Kasey Arena begins #BodyPeace movement at North Hills

On Wednesday, April 16, certified personal trainer, owner of Powercakes, LLC. and North Hills graduate Kasey Arena touched the hearts of 65 girls from North Hills High School during the #BeTrueToYou health and fitness workshop.

Arena shared her story and talked to the girls in the Journalism, Nutrition, Foods, and Fitness, and CHS Nutrition courses about positive body image. In return, the girls felt comfortable enough to write down one negative thought about themselves followed by a positive one. This activity was powerful and taught the girls to embrace their flaws and love themselves the way they are.

Along with sharing thoughts, sophomore Moreen McGrath read an incredible slam poem regarding female empowerment that she recently wrote for Mrs. Steuben’s English class. Her poem captured the room’s attention and hit home for many girls.

Following the presentation, Kasey Arena changed things up and took everyone to the gym to lead a HIIT (high intensity interval) workout she had prepared as WTAE and the NHTV crew filmed the workout. 

After breaking a sweat, things settled down again as Kasey spoke about clean eating and how to make healthy choices in college. She demonstrated how to make chia jam with strawberries, blueberries, chia seeds, and rice cakes that everyone sampled. Here is a link to her blog for the rest of the recipe: www.powercakes.net

Planning for the event began a few weeks ago when Ms. Kunselman brought in Kasey Arena as a guest speaker for her journalism classes. After the presentation inspiration struck, the workshop idea was born. The journalism classes as well as Mrs. Patsilevas’s and Mrs. Mikula’s CHS Nutrition and Nutrition Food and Fitness classes attended.

This week, the girls who attended the workshop are spreading messages of self-love and body peace throughout the school through a social media project. Each day has a different theme, such as#makeuplessmonday. The girls have to then tweet a picture to @NH_girlpower that relates to the daily theme. If you tweet three times, then you are eligible to win an awesome Under Armour tank top. This has been a great positive movement for North Hills and hopefully it continues to spread throughout the school.