Houston, Texas – With the New Year comes a new start for thousands of individuals and families as they challenge themselves to live a healthier lifestyle. To help make this New Year a success for families with children, the YMCA of Greater Houston is offering the MEND Program, a free, 10-week, after-school weight management course where overweight and obese children between 7 and 13 years old, and their families, learn how to develop behaviors that support sustainable healthy lifestyles. MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition, Do it!) is underwritten by the Houston Endowment Fund in order to enable all children, who qualify, to participate. The MEND Program is currently offered at nine family YMCA's in the Houston area-West Orem, Alief, Katy, Cypress Creek, Langham Creek, Clay Road, W.D. Ley, Cossaboom and Westland. In April, three more Y locations will offer the program.
Texas weighs in at number 13 on the scale as the most obese state in the nation, according to the seventh annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2010 report. Texas also has the seventh-highest childhood obesity rate in the country. Five Lone Star cities are among the nation's fattest, with Corpus Christi at the top. Other cities in the Top Ten from Texas are #3 El Paso, #4 Dallas, #7 San Antonio and #9 Houston.
For more information, go to http://www.ymcahouston.org/health-wellness-youth-family/ or visit www.mendfoundation.org.