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Lighten Up Iowa helps encourage weight loss and activity for Iowans

Lighten Up Iowa offers support for exercise and healthy living

How many people in Kossuth County resolved to lose weight and eat healthier in 2007? Taking on the challenge of dropping a few pounds or changing your diet to include healthier foods can be made easier when you have the support of friends and coworkers. Lighten Up Iowa is a statewide, team-based program designed to help people make healthy choices over a four-month time period. Participants track their activity and weight loss while receiving healthy eating and exercise tips.

Lighten Up Iowa kicked off January 10, but people are welcome to sign up anytime from now until the end of April. The program end date is May 10. Lighten Up Iowa is a great option for businesses that want to support employee wellness. At Kossuth Regional Health Center, we often have several teams that compete against one another. Throughout the four months of Lighten Up Iowa we coordinate events and activities to encourage and reward those who are participating in the program.

Lighten Up Iowa isn’t limited to just corporate wellness programs, however. Families, friends, church groups, neighbors, clubs or any other group of two to 10 people can form a Lighten Up Iowa team. For a $12 fee, participants receive a Lighten Up Iowa training t-shirt, personal nutrition/physical activity tracking log, free entry into the Iowa Games fitness walk and volkswalk, weekly nutrition and physical activity tips and chance to win monthly incentives and prizes. Get a few people together, choose a team name, appoint a team captain and you’re ready to go. Team captains can register online at www.lightenupiowa.org or download a form to send in the mail. Captains are responsible for reporting the team’s progress, receiving updates, and keeping the team motivated. In addition to a captain t-shirt, they are also placed in a drawing for one of 100 free pairs of New Balance shoes.

Lighten Up Iowa teams compete against other teams throughout the state. Your team can be included in either or both divisions, which are weight loss and minutes of activity. In the weight loss division, teams submit an “honor weight” is submitted and reported monthly. The minutes of activity division asks teams to track their activity minutes and report monthly. Activity minutes don’t have to be running, aerobics class or some other form of organized exercise. Minutes can be accumulated by shoveling snow, gardening, walking the stairs (or the dog), or many other ways.

If you’re looking for a reason to start exercising, you don’t have to look too far. With obesity rates skyrocketing, Iowans best defense against maladies like metabolic syndrome and late onset diabetes are exercise and eating right. Metabolic syndrome is on the rise in young adults – people who are in their mid-30s. According to the National Cholesterol Education Program, some 24% of young adults over 20 years of age have metabolic syndrome. Many might not even know it! By the time people reach age 50, that number jumps up to 44%.

Lighten Up Iowa is a fun, easy program that was created for Iowans to support one another in becoming more activity and living a healthy lifestyle. To find out if it might be a good fit for you, check out the Lighten Up Iowa website at www.lightenupiowa.org or call their headquarters in Ames for more information at 888-777-8881.

-Deb Schulz is an R.N. at Kossuth Regional Health Center