Social media and posters promoting “Habits 4 Your Health” have been popping up all over campus this spring, but what exactly is the buzz about?
Habits 4 Your Health is a new campaign by the Institute for Communication and Information Research focused on informing members of the University of Alabama community of the importance of healthy lifestyle choices.
The campaign aims to dispel misinformation about the cost of healthy living and provide a variety of mediums with reliable information for the public. Those responsible for the campaign urge students to disregard notions that healthy living is time-consuming and costly and urge them to become more aware of the simplicity of a healthy lifestyle.
“Even though you’re busy and might be on a tight budget, there are still healthy lifestyle options,” Hope Peterson, a student working on the project, said. “You can live a healthy life in a college community.”
Each week, Habits 4 Your Health focuses on one of four important health areas: eating, exercise, energy and empowerment. Students can access relevant information through various media, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or a WordPress blog.
The campaign is a project of five students in Kenon Brown’s APR 433 class: Nicole Bryan, Lee Lyons, Claire Brown, Chance Blake and Krista Ales. The students began the project under the request of the ICIR, as a way to spread awareness about healthy living on the UA campus.
“It has been a lesson in leadership and teamwork that has really prepared me, and I’m sure everyone else working for an agency or a company,” Bryan, an Agency Leader for the group, said.
Not only does this project benefit students and the whole UA community, it also provides students with a unique opportunity to work on a campaign that is beneficial to their peers, group members said.
College-age students are developing eating and exercise habits that could last a lifetime, so it is important for them to be well-informed on how to develop a healthy lifestyle.
“The benefit of the Habits 4 Your Health campaign is that it gives students the opportunity to create a health campaign that is relevant to other students,” Mary Katherine Alsip, research assistant for the ICIR, said. “If they start making healthy choices now, then it will be easier for them to keep those habits when the added stresses of work and family come into their lives after graduation.”
Team members have gained valuable experience in public relations through this campaign, as well as developing some new healthy habits of their own.
“We try out all the tips, recipes and workout videos we put online,” Peterson said. “One of the girls made the 100-calorie brownie recipe — it was great.”
