Hey everyone!  My name is Nimo.  I wrote a blog before called To Whom It May Concern.  As the year comes to an end, it's time to say good-bye to '09 and say hello to '10!  Wow.  Who would've ever imagined that we would actually reach 2010?  I didn't.  As the new year comes in, everyone is talking about their New Year's resolution.

What is the definition of a New Year's resolution?  A New Year's resolution, according to a staff member of mine, Melissa, is, "a change in your life."  I believe that the definition of a New Year's resolution is a change that you are willing to make in your life and try to commit to.  What is your New Year's resolution?  What are you willing to change when it comes to your health?

2010, I greet you with open arms and challenge you to...BRING IT ON!  This year, my New Year's resolution is to work-out more and STOP making up excuses as to why I can't jog around the block.  To me, that is a mere sign of weakness - making up excuses to not work out.  I mean, come on?  It's baby steps that I'm taking here.  All I have to do is change into "jogging" clothes, change my sneakers into running shoes, and step out the door.  How hard can that be? Obviously, it must've been really hard for me because I didn't make it past the couch!  But please remember folks, when you're making a New Year's resolution, take baby steps.  One step at a time.  Don't try to take on the world in order to accomplish this New Year's resolution - that's stressful.  I advise you all to take one day and step at a time for a New Year's resolution involving your health.  I leave you all with one love and happiness.  Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!  

This is Jenny writing again to share a new experience at a recent Fishbowl meeting at Sequoia High School.

What's a Fishbowl?  It's a meeting where youth are asked to share their opinions about a certain topic. It's a chance for students to be carefully heard by adults and for adults to be carefully heard by students. The room is set up with chairs in a circle in the middle of the room. 

At the last meeting, which unfortunately I wasn't able to attend, students conversed about their school lunches.  This time adults with different roles in the district got the opportunity to elaborate on what they feel and hear from students about school lunches. The facilitator asked questions to get the discussion moving, and as it went on I discovered that district staff feel almost the same way as students do about their lunches. Staff want every student that eats lunch at school to get what they need out of their meals. And they want the meal to taste good and be fulfilling. 

Getting school lunches to be not only healthy but also affordable will be a long (hopefully not too long right?) but doable task. Many people are fighting to get healthier school lunches, and you can too. Ask your teachers and other school staff if they know when the next Fishbowl meeting is. And if your school has never had a Fishbowl, ask if you can have one.  Who knows, maybe your voice is the voice that pushes it all!

Hello, this is Will again.  I wrote a few of the blogs before and now I have a few more thoughts and a question: have you read the new Top Story on yspacesmc.org?  What an amazing and inspiring experience!  Where other youth are spending their time on Facebook or playing video games, Naftali is doing something that will not only benefit him in the future, but something that will benefit his community as well by planting fruits and vegetables and encouraging others to be healthy.  Hopefully, he can get support from his fellow students and faculty at his school so that he can get his project rolling.  You know what would be lots of fun?  Try starting your own garden with a friend or a parent, someone who you can encourage to keep going and vice versa.  I can promise you that when autumn comes, you will reap huge rewards (literally).  Can you start a project like Naftali’s at your school or even in your house or neighborhood?

Hey there, it's Jenny again.  On November 17th, I had the opportunity to participate in a meeting to update the Blueprint for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity.  This document (Blueprint) contains all the activities or objectives that need to be done in San Mateo County in order to prevent childhood obesity and other causes related to not eating healthy and not being physically active.  To be honest with all of you, it was a great experience.  I learned that preventing obesity in children is much more than just getting information out to the public.  The Get Healthy San Mateo County Task Force has been working on the objectives in this Blueprint since 2005, and has seen many challenges in trying to ensure that children in our county are healthy.  For example, changing school lunches to be healthier lunches isn't something that the county can just snap their fingers and do.  It takes time and a lot of commitment and support from many community partners. 

At the meeting, participants separated into four groups and talked about different topics.  The group topics were 1) increase opportunities for physical activity, 2) improve nutrition & physical activity in the school environment, 3) promote healthy foods/decrease availability of unhealthy foods, and 4) increase access to fruits & vegetables.  Each group discussed activities in the Blueprint that still needs to be completed, and any ideas that should be added that isn't included in the Blueprint.  One of the ideas that I brought up was poverty tax.  As many people notice, when we go buy groceries at a corner market, especially in a low-income neighborhood, they are more expensive than at a regular grocery store.  That extra cost is due to poverty tax - businesses charge more because they know people in poor neighborhoods don't have any other options.  So the idea we all got to solve this was to have multiple corner stores buy fresh fruit and vegetables together so that they can purchase them at a lower price and sell them at a lower price. 

At the end, two new ideas were voted to be presented to the entire group in the room.  We were all given a remote control look-alike device to rank each activity (what was already on the Blueprint and the new ideas) — from least important to the most important (not that they all weren't important).

After everyone voted we went back to our groups and discussed if what was voted the highest was easy to do or if it would be difficult to accomplish in the next five years. We also discussed why we think that the one voted on as least important was voted to be the least.  Did we agree or disagree with the vote?  After the discussion, the meeting was concluded.  There were three meetings held in San Mateo County - one in North County, Mid County, and the Coastside. This experience was a great one, and I'm glad I was able to be a part of it. 

Information for the Blueprint update meetings is still being gathered, and if you have any ideas or want to get involved you can contact Naida Pare at npare@co.sanmateo.ca.us.