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“Houstonians, all people in our region can be healthier, can lead a better life if they take personal responsibility for their own wellness, their nutrition choices, their exercise, getting rid of unhealthy life style habits.”
This national effort is basically done though individuals who sign up at the 50 Million Pound Challenge web site. You’ll learn ways to be healthy and lose weight and you can track your weight loss. The Challenge is run by Dr. Ian Smith in collaboration with State Farm Insurance. He says the basic keys to losing weight are simple; we need to reduce our caloric intake, exercise and be aware of what our weight should be.
“And the idea is to look at your body mass index, your BMI, and the BMI will tell you how many pounds you are away from that healthy weight range and so just like you know your blood pressure everyone should know what their body mass index is, that BMI number.”
Dr. Smith says even losing a few pounds can improve your health.
“What we’re encouraging people is to get as close as possible, if not get into, your healthy weight range, because that will dramatically reduce the risks of type-2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, even some forms of cancer. So a few pounds can make a difference and then you build on those few pounds and you can make a huge difference.”
There’s nothing to buy, all you do is sign up at either the 50 million pounds website or the city’s…houston.tx.gov.
Rod Rice. KUHF-Houston Public Radio News.