Healthy Monday is a national campaign that inspires people to practice healthier behavior at the start of the week. The idea began in 2003 as a project by Sid Lerner, a board member of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Over time the program grew rapidly and eventually reached out and collaborated with different institutions, such as the Harlem Health Promotion Center and City College (CCNY). Its slogan is: "Monday is the day all health breaks loose."

Shakir Saud, a biology major at CCNY, dedicates his Mondays to the cause. You can find him every Monday hosting a table of information about the health campaign here on the City College campus. I asked him to tell me about the project:

Q: What is Healthy Monday about?

Shakir: In a nutshell. It's to make the students and community liable to healthy behavior. It's kind of like a mental trigger to try to make people practice healthy behavior.

Q: How long has CCNY participated in Healthy Monday?

Shakir: City College launched the campaign only 6 or 7 months ago. Columbia chose us because of the demographics and that City College is a commuter school. It's hard to try to do healthy things and be mindful of it.

Q: Why did you decide to get involve with healthy Monday?

Shakir: I've been a peer educator for over a year now City College and my main focus is to reach out to students through workshops and prevention programs. I didn't have the resource to reach all the students I wanted to and make an impact. So when they came to us with the campaign I used it to help out and expand on something I was already doing.

Q: What are some of the things you do to help students get involved?

Shakir: We have a table every Monday from 12 to 2 that focuses on engaging students in healthy activities. We offer them raffles, giveaways, and we'll buy lunch. We have different topics every week. Like about fruits and vegetables being apart of your diet and how much should you have. We teach them how to go about it...easily and affordable. A lot of students don't have the literacy to make the proper heath decisions. We are also trying to work with the Metropolitan cafeteria and the bodegas to get more healthy food available to students.

Q: How's the response?

Shakir: We've gotten a positive response. A lot of students joined our Facebook page.

Q: What is the most important thing people should know about Healthy Monday?

Shakir: Just the consistency and the overall benefit of joining. You'll have more energy, less stress, and perform better academically as a student. The overall wellness is something you will experience.