Learn to Cook and Eat Healthy at Home
Wellspring Pennsylvania focuses on providing campers with the skills and knowledge that will allow them to continue living their new healthy lifestyle at home.
Learning Simple Cooking Methods and Recipes
Why are Wellspring campers so successful at maintaining or continuing weight loss when they return home? One reason is that Wellspring teaches campers to prepare many of the same delicious low-fat, low-density meals, snacks, and desserts they have enjoyed at Wellspring.
Campers return home with simple cooking techniques and practice making things like stir-fry (without oil), muffins (without butter), brownies (fat-free), and more. Parents often tell us that the entire family benefits from the camper showing off his or her skills in the kitchen once the summer is over!
Learning what is Healthy
Most overweight teens have tried to lose weight many times, in various ways. They have gone to weight loss programs, tried teen diets, visited with dieticians or nutritionists, worked with personal trainers, joined teen fitness programs, or simply tried to stay away from foods known to be unhealthy. Eating junk food and spending too much time on the couch are things we all know are not good for us. But what exactly should we do?
Wellspring’s nutrition education program trains campers on what they actually need to know about weight loss and weight control. Instead of overloading students with information about vitamins and nutrients or the “food pyramid,” Wellspring focuses on what really matters. Wellspring’s nutrition curriculum was developed by staff and top students at renowned sister program, Wellspring Academy of California.
Some topics covered in weekly nutrition classes are:
- Deciding when a diet does and does not have a scientific basis
- Understanding scientific credentials; when to trust someone, and when to recognize that someone is taking advantage
- Science of weight gain: why is it so easy to gain and so hard to lose?
- What science shows us about weight loss
- What science tells us about successful long-term weight control
- What are fad teen diets and why they don’t work
- Ways to stay satisfied while continuing to lose
- Restaurant training -- how do we do go out to eat without regaining weight? Campers will visit local restaurants to test their new skills.
- Appropriate portion sizes
- Grocery store training: games and exercises at the market so that campers know what to look for and buy when at home
