For 15 years, the Wellness Connection has been providing University students with classes for creating healthy lifestyles, but this year it was put to a halt.

How many University students can honestly raise their hands when asked: Do you exercise on a regular basis?

Students that don’t exercise regularly are not alone; that is why the Wellness Connection and Student Health Services have put together a four week class that helps students with exercise motivation, nutrition tips, sleep hygiene, positive body image and stress management. But because students did not sign up for the class sessions, the classes were canceled.

The University’s Wellness Connection came up with the idea, calling it “Take a Bite and on the Move For Health and Joy.” These classes were facilitated by Dr. Bonnie Berger, Tonya Hefner, Judy Miller and Dr. Vickie Shields. Each woman had a different section to teach.

Judy Miller, nurse at Student Health Services, read an article about such classes and thought that the approach would be enjoyable for University students. There were students that signed up, but not enough for a full class session, Miller said.

The classes are not new; they have just been revised. In the past, according to Miller, the classes were eight weeks long. The new “Take a Bite” classes were only four weeks long, every Tuesday for two hours.

The reason behind the classes was actually from in coming freshmen input, Miller said. The in coming freshmen were surveyed as they came to the Health Center. Most of the students felt that they would like to know more about nutrition tips, exercise motivation and body image concerns, Miller said.

Miller was to talk about stress management and sleep hygiene, where she was to stress how sleeping a full eight hours is good for the body and should be taken seriously. She also was to address eating disorders.

Dr. Vickie Shields, interim associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences would have discussed positive body image. She wrote a book called “Measuring up: How Media Images of Perfect Bodies Impact Upon Gender Identities.” She was going to use the book as a basis for her class.

Tonya Hefner, nutrition educator at the Wellness Connection was going to talk about nutrition tips. Dr. Bonnie Berger, professor and director of the school of human movement, sports and leisure studies was to talk about exercise motivation. Berger specializes in exercise psychology and sport psychology.

“Exercise has had a bad reputation like dieting, which has been avoided by a lot of people,” Berger said.

Berger stresses motivation and how it is a discovery for each person with a different meaning. Exercise influences mood states, energy, self-esteem and has a personal significance in the social world, Berger said.

“The question is, How do we encourage people to stop ‘excusercising’,” Berger said.

Many people make up the excuse that they don’t have enough time today, that they will do it tomorrow. No matter how busy people may say they are, they need to take the time to exercise to feel better, Berger said.

Berger’s class would have focused on how you can make exercise something you want to do, something enjoyable, something that moves you towards a goal and is the end product, not the means.

“It is a reflection to review your body. It can improve your psychological well-being,” Berger said.

Her classes were also going to go over the different exercise techniques to meet certain goals and to find out what stage certain people are at. Whether students never exercise or if they exercise extensively.

When hearing the news at a conference out of state that the classes were canceled, Berger’s initial response was joy.

“I was happy because I didn’t have the time. I was able to do the paper work in my desk instead of going to the Union,” she said.

Even though she was happy the classes were canceled this time around, both Berger and Miller said that they would do it again. Berger did write a book that just came out called “Foundations of exercise Psychology.” The book is geared towards graduate courses offered at the University to encourage young professionals to enter the field of exercise psychology.

The classes are going to come back to the University, Miller said. She is now looking into when the best time will be for them to go on.

“Maybe we could get more students if they got class credit for it,” Miller said.

She isn’t quite sure how to get more students’ attention for the classes. The classes are geared towards students with the students’ concerns in mind. Miller thought that maybe having the classes at the beginning of the semester would help out.

If students are interested in such classes, don’t hesitate to let someone know. The Wellness Connection is there for the students, with the students in mind, Miller said.