Scale Back Alabama bonus: Mobile County Health Department salad days planned

MOBILE, Ala. -- Public Health employees in Mobile County are taking the stairs, squeezing in brisk walks and sharing salads as they work to make healthier choices in 2015. There are 74 Mobile County Health Department and Family Health staff members taking part in the free Scale Back Alabama weight loss initiative going on at workplaces and other health care centers across the state through April.
 
At MCHD, there are 37 two-member teams spread across six separate sites. As a way to encourage participation in the weight-loss program, the Health Department’s Nutrition Service’s division is organizing salad bar lunches at its downtown location where the majority of Scale Back participants work.

A walking group, led by Margaret McCulloch of Nutrition Services, also has been started with more than a dozen employees taking a 15-minute morning break to get outside and stretch their legs around the perimeter of the historic downtown campus.  Staffers can meet in the front of the Keeler building at 10 a.m. to join the group.

The salad bars, planned during lunch time once a week, feature speakers who share tips on everything from healthy snacks to yoga moves you can perform in a chair at work. They are being held at the Keeler building in downtown Mobile, Room 351 from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m.

While you don’t have to be enrolled in Scale Back Alabama to take part, those who participate should bring an item to share on the salad bar. Please email Margaret at mcculloch@mchd.org to let her know if you would like to take part. Those who notify her will be included in the weekly Scale Back Alabama salad bar sign-up list.

Here are the upcoming dates for the salad bar lunches: Friday, Feb. 6; Thursday, Feb. 12; Thursday, Feb. 19; Thursday, Feb. 26; Thursday, March 5; Thursday, March 12; Friday, March 20; Thursday, March 26 and Thursday, April 2.