Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Time Out For Stress Relief

Southwest West Central Volunteer Connections treated participants in the June 21 meeting to a morning of stress relief at Bremer Bank, Willmar’s community meeting room. The meeting theme, “Taking Care of Business By Taking Care of Ourselves,” featured Tamara Hein, Nutrition Counselor at the ACMC Weight Control Center and the Diabetes Center. Hein loaded us up on information and tips on healthy eating, healthy shopping, and snack preparation ideas for busy parents and professionals.

A couple of her references for us: Have you seen the updated USDA My Food Pyramid? It’s now My Plate, making it easy to figure out how to eat a balanced diet. “Make half your plate fruits and vegetables, and make half of your grains whole grains.” Also, it’s the season to shop locally, especially for the abundance and variety of fresh, home-grown fruits and vegetables. Check out the local foods guide focusing on farmers markets and products in the Upper Minnesota River Valley.

Doreen Mages, Certified Massage Therapist at Willmar Massage Center treated each of us to a neck/shoulder massage. Heavenly! Mages told us that massage is no longer just a luxury, it can be an important part of maintaining good health, including relieving mental and physical fatigue and relaxing muscle spasms and stiffness.

Southwest West Central Volunteer Connections is a peer led network of leaders of volunteers, many of whom are members of Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration. Being a volunteer administrator is a rewarding, but tough job. The June program helped us to remember to take good care of ourselves so that we can take good care of our volunteers!

Lois Schmidt, NRS, Willmar

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