Even During The Holidays Lori A. Steele American Sentinel University November 2012

Seniors live on very limited budgets Seniors have co-morbidities/chronic diseases (National Council on Aging, 2012). Healthy eating assists with chronic disease self management (Schulman-Green, D., et al., 2012). Seniors may have to choose whether to pay for food, medications, utilities, or rent Seniors can be responsible for family holiday meals

To provide tactics to enable the elderly to purchase healthy foods on a limited budget To improve self-management of possible chronic disease participant may have To provide simple healthy recipes for every day as well as the Holidays

Carroll County Senior Center, Mt. Carroll, Illinois

Carroll County Seniors

Contact local media regarding Public Service Announcements (PSAs) pertinent to program and dates of in-services Publicize program at Senior Center with dates of in-services Comparison prices of appropriate foods vs inappropriate foods Find healthy budget friendly holiday recipes

Week 1 Why is Eating Healthy Something You are Interested in? Introducing Choose My Plate Program (United States Department of Agriculture, 2012). Label Reading Week 2 Diet Recall for Past Week Discussing Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, Importance of Water and Exercise Week 3 Discussing Meats, Eggs, Legumes Discussing Milk and other Dairy Products Week 4 Diet Recall for Past Week Discussing Fats, Sweets Plan, Purchase, Prepare Food on a Budget Week 5 Recipes Shopping Ads, Online as well as Newspaper or direct mail Week 6 Diet Recall for Past Week Compared to Week 2 More Recipes Group Discussion and Review of Program Evaluation of Program

Ask why each person wants to participate (Whats in it for me) (Vision Realization, n.d.) Diet recall Local comparison prices for healthy foods Blind comparison of brand name vs store brand items Hand outs Taste testing of Healthy recipes

Participants will be able to utilize information provided to enhance healthy diets while maintaining budget Participants will use healthy eating to improve self management of chronic disease Participants will increase whole grain, fruits and vegetable consumption

Evaluation of program to ask participants if goals were met Comparing diet recall from week 2 to week 6 Follow-up in 1 month to see if participants continue to see improvement in eating habits while maintaining budget

National Council on Aging. (2012). Evidence-based Health Promotion Programs Improve Lives in Wisconsin. Retrieved from library/cdsmp-state-profiles/WI-CDSMP-State-Profile-Feb2012.pdf library/cdsmp-state-profiles/WI-CDSMP-State-Profile-Feb2012.pdf Schulman-Green, D., Jaser, S., Martin, F., Alonzo, A., Grey, M., McCorkle, R., Redeker, N., … Whittemore, R. (2012). Processes of Self-Management in Chronic Illness. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 44(2), doi: /j x United States Department of Agriculture. (2012). Choose MyPlate.gov. Retrieved from Vision Realization. (n. d.). Principles of Adult Learning. Retrieved from earning_Theory.pdf earning_Theory.pdf