Resolutions ready? Take the plunge

12/29/2007By KALEY LYON

Hays Daily News

It’s back!

As 2008 draws near, The Center for Health Improvement is preparing for a repeat of what turned out to be its most popular event yet, Pound Plunge.

The program, which encourages locals to eat healthy and exercise right, shocked staff members and the entire community when about 1,500 people signed on last year to drop the pounds.

While it’s too soon for exact numbers, the second annual event is expected to be another big one, said Stephanie Schaffer, fitness manager.

“They keep coming in every day,” Schaffer said of this year’s registrations. “I’m expecting a lot more.”

The 12-week weight loss program will begin on Jan. 10 and end April 3. Each team must consist of four members, and the deadline to register is Jan. 6.

The beginning of the year is a good time to have such an event — New Year’s resolutions often help keep participants motivated, she said.

“New Year’s is a time when a lot of people in our country set goals,” Schaffer said. “The big thing is to lose weight and to exercise. It’s just a perfect time of the year to implement a team like this.”

Overall, the routine will be about the same as last year. Participants will receive a weekly nutrition or exercise tip to help them drop pounds and keep them off, she said.

The teams also will weigh in each week to track their progress, and at the end of the program, the team with the highest percentage of weight lost will receive a prize.

Unlike last year, when only the first place team received a financial award and free membership to the center, the top three teams will be rewarded.

Also unlike last year, team members will have the opportunity to weigh in on new digital scales, and individuals’ blood pressures will be recorded at the beginning and end of the program to gauge improvement, Schaffer said.

The program isn’t limited to the center — it strives to include the larger community and encourages participants and other local entities to get involved, she said.

“It’s just about getting people moving,” Schaffer said. “It’s just to teach people about fitness and exercise and nutrition, and they love it.”

Schaffer said she expects many of last year’s participants to try it again, and there also are many new team members already signed up.

“I think we’ll have people who did it last year who had great success. They’ll come back,” she said. “I think you’ll have people who did it last year and maybe have found out they need to do it a different way this year. And then you’re going to have the people who are going to come back, and this motivated them to lose weight and keep weight off.”

Deanna Staab, Hays, is one such individual. She participated in last year’s health challenge and has continued losing weight ever since.

At November’s Pound Plunge reunion, Staab took first place for having lost, and kept off, the highest percentage of body weight since the challenge began in early 2007.

Staab lost 13 pounds during pound plunge, and by continuing to eat and exercise healthy since then, has lost an additional 24 pounds.

“I really enjoy it,” she said. “I feel better and started exercising regularly, so that was the key — just to lose a little at a time.”

Staab’s team dubbed themselves the “hot tamales,” and the team support is what kept her going, she said. Her goal for Pound Plunge 2, which she has already signed up for, is to lose an additional 10 pounds, she said.

“I’m just happy about it,” Staab said. “It’s a good deal and everybody should sign up. It just gives you an idea of where you’re at and what you should be doing.”

Reporter Kaley Lyon can be reached at (785) 628-1081 Ext. 138, or by e-mail at klyon@dailynews.net.

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I was going through one of my notebooks from college and cleaning it out to make it into a business notebook and I found some things I had made notes to either add into my eating routine or into my web ventures into weight loss and wellness.

For healthy snacks here is what you can keep on hand.

1. Apple slices
2. Grapes
3. Low fat yogurt
4. Pineapple (fresh not canned)
5. Low fat cereal bars
6. 100% fruit juice Popsicles (check the sugar content tho)

Now I like salmon and awhile back I made this killer baked lemon pepper salmon but I found this recipe that uses a salmon fillet, whole grain crackers,chopped fresh dill,scallions,lemon,parsley and basil that I am going to try next week and see how I like it.

Last year I did a survey as to what people wanted when they came to a weight loss related site and in no particular order these are what the people I polled wanted.

1. Useful tools
2. Better weight loss products
3. Tips
4. More participation
5. Live contact with a representative
6. Instant messenger support
7. Local live group meetings
8. Calorie counter
9. Message boards
10. To be able to email the site owner

Currently I do offer a message board, I offer a way to reach me real time for support, I offer instant messenger information when asked for those that need some focused one on one attention via the PC, I also allow anyone to email me with questions or concerns.

I am working on building up enough cash flow to open a premium shop with Cafepress so that I can offer more diversity than I am currently able to with my standard account. I work crazy mad to get people to actively participate on my message board and anywhere else I am associated with on the internet and I am still needing to add some tools for people to use when they are on my site to help analyze themselves without having to leave my site to go somewhere else.

So I think I have stepped up to meet the needs of the people I had polled by about 75% and still have another 25% to go.

I think though that I am going to do another poll to see how the folks I polled have changed views and to see what new people have to say.Perhaps I can get those who were asked to participate last time around to actually participate this time around.

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This week marks my one month and going mark here. How have I done on meeting my 30 day goals well let’s take a look shall we.

I have found a layout I like really well.

I went through all of my posts over at yahoo 360 and transfered them here so I could build up my content here.

I have a pretty good sidebar going and I am comfortable with the positioning and such as it doesn’t look clunky or awkward.

I can’t do anything with compiling a list of my resources here at home until I can get a book shelf and get all the stuff out of boxes so that is on my to do list for the 6 month goals.

I still need to put all of my diet related pictures and images in one folder for quick reference.

So I am very pleased with how this blog is coming along. The Blog Carnival is a great idea and I will continue to do that. Now I just need to market this blog more. I can add that to my 6 month goals.

So my 6 month goals look like this.

1. Spread the word
2. Continue to look for relevant content to blog on
3. Get more local people to notice my blog and encourage them to make comments
4. Look for health related widgets and modules to add(this is ongoing and will change as is needed)
5. Survey consistent readers to find out how useful and informative they feel this blog is.
6. I also want to add to this list writing at least one article by me and setting aside one afternoon a week to research and post the article.

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Here are five goals for this blog to accomplish over the next 30 day’s.

1. Work on layout
2. Transfer health related posts from 360 to this blog
3. Build my link list
4. Find all of my diet pics and sprinkle them in with transfered health posts
5. Compile a list of my resources here at home and add them to my blog for a reference list

My 6 month goals are:

1. Actively spread the word
2. Continue to look for local and national relevant material to blog on
3. Get people who are local to notice and comment on my blog.
4. Look for health related widgets or modules to add
5. Survey consistent readers as to usefulness, their perceptions of how informative I am and so forth at a 3 month period and at the 6 month mark to evaluate any needed changes.

This sounds cliche’ but I want my blog to represent trustworthy information. I want people to feel they have a true friend in their weight loss wellness battles. I also feel that through my blog people will see that i am a human being behind the screen instead of some faceless entity that puts together the sites that they visit. I am also hoping that people who are in my profession come and offer their help in the way of doing guest interviews or posts, offering their resources in whatever form they have at their disposal. I am not great at public speaking but I would love to participate in conferences and other events related to my blogs target audience and even some general web or internet conferences.

Ultimately it is all about reaching customers and getting out there and walking the talk for me. In terms of long term success I would like to still be blogging three years or even ten years from now, even amid whatever changes there are on the horizon for the internet,social marketing, and web 2.0 as we know it today.

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