The Happy & Healthy Blog

At Empowered Wellness Camps, we use pedometers as a great tool for measuring and recording fitness goals. The teens and college students who attend our weight loss program create baselines and then try to beat those baselines over the course of the summer.  On average those who use a pedometer and track their progress take…

Rest Days are Important Sometimes, in pursuit of our healthy lifestyles, our focus can narrow excessively on exercise intensity and quantity. We ask ourselves repeatedly, “What more can I do?”.  While being super active is great for our body and mind, at a certain point, more becomes too much, and that becomes detrimental to our…

Every year around New Years we take a look at the past and look forward to the future.  We make new resolutions on January 1st and abandon all resolutions by the second or third week in January.  At Empowered Wellness, we use goals to help our young adult and teen campers  meet their desired goals. …

A New Year, A Happy and Healthy YOU This time of year, you see “A New Year, A New You” on health and beauty marketing materials.  At Empowered Wellness Camps, with our young adults and teens, we believe they don’t need a “new” them. We desire for them to be the happiest and healthiest version of…

Beverly Bolen Hey! What’s up EW Fam! It’s Beverly and I’m here today to talk about my transition from camp to home. At home, before camp, I had always been insecure about my weight and never wanted to talk about it. But while at camp, I learned some awesome ways to help with a lot…

Brad Murphy Happy New Year everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. It’s been 6 months since Camp started and if you’re like me, it seems like only last month we were in sunny Santa Barbara! SMART Goals This leads me on to what I’d like to talk about today: New Year’s Resolutions. The point…

Carolyn “Cari” Coulter Thiede, RD, LD  The beginning of a new year is often filled with a sense of excitement and promise.  After 2-3 months of frigid weather, long nights, and colds, however, you may start experiencing some level of what can be referred to as the “winter blues”. During this time, the foods and beverages…

Nikki Downey, CTRS Everyday, whether you are on a wellness journey or a different journey, we all face obstacles and must use accessible, problem solving skills to overcome them.  At camp, with our young adult and teens, we call these Dealing Skills.  At camp, campers might express soreness after a long hike. Our counselors are…

Cari Coulter Thiede, RD, LD Meal Planning Last month we talked about strategies for sticking to a healthy lifestyle over the holidays.  At our summer camps for teens and young adults, we encourage them to find holiday traditions and activities that did not revolve around food, such as a 5k Turkey Trot or gift exchange. …

Sweet Potato Latkes Ingredients: 1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and coarsely grated 3 scallions, finely chopped 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/8 tsp cumin 1/8 tsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp nutmeg 1 Tbsp olive oil for greasing baking pan Instructions: Preheat oven to 425 degrees…