Wellness Walls

What are Wellness Walls?

My partner, Ashley, recently explained our three-week rotation at The University of Maryland Dining Services. I am going to point out one of my favorite projects….The Wellness Walls! The Wellness Walls incorporated five main categories; healthy cooking tips, exercise tips, nutrition tips, a seasonal recipe and lastly, a healthy and unhealthy plate picture. My partner and I worked on creating material for the wall each day and were able to finalize and design a new board each Friday!

'Get Rooted In Fall'

'Pumpkinfest' 

'Fall Into Comfort'

Our rotation started October 6^th and ended October 24^th making ‘fall’ a perfect theme for our Wellness Walls.  Our first Wellness Wall was titled 'Get Rooted In Fall', which incorporated rooted vegetables in many of our nutrition tips and our in recipes. These tips allowed our viewers to gain ideas on how to prepare and cook rooted vegetables along with healthy ways to incorporate rooted vegetables into their diet.

The theme of our second Wellness wall was ‘Pumpkinfest’ which, if you couldn’t tell from the name, hinted on the health benefits of pumpkin and presented healthy ways to roast and cook with pumpkin seeds. Our exercise tips also included fall traditions for example raking leaves and getting pumped with pumkins! Who knew pumpkins could be used to intensify push-ups?

Our final wellness wall was titled ‘Fall Into Comfort’ which incorporated traditional comfort fall food with a healthy spin. For example, when preparing heavy fall dishes cooking with reduced fat and sodium brands will lighten up the dishes, yet still create the comfort flavor. We also created exercises that can all be done in the comfort of your own home!   

Overall, Ashley and I got great feedback from our Wellness Walls. We were told that because staff members speak both English and Spanish, having all the materials in both English and Spanish was visually appealing and clear to everyone. Another comment made by the staff was the importance of the pictures. Our healthy and unhealthy plates were clear and contained limited text allowing viewers to understand portions and food groups without reading text. The Wellness Walls were a great way to incorporate creative ideas with nutrition knowledge to promote a healthy lifestyle!