Campers Learn to Cook for Lifelong Weight Control
Slice, dice, cook, and eat healthy! Wellspring's goal is to send your child home with all the skills necessary to maintain or continue weight loss at home, including choosing and preparing healthy meals that they have come to love. Our Culinary and Nutrition Programs were designed with exactly this goal in mind.
During their time at Wellspring, campers learn to eat and enjoy a variety of healthy, low-fat foods as part of the Wellspring Plan. And through Wellspring's Nutrition and Culinary training program, campers learn how to choose, purchase, order, and cook food that will keep them "on plan" and on their way to a lifetime of healthy living. This instruction is rewarding for both children and families, as campers return home prepared to take a more active role in the kitchen.
Culinary education takes different forms depending on the camp setting. For instance, at campus-based programs like Wellspring New York, Wellspring La Jolla, Wellspring Wisconsin, Wellspring Pennsylvania, Wellspring Texas, and Wellspring UK, we take advantage of demonstration kitchens and learn from trained chefs.
At Wellspring Adventure Camp we cook in the field, preparing simpler items that become meal and snack staples once campers return home. And at Wellspring Family Camp, we work with campers and parents together to transform family favorites into healthier meals.
Integrated Nutrition Education
Most campers arrive at Wellspring having already sat through nutrition classes, met with dietitians, and followed various fad diets-and yet are still unclear as to what constitutes a healthy diet that promotes sustainable weight loss.
And as many campers have discovered first-hand before attending Wellspring, nutrition education often does not focus on strategies that you can use in your everyday life. That's why our campers experience hands-on nutrition classes. What do we mean by "hands-on"? Trips to grocery stores to find healthier substitutes for favorite foods, restaurant outings to learn how to make smart choices on real-life menus, as well as role-playing how to request healthier options in restaurants or social situations.
Wellspring's unique nutrition education classes focus on what's crucial for weight loss and weight control. Our nutrition curriculum was developed by staff and top students at Wellspring Academies, our boarding schools for overweight adolescents.
Topics covered in Wellspring's nutrition education program include:
- Understanding the difference between fad diets and. scientifically-based weight loss plans
- Identifying weight loss gimmicks and the individuals who take undue advantage of medical credentials to sell them
- Science of weight gain - why it's so easy to gain, and so hard to lose
- Biological factors related to weight gain and weight loss
- Scientific research regarding successful long-term weight control
- Dissecting fad diets - finding some kernels of science, but mostly empty promises
- Restaurant training - training on ordering in restaurants followed by a trip to a restaurant
- Grocery store training - activities and exercises in grocery stores
