight loss program let me know at lara.angel@msstate.edu. I would love to hear from you about when you’re available to meet and if you’re interested in participating.    

So if you are like me and have tons of things going on around you…remind yourself that “Yes YOU Can” do it! Whether it be Safe Food Preservation….Weight Loss...Eating Healthy…managing your family…finding financial peace….or whatever life throws at YOU, Yes YOU Can!        

Walk-A-Weigh Program Deadline is January 22….NEW Virtual Friend Just Added

Starting January 26^th Walk-a-Weigh will launch! Do you want the skills to be equipped to help you achieve your fitness, health, and nutrition goals? This NEW Walk-a-Weigh program offered by the DeSoto County Extension Office of the Mississippi State University Extension Service begins soon. If you are a local resident of DeSoto County and want to participate you can attend our face-to-face meetings on Monday afternoons starting at noon January 26^th-March 30^th. If you are outside of DeSoto County or maybe you cannot make these face-to-face meetings there is another option!

The program will be offered for 10-weeks starting on Monday, January 26 and run through March 30, 2015 at the DeSoto County Extension Office in Hernando at 12:00 p.m. Join us during your lunch break! We will weigh-in each week from 11:30 a.m.—12:00 p.m. Each session will last about 1 hour and each weekly program will be divided into three parts. The first part is a short lesson, the second part will be a tasting session to sample a recipe or new food product related to the lesson, and the final part will be activity time to get physically active together.

If you want to participate but can’t make our face-to-face meetings here’s how you can participate by being a virtual friend. We are only accepting 10 virtual friends into our trial program! 

• First you will still need to register by emailing langel@ext.msstate.edu and telling her you want to participate in Walk-a-Weigh by being a virtual friend! 
• Second, you will need to mail a check for $15.00 (made payable to DeSoto 4-H, see below for address) ASAP. You are still paying a registration fee so you will be accountable! And we will add a prize for the person who loses the most percentage of weight that is our virtual friend online! 
• Third, Lara will email you a form to complete on January 26th. Our virtual Walk-a-Weigh friends will receive emails and challenges to motivate you to make healthy choices and be physically active each week. 
• Fourth, each Monday our virtual friends will need to complete a weekly “form” to weigh in and be accountable. This form will be emailed to you and you will report your current weight, the date, your name, and maybe answer  a question or two to see if you are looking at the materials we email and to gauge if you are “participating” in the challenge. 
• At the end of the program our virtual friends will be asked to complete an evaluation to help us see if our virtual component was successful. I am sure there are a few details I am leaving out, but I will be in constant contact with our virtual friends and this will evolve over time as the ten week challenge continues.  

Register and join our group today and set your own personal healthy lifestyle goals. The choice is yours! We hope that participants will join us and start making small steps towards a healthy lifestyle and being more active if they aren’t already, and then continue to maintain physical activity and healthy eating when the 10-week period ends. We hope the program will extend knowledge and be a lifestyle change that will improve participants’ quality of life!

Deadline to sign-up has been extended to January 22th.  By signing up you will ensure that there are materials available when you arrive. The cost is $15.00 and is due by the deadline of January 22th. If you divide $15.00 by the 10 weeks that is just $1.50 each week! At the end of the 10-weeks the (one female & one male) participant losing the most percentage of weight will win part of the “money pot”. The winner(s) will be announced on March 30. To be eligible to win participants must attend the first class on January 26 and the last class on March 30. Virtual friends will have a separate “money pot” and the virtual friend losing the most percentage of weight at the end of the challenge will win half of their money pot. Virtual friends are required to submit all weekly forms in order to win the virtual friend money pot challenge.  Contact the DeSoto County Extension office for more information about Walk-a-Weigh by calling 662-469-8480.

Checks can be mailed to our address at:

Mississippi State University Extension Service

DeSoto County

3260 Highway 51 South

Hernando, MS 38632

Beat the Bulge

My goal this holiday season is to maintain and not gain during the holiday season from now through December 31st, but come the NEW YEAR I want to beat the bulge! Yes, I am already thinking about my New Year's resolution. Have you thought about that yet too? Maybe you need some motivation and help achieving your goals. Starting in January here at the DeSoto County Mississippi State University Extension Service we will be offering a program called Walk-a-Weigh. Check out the flyer below if you are interested.

This program will run on Mondays at 12:00 p.m. at the DeSoto County Extension Office from January 26 – March 30, 2015. If you’re ready, so are we. Contact the DeSoto County Extension Service and sign-up today for Walk-a-Weigh. Deadline to sign-up is January 20th.  By signing up you will ensure that there are materials available when you arrive. The cost is $15.00 and is due by the deadline of January 20th. If you divide $15.00 by the 10 weeks that is just $1.50 each week! At the end of the 10-weeks the (one female & one male) participant losing the most percentage of weight will win their class participant fee back. The winner will be announced on March 30.

The Walk-a-Weigh 10 Week Program will begin Monday, January 26, 2015 at the DeSoto County Extension Office, located at 3260 Hwy 51 South in Hernando, Mississippi. The classes will meet weekly at noon through March 30, 2015.  The class dates are January 26, February 2, February 9, February 16, February 23, March 2, March 9, March 16, March 23, and March 30. Join us during your lunch break! We will weigh-in each week from 11:30 a.m.—12:00 p.m. Each session will last about an 1 hour and each weekly program will be divided into three parts. The first part is a short lesson, the second part will be a tasting session to sample a recipe or new food product related to the lesson, and the final part will be activity time to get physically active together. 

Personally my goal is to be healthier and reduce my body size. I have been on this journey for the last couple of years. My goal is to lose about 15-20 more pounds and then maintain my loss. It is a lifestyle change, not a diet. Therefore, if you want to reduce your body size like me, then this series might be for you! Your concern might also be your health, but you might also be thinking about looking better in clothes, having more energy, enjoying new and favorite foods, being able to move more easily, and feeling better about yourself. Whatever your case may be, consider joining us with our new series called Walk-a-Weigh.

For more nutrition and physical activity information, contact the DeSoto County Extension Service. We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.