Get acquainted with the HAWC for a New Year’s new you Published Dec. 10, 2010 By Susan Huser Health and Wellness Center health education program manager PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- New Year's is a perfect time to dust off the exercise equipment, begin a fitness routine and a healthy eating routine and start that transformation to a healthier you. The Peterson Air Force Base Health and Wellness Center can be that very important first step to a new, healthier you. Even if you want to improve on your already healthy routine and need guidance to tweak it to the next level of performance, come to the HAWC. The HAWC staff is a group of specialized professionals that can help you discover how you can better perform with exercise and healthy eating to feel and look fantastic. Here are a few programs to help get you started: Tobacco Cessation: If tobacco use is the only thing standing in your way of being healthy, make a commitment and quit this year. When using tobacco, health consequences are unavoidable. Many smokers believe that by switching to a smokeless tobacco product, they avoid health hazards. This is a falsehood. Smokeless tobacco is known to contain 28 carcinogens, including very high levels of tobacco specific nitrosamines. Tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines are the most potent carcinogens present in chewing tobacco and snuff, but smokeless tobacco also contains other cancer causing substances such as formaldehyde, arsenic, cadmium and radioactive polonium-210. The HAWC offers tobacco cessation assistance using the American Cancer Society's "Fresh Start" program with a referral to the Peterson pharmacy for the most medically advanced tobacco cessation aides available. HAWC tobacco cessation class is held from 11 a.m. to noon each Friday and is taught by the HAWC's health educator and a certified tobacco cessation specialist. Weight Loss: The HAWC's new weight loss class can be the first-class ticket for you to land in the BMI zone that you envision for yourself. This class has been overhauled and is now taught by one of the expert health professionals in the HAWC, dietitian Julie Anderson. Ms. Anderson offers a "Lighten Up" weight loss class at a new time: 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. each Monday, beginning Jan. 3. This new time provides more access to active duty members who cannot attend during the duty day and opens up accessibility to dependents as well. If weight loss is your personal plan of attack for a healthier you this year, take advantage of this group class. You will weigh in each week for accountability and the group dynamics of the class provide support and encouragement. Exercise: Research and studies are conclusive to the beneficial effects of a good work out. Improved mood and increased energy really works for a complete overhaul of your life. Our health and fitness specialist Christopher Woodruff is a dedicated HAWC staff member who can put together the perfect work out plan for increasing your fitness and level of performance. Mr. Woodruff also instructs the HAWC's "Ease into Exercise class" which provides you the first step into exercise if you have become stagnant in your routine. This class is designed to help you create a balanced routine that provides challenge and allows progress that you can measure. The Health and Wellness Center is in Building 560. For more information about the HAWC, call 556-4292.