Sydney White, health educator, leads staff training on biofeedback software used in stress management assessments Jan. 8 at the Army Wellness Center in Eisenhower Hall. The Army Wellness Center is offering free online classes on stress management, healthy sleeping habits and nutrition. Upcoming January classes include Performance Optimization at noon Jan. 19, Healthy Sleep Habits at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 20, Meals in Minutes at noon Jan. 26 and Fueling for Health at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 27. To sign up for a class, message AWC on Instagram or Facebook or call (913) 758-3403 to get the class link. Photo by Prudence Siebert/Fort Leavenworth Lamp

Katie Peterson | Staff Writer

Fitness. Weight loss. Stress management. Preparing for the Army Combat Fitness Test.
No matter the health goal in 2021, the Army Wellness Center offers various programs to help service members, family members, retirees and civilians reach them.

“Our goal is that we help (patrons) achieve their goals. We have a lot of people come in for goals involving weight loss or improving their nutrition, improving their performance and more,” said Tessa Brophy, AWC director. “We never want to put someone in a box, and we never want to push our goals on our clients.

Tessa Brophy, Army Wellness Center director; Drake Grinde, health technician; Sydney White, health educator; Christine Cunningham, health educator; and Haley Smith, health educator, conduct staff training on biofeedback software used in stress management assessments Jan. 8 at the AWC in Eisenhower Hall. The Army Wellness Center is offering free online classes on stress management, healthy sleeping habits and nutrition. Upcoming January classes include Performance Optimization at noon Jan. 19, Healthy Sleep Habits at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 20, Meals in Minutes at noon Jan. 26 and Fueling for Health at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 27. To sign up for a class, message AWC on Instagram or Facebook or call (913) 758-3403 to get the class link. Photo by Prudence Siebert/Fort Leavenworth Lamp

“We really want to encourage them to expand their ideas on health, think about their health differently, find out what motivates them to improve their health, what they’ve been successful with and ultimately just help them feel better,” she said. “With 2020 being the year that it was, I’m sure all of us have some kind of health or wellness aspect that we can improve, and (AWC staff) just wants to be here to help our community.”
Brophy said the best goals use the SMART Goals method — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound.

“(SMART Goals) can help anyone establish a goal,” Brophy said. “We’re really here as accountability partners to make sure that people are staying on track with their goals, or if they need help coming up with a goal or just refining and tweaking those things so that they are continuing to see results.”

Sydney White, health educator, leads staff training on biofeedback software used in stress management assessments Jan. 8 at the Army Wellness Center in Eisenhower Hall. The Army Wellness Center is offering free online classes on stress management, healthy sleeping habits and nutrition. Upcoming January classes include Performance Optimization at noon Jan. 19, Healthy Sleep Habits at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 20, Meals in Minutes at noon Jan. 26 and Fueling for Health at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 27. To sign up for a class, message AWC on Instagram or Facebook or call (913) 758-3403 to get the class link. Photo by Prudence Siebert/Fort Leavenworth Lamp

Brophy said the AWC is a resource to help prevent chronic illness, not treat it.
“Our No. 1 target is improving soldier readiness, but within soldier readiness, we know that that encompasses the family that supports the soldier, the civilians supporting the soldier … and retirees,” Brophy said. “We know that those people play a role in our overall readiness as a military.

“It’s important to focus on our health and aspects of health for our longevity and being able to fight off diseases. Our No. 1 goal is to prevent chronic disease as well,” she said. “Within readiness, the big part of that is what we do for prevention. We are here to encourage people to establish healthy habits so that they’re not dealing with and struggling with chronic disease or chronic issues for the rest of their life. We want to stop that before it actually happens.”

The AWC offers metabolic and body composition testing to determine caloric needs, stress management practices, virtual health coaching and virtual classes twice a week.
Upcoming January classes include Performance Optimization at noon Jan. 19, Healthy Sleep Habits at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 20, Meals in Minutes at noon Jan. 26 and Fueling for Health at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 27. To sign up for a class, message the AWC on Instagram or Facebook or call (913) 758-3403 to get the Blackboard class link.

To make an appointment for other services, call (913) 758-3403. To comply with COVID-19 restrictions, health assessments and paperwork will be done over the phone. When coming to appointments, face coverings and maintaining social distancing are required. Temperatures will also be taken upon arrival.

The AWC is open from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Source News