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Naval Hospital Jacksonville Wellness Center Introduces Sail A Weigh Program
Story Number: NNS130607-24
6/7/2013

By Keats Reynolds, Naval Hospital Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla, (NNS) -- Naval Hospital (NH) Jacksonville Wellness Center's Sail A Weigh program promotes healthy lifestyle practices, weight loss and nutrition education for military families and retirees.

Introduced in February 2013, Sail A Weigh is a six week program created to assist people who may struggle with maintaining a healthy diet. The overall goal of Sail A Weigh is to help family members and retirees live healthy lifestyles and maintain healthy body composition to help support their Sailors.

The Sail A Weigh idea originated from the current Shipshape program, the Navy's official intervention program for weight management. "After observing the positive impact ShipShape had on active duty military, I envisioned military families and retirees benefitting from a similar class," said Cheryl Masters, NH Jacksonville Wellness Center health promotion specialist and registered dietician.

"The Sail A Weigh program is two weeks shorter than Shipshape and still includes all of the information that Shipshape does," says Masters. "We wanted to ensure we could accommodate participants whose work schedules prevent them from attending a longer program."

During the course, participants learn about and practice healthy diet techniques such as self-monitoring of personal progress and the use of food diary sheets and exercise logs. The program also assists with setting individual goals, dealing with high emotional and social situations, behavior change assessments and the development of problem solving techniques. The program provides continued professional contact through a structured follow-up program. "These techniques are individual building blocks to help people not only lose weight while involved in the class, but to continue that success long after the class is completed," says Masters.

Janet Mullins, NH Jacksonville Mental Health and Wellness clinical psychologist, addresses psychological barriers that many face while attempting to lose weight. Mullins classifies one of these obstacles as emotional (stress) eating, in which she actively teaches coping skills that help prevent them from turning to food for comfort and preventing relapses, ultimately allowing participants to break their weight loss plateau.

"I learned how to take charge of my life and to be honest about being a food addict," recalls Brenda McCoy, a former Navy Exchange (NEX) employee and inaugural Sail A Weigh class member who lost 260 pounds. "Before, I never really thought about what I was putting into my body. Sail A Weigh taught me how to properly read food labels and be more conscious of what I am eating."

Each class includes a field trip to the Defense Commissary, where participants learn valuable information about food ingredients, additives, preservatives and mealtime ideas.

Upon completion of the course, participants leave understanding healthy grocery shopping, ingredient label, accurate calorie counting and healthy meal planning techniques.

Additionally, the group learns about physical fitness. NAS Jacksonville Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) fitness instructors, give guidelines for strength training, flexibility and safety instructions throughout the class. MWR Staff demonstrate ways to get active. All participants are encouraged to consult with their physician before starting an exercise program.

Sail A Weigh class times are flexible to accommodate working schedules. Morning and afternoon classes are available Monday through Friday between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. For more information or to sign up, contact the NH Jacksonville Wellness Center at 542-5292.

NH Jacksonville's priority since its founding in 1941 is to heal the nations heroes and their families. The command is comprised of the Navys fourth largest hospital and five branch health clinics across Florida and Georgia. Of its patient population, about 163,000 active and retired military and their families, more than 57,000 are enrolled with primary care managers at one of its facilities. On average each day, a dedicated team of 2,500 military and civilian personnel sees 1,800 outpatients, admits 15 inpatients, cares for 80 people in the ER, performs 14 same-day surgeries, fills 4,700 prescriptions, conducts 4,600 lab tests and delivers three babies. Additionally, up to eight percent of its active duty staff is deployed around the globe providing combat, humanitarian and disaster care.

For more information, visit www.med.navy.mil/sites/navalhospitaljax.

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