Florida Summer Fat Camp Alternative, Teens & Kids Wellspring Blog

Welcome to Wellspring Florida. We're so excited that camp is underway!

My name is John "JJ" Russell. Last year I attended the Wellspring Adventure Camp in North Carolina and had an extremely good time for the two months that I was there. I learned that you can lose weight and have fun too. After my great success of losing 31 lbs., I decided to come back to a Wellspring Camp program. In this case I decided to go to the Wellspring Florida camp.

Please read my blog as I tell you about my efforts to continue my success since I first lost 31 lbs. a year ago.

For Wellspring’s weight loss blog, click here.

Read how Wellspring changes behavior with Dr. Kristina Kelly.

Do you have a current camper attending camp? Log in to Parent Check In, the place only for parents and campers to stay in contact.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Final Day at Camp

As the last full day of camp I am feeling many things. I am satisfied with how much I have lost and all the friends I have made. I am happy that I have renewed my exercise routine and confident that I will stick with it for more than eight months.

I’m looking forward to seeing my family and working on my Facebook so I can easily keep in touch with friends from camp. Myselfmonitoring.com is a site set up by the Wellspring camps so campers can talk with friends and do their SMJ’ing on it. Usually campers hang out on it for the first five months then stop monitoring and talking; I hope that people will continue to check on it for at least one year.

It’s been a fun four weeks, but it’s ending. I’m going to miss all my friends that I have made and will try to keep in touch with them.

Labels: exercise routine, friends at weight loss camp, weight loss after camp

posted by Wellspring at 8:07 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Who Won Color War!?!

“Color war” is finishing today. Almost everybody is having fun with it. My team and I are working as hard as we can. This event is a very good way to encourage teamwork and leadership.

I ran half a mile on the track and timed myself. So far if I keep up the same speed that will put me at an eight minute mile-- two minutes down from last time.

Parents will start arriving in two and a half days. Parent weekend is always fun even if yours aren’t coming. We usually get to play dodge ball with all the parents and kids combined so it is much more challenging.

I’m excited for the last few days at camp and eager to see the outcome of the “color war”.

Labels: improving fitness, parents weekend, teamwork and leadership

posted by Wellspring at 11:20 AM 0 comments

Color WAR!

It is an interesting day today. We started out a “color war”. Campers are split into two teams of different colors. In this case we are orange and blue; I’m on the orange team. Teams compete in various activities such as biking, dodge ball, and basketball. The games will last for two full days. One activity even includes a meal: silent dinner.
The color war is bringing out the best and the worst of campers. So far I’ve seen about 95% of campers helping each other and cheering each other on and still having a little competition in them, but there are the others that try to cheat or just give up and sit on the side. It’s nice to see everybody helping people through times when they are struggling and at least trying to encourage the people that have given up.
I’m looking forward to a fun two days and I hope that my team wins, but I will be happy with the other team winning also.
Only five days left, I’m going to be pushing myself to the best of my abilities to finish up strong.

Labels: color war, competition, traditional camp activities

posted by Wellspring at 5:39 AM 0 comments

Friday, July 24, 2009

Day of Activity

We started out with bike riding this morning which was so fun but extremely exhausting. All I had for breakfast was a bowl of cereal and some milk which didn’t last me long.
Second round campers only have nine days left until we leave next week. A lot of parents will be coming to pick up their children, but there are also us that are going home by plane. I’m looking forward to this afternoon when we go swimming then go straight to dodge ball.
The timed mile is going to take place again soon. I would love to improve on my mile time by more than a minute, but that will mean I need to push myself to the limit. My hope is I will be able to run the mile nonstop again.
These last nine days I will push myself as hard as I can and try to encourage others to do the same. I hope I’ll be able to maintain the Wellspring program when I get home.

Labels: healthy breakfast, pushing healthy habits, timed mile

posted by Wellspring at 6:42 AM 0 comments

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Ropes Course

I have had some problems recently. I have been having trouble problem solving, and I lost my cool a couple times which did more harm than good.

We had internet time today which is when campers are allowed on any site that the network allows. Some sites such as Myspace and any website to do with gaming or proxies are blocked. Almost all of us spend it checking our emails and going on Facebook, which is allowed.

Second and third round campers went to the ropes course today. We were able to go on a zipline until someone broke the ladder. The objective was to climb all the way up to a platform that was approximately fifty feet off the ground.

Our timed mile was yesterday. Some people improved drastically; I was not part of them. My mile time only improved fifteen seconds. There are some people that went from 15:30 all the way down to 13:00 in only one week! In my opinion that is very impressive.

There are only about 10 days left. I am looking forward to going home, but will definitely miss all of the new friends I have made here.

Labels: internet access, ropes course, timed mile, zipline

posted by Wellspring at 7:02 AM 0 comments

Friday, July 17, 2009

Goodbye to departing campers

As the last night for many campers, it is very emotional today. I know from experience that when you are together with people for a month or two you build strong bonds. It will be a much different place starting on Sunday. My roommates might be leaving by Sunday. If that happens it will be hard adjusting.

I’m looking forward to after this break we call “Siesta”. We are going to play dodge ball which is one of my favorite games here. Why I mentioned this is because dodge ball will be different today because my friends’ siblings will be playing alongside them.
At evening activity today we are running the timed mile. I injured my toe in a game of soccer two days ago so I doubt I will beat my original time, but I am looking forward to seeing the improvements that my friends have made since four weeks ago.

Labels: dogdeball, goodbye to weight loss friends, timed mile

posted by Wellspring at 11:56 AM 0 comments

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Parents arrive

Parents are starting to arrive today. It is strange not having my parents here as I did last year, but I have only been here for a week and a half. In two days some of my friends are leaving to go home, and I hope that they will be able to stick with the Wellspring program at home like I managed to.

As a mentor I have many expectations to meet and I think that I am doing pretty well in meeting them. I had some trouble getting back into the habit of using my Self Monitoring Journal (SMJ). In an SMJ you write down what you ate, when you ate it, and how much fat/ calories it has. I finally got back into the habit and I am starting to stick with it religiously.
The boy’s group is a lot like a family. We all get in fights but we still like each other and for the most part stick up for each other. Everybody gets along and we build strong bonds in activities like the rope courses and various other team sports.

We only have two more days with about four of our friends. It will be a lot different without them, but we will get some more campers on Sunday and will eventually get used to it.

Labels: new friends at "fat camp", SMJ, Wellspring weight loss program

posted by Wellspring at 12:00 PM 0 comments