Yes, I have, but it wasn’t all
that successful, although we may have given up too soon. We started it because
many people in our 10 week program expressed interest in ongoing support. It
was free (I work in Public Health) but we still only consistently had 3-6
people (out of over 100 people) show up each monthly session (and I always sent
email reminders beforehand) so after 6 mos we discontinued it, at least for
now. The most “popular” one that we had was when we combined it
with a guest speaker and had a little interactive chair exercises during. We
sat in a circle instead of “class/row style” with everyone looking
at the speaker. The circle felt more intimate. Our Diabetes Support group
also has monthly guest speakers for their format too and it is pretty well
attended.
Having an educational session or topic
to discuss first or at least get things going seemed to break the ice bit to help
get people to talk about how their doing.
Another national weight management
support group that I’ve looked into a bit and my mom attended for awhile (membership
is cheap, like $30/year) called TOPS (Taking off Pounds Sensibly) http://www.tops.org/desktops.asp
Hope that helps.
Monica Wilson Smith,
RD, LD
From:
HODUnder30@yahoogroups.com [mailto:HODUnder30@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Sumiya Khan
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008
1:58 PM
To:
Bastyrnutrition@yahoogroups.com; HODUnder30@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HODUnder30] Weight
management support groups
Hello,
Does anyone have
experience developing and/or running a weight management support group?
I’d appreciate any info on format, structure, topics, curriculum, cost,
etc.
Thanks,
Sumiya Khan, MS, RD