Keeping Healthy in the New Year with HPI

Holidays greetings from Encore! If you’re anything like us, the holidays have been full of wonderful meetings with family or friends, festive fun, and, of course, more than a yummy treat or two. While it can be lovely to indulge during a celebration, we wanted to chat with the ambassadors for our Healthy Play Initiative (HPI) to ask for some tips as we look toward the New Year and our resolutions.

Encore: Hello! Please introduce yourselves.

Enrique: Hello! My name is Eat Healthy Enrique.
Mona: And I’m Get Moving Mona!

Encore: What are your favorite things to do?

Mona: I love to dance and exercise. I also have a beautiful voice. I sing like the birds. My voice soars high above the trees.
Enrique: I enjoy trying new foods. I also love to sing songs of joy and happiness with my friends.

What about your favorite things to eat and drink?

Enrique: When you look into my refrigerator, you will see all kinds of foods from the five food groups. But my favorite food is fish! And, of course, you need water. What fish doesn’t need water?

Mona: What?
Enrique: What? It makes sense!

Mona: I like to keep it natural. I’m happy with chicken, brown rice, carrot, apples, and milk. Not necessarily in that order.

Encore: What do you like most about coming to visit at HPI?

Enrique: I love seeing the children every week; they make me laugh and we have a lot of fun. They share their favorite foods each week. It helps me create new recipes.

Mona: I too love hearing the sounds of laughter and encouraging them to keep moving. At the end of class, it is so wonderful to ask the kids about which activities they participated in. They tell me everything, from jumping, hopping, hula hooping, singing, dancing, all kinds of fun and games!

Encore: How can our readers join in on the fun?

Enrique: Join us at the Gates of Balston, every Friday from 1pm-3pm.
Mona: But come prepared to move and have FUN!

Encore: What are you most looking forward to over the holidays?

Enrique: I can’t wait to try out some new healthy recipes! I hope the children will share some of their favorite foods with me in the New Year.

Mona: I can’t wait to spend time with friends and family. And to work on some new dance routines!

Encore: What are some of your top New Year’s resolutions to share with our readers?

Mona: Life is beautiful! Treat your body right. Get plenty of exercise and rest.
Enrique: Know that change is possible. Eat to live. And, of course, stay healthy!

Thank you so much for sharing about HPI and your tips for living healthily in the new year, Mona and Enrique! To learn more about the Healthy Play Initiative, please click here. If you and your young ones would like to learn more about making positive food choices, be sure to mark your calendars for Encore’s very first Theatre for the Very Young production, Kitchen Adventures, premiering February 9, 2017!

Photo credits: Aileen Pangan, Shannon McCarthy, Sara Duke
Graphic Design: Aileen Pangan
Blog contributor: Shannon McCarthy, 2016-17 Arts Apprentice