CatholicFIT Curriculum | Module 3
Here is the Week 3 Worksheet, with all other resources linked below.
FOOD & FASTING is about focusing on eating “God-made food” (most of the time) and being mindful when eating. We will discuss:
- that understanding calories is important, but the healthier, more natural, single ingredient foods you eat, the less you have to count calories,
- are you hungry? Mindful eaters ask themselves whether that hunger is true physical hunger, or whether you just feel like eating due to boredom or due to who and what are surrounding you, and
- feel full? how do you feel an hour after your meal? These are important questions to journal when refining a healthier nutrition routine. You can share these ideas with your 6th grader or older students if you feel appropriate, or during a nutrition/health class.
Most importantly, the Food & Fasting principle reminds us how central the Eucharist is to the Catholic faith. CCC #1324 reads: The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life. "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself.
Activity Review & Learning Objectives
In addition to talking about Food & Fasting, we are doing squats this week: air squats, double squats, pause squats, and single leg squats (stand ups) from a chair or bench. These moves are great for balance and leg strength. After this week, students should be able to:
- understand the importance of improving (not perfecting, but improving) the deep squat position, and how to “lead with your hips” as you lower yourself down and powerfully stand back up with regular and plyometric squats and squat jumps
- perform 10 or more squats, with the hips getting to the level of the knees, without stopping, for 2-3 sets
- combine squatting exercises with the agility and animal moves from the prior week to begin designing “circuits”, “intervals” and “relays”
- name a few “God-made”, single ingredient, natural foods
- discuss the importance of fasting for both physical and spiritual health
Reflection Questions
- Faith – What does fasting mean to you? Have you ever tried drinking a glass of water and saying a short prayer for someone in need when feeling like a snack? How do you feel after receiving the Eucharist? Does your mind wander at Mass during the Liturgy of the Eucharist?
- Fitness – Can you name a few God-made foods? Next time you eat a meal, ask yourself whether you are physically hungry, eating because “it is time to eat”, or eating just because others are eating (socially). Do you think it is possible to restore our God-given nutritional awareness and natural hunger cues?
Week 3 Resources & Worksheets
Click on the link below to open up the PDF, and watch the videos for more.
- Click here for your Weekly Worksheet (PDF with 3rd and 6th Grade Version)
- Lesson Planning Sheet for Teachers and Parents (PDF)
- This Week in CatholicFIT Flyer (PDF to print and hang and/or send out with your Friday flyer.)
- Exercise of the Week: Sit-to-Stand and Squatting Pattern Variations
Cathletic squats increase the intensity two ways:
- loaded squats – when we “load” an exercise, we add weight or resistance. So as you will see here, we use barbells, kettlebells, and dumbbells to advance our squats.
- plyometric squats – we do jumping variations of the single leg squat and squat jumps. We also briefly look at box jumps, where we step from a box or step and rebound right into a jump. Check it out!
Next Module | Sleep, Rest, Recovery & Picking Up Heavy Things
We will talk about sleep! The saying is, “we don’t get fit from exercise, we get fit from recovering from exercise.” Next week we will discuss Sleep, Rest, & Recovery – shutting down screens before bed time, and the importance of Sundays for rest, prayer and silence.