Tuesday, September 09, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The Downtown Wellness Community wants to provide a nudge to those inclined to eat a more healthful diet or exercise more but don’t.
“We’re not about having you cut out everything that’s bad in life, Pam Lilak said Monday, “but introducing what you can do to lead a healthier life.”
Lilak, executive director of Downtown Wellness, led a press event in the Youngstown Business Incubator to introduce the nonprofit organization to the residents of the downtown and those who work here.
The artistic director of Ballet Western Reserve, Stas Kmiec, told Lilak (and reporters) that the dance company “wants to join the movement” and briefly described what Ballet offers those who aren’t dance students to complement Downtown Wellness.
Ballet Western Reserve offers pilates, yoga and Zumba, a dance fitness program, after work Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and is looking to offer classes at lunchtime, the dance company says, through its “Let’s Move, Youngstown!” program.
Downtown Wellness, formed last April, adopted the businesses, employees and residents of the downtown as its focus and is open to all interested in leading more healthful lives – losing weight, exercising more, quitting bad habits, adopting and sticking to a more healthful diet. The last includes classes on how to prepare foods, especially vegetables and fruits, so it’s easier to keep a more healthful diet, Lilak said.
Realizing that many who reside in the downtown live alone, she hopes to form cooking clubs to help them learn how to prepare meals better for them. “No one likes to eat alone,” she observed. “That’s why people eat in bars.”
Downtown Wellness has enlisted Grow Youngstown, which has a “Farm to You” program, to expand its healthful cooking classes. The manager of Farm to You, Gina DeCarlo, said Grow Youngstown connects small farmers within a 30-mile radius of Youngstown and Warren to members who want a steady source of locally grown fruits and vegetables.
Farm to You already offers cooking classes on how to sauté and roast vegetables and working with Downtown Wellness is a logical extension.
The division of Grow Youngstown picks up the fresh foods weekly from the farmers and transports it to six sites, including the Maag Library at Youngstown State University, where members can pick it up.
Lilak, who grew up in Campbell and graduated from Memorial High School, said she returned home to help people improve their lives, emotionally and physically. “I wanted to come back to where I’m from,” she said, and share what’s she’s learned from her career and travel to India last year. She had practiced yoga a decade and spent two months in India to learn how to teach the discipline.
After graduating from The Ohio State University, she went to work for a management consulting firm, Accenture, and spent time in 40 countries, including four in Germany, before the firm assigned her to Manhattan and Washington, D.C.
“I had a very stressful job. I worked hard for 20 years,” she recalled. “I’ve gone through a lot,” including long hours, and little time to exercise. “I ate bad food [and] “gained 20 pounds,” all of which she’s lost in six months with the help of “my own health-lifestyle coach.”
But Lilak did see how other countries promote wellness, including the benefits of the Mediterranean diet while in Greece, and she decided to change careers.
In January, she reached out to a group of 20 she thought could help her form Downtown Wellness Community. They started meeting every other week beginning in April and a cadre of eight or nine has shown up for most of the meetings, the others stopping in from time to time.
Her own experience has taught Lilak that it’s easier -- but never easy -- to renounce bad regimens and adopt good ones when others are around to offer encouragement. Good habits or routines must replace unhealthful lifestyles.
Thus she and Downtown Wellness will offer activities -- whether cooking classes or exercise programs -- to encourage healthful behaviors, both physical and emotional
This includes “yoga, meditation and mindful eating, lunch workshops at downtown restaurants and cooking demonstrations,” help in losing weight, fitness classes, group walks and a staircase challenge and a speakers series.
Downtown Wellness is reaching out to other organizations that share its goals, such as the downtown YMCA.
“We take an integrated approach,” Lilak said.
For herself, she runs with her 11-year-old dog and swims at the Davis Y in Boardman to stay in shape. Lilak forgoes elevators in favor of stairs and chooses to walk when possible. Indeed, Downtown Wellness will begin holding 50-minute group walks through the downtown at noon every Thursday beginning Sept. 18.
And while she eats a mostly vegetarian diet, she doesn’t deny herself the pleasures of American cuisine. Her dinner last Friday night consisted of pizza from the Elmton in Struthers.
Pictured: Downtown Wellness Community, a newly formed group, announces its formation during a press event at the Youngstown Business Incubator.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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