A healthy diet starts at home

"I wanted to make our girls aware of how the choices they make can affect them and how they can make healthy decisions on their own."

The Dunn familiy started a MEND diet — Mind Exercise Nutrition. Do It! — to improve their health, and bring their family closer together.

Carry-out pizza. A lap through the drive-thru. Sugary sips over distilled quenchers.

Can you relate? The Dunn family can. And they're doing something about it — together.

While working out one day at a local YMCA, Donna Dunn spotted a flier promoting the United Way–funded program MEND (Mind Exercise Nutrition. Do it!). She already had been working toward creating a healthier lifestyle for herself, and wanted her daughters, Alija, 9, and Kennedi, 8, to learn the same path.

"I wanted to empower our girls," Donna says of electing, along with her husband, Kenneth, to enroll the family in the program aimed at ages 7 to 13 and their families. "I wanted to make them aware of how the choices they make can affect them and how they can make healthy decisions on their own."

Health, and fighting childhood obesity, is one of United Way's three focus areas and part of the United 2020 community goals. For 10 weeks, the girls attended the program twice a week for one- to two-hour sessions at the YMCA, a United Way service provider. They learned about the food pyramid, good vs. bad fats and sugars, the importance of exercise and more. In summer 2010, the Dunn family was one of 22 families to graduate from the program's inaugural year. The Dallas YMCA MEND 7-13 program was piloted through funding from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas.

Kenneth Dunn says the program taught the family how to make better choices and how to overcome some of the "out-of-control" food choices they were making.

Instead of fast food three times a week and a weekly carry-out pizza, the Dunn family began a MEND-friendly menu — developed, in part, by Alija and Kennedi — and now dines on food like turkey burgers, grilled chicken and chili made with ground turkey. Veggies also are a must-have.

The best part?

"We eat as a family," Kenneth says, "around the table."

Through the program, the girls opened their minds — and their palates — and discovered they liked previously unchartered foods. Alija doesn't mind trading in her beloved Hot Fries for cauliflower bits. And Kennedi bypasses doughnuts for fruit. Both girls commit to drinking eight glasses of water a day.

Alija and Kennedi each lost 5 pounds during the program, and their father says their doctor gave them "high praise" during their recent annual checkups.

"The doctor said with the weight loss, the girls are right on point for where they should be and that they're doing great," Kenneth says.

After the successful completion of the 10-week program, the YMCA continues its support of each family by providing year-long memberships to the YMCA.

More than anything, Donna is thrilled that her daughters are excited about nutrition and physical activity.

"They want to get involved now with grocery shopping and help pick out MEND-friendly foods," she says. "They have a weekly goal now to try new healthy foods they hadn't tried before."

Exercise also is a key component. The family enjoys walking and riding their bikes together.

The time commitment to pursue the program is beyond worth it, the Dunns say, as they can see the increased energy in their girls and the strengthened unity of their family.

"It's not a diet," Kenneth says. "It's a lifestyle change, with an emphasis on family."

Above: Kenneth Dunn, and daughters, Alija, 9, and Kennedi, 8