As the days grow shorter and the temperatures drop, two Texarkana neighbors — Sling Fit TXK and Rolling Sweet Café — are teaming up to remind the community that wellness isn’t complicated. It’s water, movement, food, and rest, repeated one day at a time.
For Colleen Woods of Sling Fit TXK, fall and winter bring a predictable challenge. “As the fall and winter seasons approach, Seasonal Affective Disorder cases are on the rise,” she explains. Less energy, moodiness, disrupted sleep — and often, the overeating and weight gain that follow. Her prescription is simple: keep moving. Regular exercise through the colder months helps restore energy, offset extra carb-loading, and support better sleep.
The starting point doesn’t have to be dramatic. Woods leans on a favorite quote from Laozi, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” — and repeats it often to her students. “You gotta start where you are today,” she says. “Do what you can, take that first step.” Even walking counts: a free, accessible exercise that can burn up to 150 calories, support heart health, and lower the risk of Type 2 diabetes.
Woods speaks from experience about the link between movement and mental health. Having managed depression and anxiety since her teens, she says exercise has become something like medicine. “Exercise has replaced my SSRIs. I feel stronger both mentally and physically,” she says. “I’ve never left a workout thinking, ‘Wow, I feel worse than before.’”
Part of that, she explains, comes down to brain chemistry. Exercise triggers a release of serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. The body’s own mood regulators, working together to ease stress and sharpen memory. Woods describes teaching an early yoga class after a rough night and finding that by the end of practice, “the previous night’s Big Problem has whittled down to something I can handle.” Her shorthand for it: “Movement equals manageability.”
She also keeps an eye out for students who might be struggling. A missed class after a regular pattern is often enough to prompt a check-in text. “Sometimes that’s all it takes to let someone know you care about their wellbeing,” she says. Warning signs she watches for include changes in sleep, skin, hygiene, eating habits, or a fading interest in things that once mattered.
Woods is blunt about sleep’s role in physical health. “We wouldn’t expect our phones to work if the battery was dead, or our vehicles to run if they were out of gas. Our bodies are no different.” Sleep restores energy, repairs cells, and she notes, even shifts the body toward burning fat for fuel while stabilizing hunger hormones. “No one is in a great mood if they haven’t rested well,” she adds.
When asked how people can set fitness goals without burning out, Woods’ advice is consistent: start small, build gradually. Swap sugary drinks for water. Walk ten minutes twice a day, working toward thirty. Cut desserts to once a week. She mentions, if you try to go too hard and do too many things all at once, you’re setting yourself up for failure. “The only place ‘success’ comes before ‘work’ is in the dictionary.”
Her go-to daily habits: drink water, take the stairs, park farther away, aim for 10,000 steps, and read the label if it comes in a package.
When stress mounts, Woods recommends talking to someone — a friend, spouse, or therapist — ideally on a walk. If talking isn’t a person’s style, she suggests getting outside and moving: hiking, disc golf, paddle boarding, or simply unplugging with a book or a sunset. As her friend Dr. Rhoda Deon puts it, “Schedule time for joy.”
For anyone who feels guilty prioritizing themselves, Woods offers an airplane analogy she’s used many times: when oxygen masks drop during turbulence, you put yours on first, not the child’s. “If you aren’t taking care of yourself, how can you continue to take care of those around you?”
Next door, Tina Samrith of Rolling Sweet Café brings a nutrition-first perspective shaped by watching her own habits shift with age. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started looking at food differently,” she says. Where convenience once drove her choices, she’s come to see food as something that shapes not just how she feels today, but her long-term health; blood pressure, blood sugar, heart health, and more. “Taking care of ourselves doesn’t have to begin after something goes wrong. We can start now.”
That philosophy shows up in her approach to seasonal eating. Fall favorites like sweet potatoes, squash, broccoli, spinach, apples, and cranberries then paired with proteins like chicken, turkey, salmon, or eggs. Make meals that feel satisfying without feeling restrictive. “Healthy eating is about balance, not restriction,” she says. “Eat good, feel good, and take care of the body that carries me every day.”
Samrith is quick to note that healthier eating doesn’t mean giving up favorite foods. “It’s about learning how to enjoy them differently”, smaller portions, more vegetables, better cooking methods, simple swaps. “Make room for nutrition, but always leave a little room for joy.”
With cooler weather dulling the body’s thirst signals, Samrith warns it’s easy to under-hydrate in fall and winter. The body needs water. It needs it for energy, digestion, circulation, and temperature regulation that doesn’t change with the thermometer. Water, herbal tea, soups, and water-rich produce all help her stay ahead of it. “The temperature may drop, but your need for hydration doesn’t.”
For busy families, she keeps a rotation of simple go-tos: grilled chicken wraps, turkey sandwiches, protein bowls, overnight oats, yogurt with fruit, boiled eggs, or veggies with hummus. “Being healthy doesn’t have to be hard — just prepared.”
Both women agree that healthy habits start at home, modeled more than taught. “Parents set the example,” Woods says. “Cook together. Have healthy choices available.” She points to easy swaps. Veggie straws instead of chips, rice cakes with peanut butter instead of sugary snacks. Noting that her own toddler simply wants to eat what she’s eating.
Samrith echoes the sentiment: let kids help choose produce, try new foods without pressure, and treat the occasional dessert as normal rather than forbidden. “Instead of making healthy eating feel like a punishment, make it something the whole family can enjoy together.”
Both women return again and again to the same theme: perfection isn’t the goal but showing up is. “Practice doesn’t make perfect,” Woods says. “Practice makes permanent. So keep going, then keep going, and then keep going.” Some days, all the energy available is a ten-minute walk instead of thirty. That’s still enough. Samrith agrees. “Healthy living is a lifestyle, not a temporary goal,” she says. Busy days, missed workouts, and the occasional treat are part of life, “what matters is getting back to the habits that make us feel our best.”
When asked what single change they’d encourage across the community this season, both point toward the same idea, from different angles. Woods suggests finding an accountability partner and committing to move. “It’s never too late to start living healthier — physically, mentally, and nutritionally.”
Samrith frames it as intentionality: take the walk, drink the water, get the rest, choose the better meal. With Rolling Sweet Café’s meal prep service next door to Sling Fit Texarkana, she sees a natural pairing of nutrition and movement built right into the neighborhood. “Together, it’s about making wellness more accessible — fuel your body, move your body, and take care of yourself.”
As Samrith puts it: “This fall, choose your health — one meal, one workout, one day at a time.”
