Active Living Every Day: Seniors can brighten spirits and get moving
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Published: April 23, 2008
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Times
Santa Paula seniors will have the opportunity take part in a free life-altering program that will brighten their spirits and get them moving. A 14-week Active Living Every Day class will start May 6 at the Senior Center.
Active Living Every Day (ALED) is a unique program that mixes awareness of the benefits of physical activity with light exercise. It is sponsored jointly by SCAN Health Plan, Santa Paula Senior Services and Santa Paula Hospital.
ALED is a nationally renowned program to help inactive seniors improve their overall health and lifestyle, according to Valerie Norman of Santa Paula, the ALED instructor. “It’s brand new in Ventura County; we did one pilot program” that was met with enthusiasm by seniors.
Those wishing to take part in the program - offered free to the first 20 people who sign up - do not have to be a member of the SCAN plan and are preferably 65 years or older, although Norman said those 60 years and up can join. “We want the coach potato... if they exercise now” they do not need the ALED sessions, which will feature some light stretching exercises.
“We want them to commit to the 14 weeks... if they commit to it their mindset is very different,” she noted. Motivation is the key to the program, which Norman is pleased will be held in Santa Paula, as “there is so little here” for seniors.
The program “attacks the thought process” with the book “Active Living Every Day.” Seniors will be required to do homework to reinforce the realization that the benefits of activity are wide-ranging.
“If they’re not doing it on a regular basis,” Norman said that the thought process to encourage activity must be fostered. A contemplation sheet will ask participants questions to gauge their openness to change, although “Most who get to the point of calling” about the ALED program are already gearing up for a new, more active lifestyle.
Peer involvement is important: “People like to share experiences” and thoughts, activity successes and backslides, said Norman. “Active Living Every Day” has chapters that encourage seniors to keep going and to deal with setbacks. The twice-weekly sessions - held Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 to 11 a.m. - will alternately feature discussions/homework and light exercise.
The benefits of exercise, even light activity, can make a huge difference: “There was a two-year study” where subjects were asked to do 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day such as walking a mile, even if broken into increments. It was found that the physical and emotional health of participants improved.
Simple ways to increase lifestyle activity, such as parking farther away from a destination, are also important. “If we can get seniors to commit on a daily basis, they actually do feel better within weeks; then they are more likely to do other things” to increase daily physical activity.
Blood pressure can be lowered, weight lost - a “byproduct, but we don’t stress that,” said Norman - lungs strengthened and the risk of illnesses decrease and depression is lifted through a more active lifestyle. “They get out and socialize more,” important for seniors who can suffer from depression resulting from being homebound and an incentive to attend the ALED sessions.
“It’s hard to describe the differences in the people from start to finish,” and testing is done during the course of the program because, said Norman, “People make strides and don’t realize it.”
Norman, a native of England and a Santa Paula resident since 1999, is “knowledgeable, energetic and very motivational,” said SCAN Health & Resource Specialist/Manager Steve Lehman. “When she shares from the heart she not only informs the brain, but makes you want to do what she says,” he noted. “Her lovely gentle accent only adds to the power she brings to changing lives. Santa Paula is ever so fortunate to have someone of Valerie’s caliber leading this senior teaching, life-changing series.”
ALED is a world famous program, said Lehman, and the “bottom line is that it works and it thereby improves the every day life of the seniors who complete it.” Call 658-0365 for more information about the ALED program.
