Houston Mayor Annise Parker accepted a challenge today from San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro to see which of the their respective cities can lose one million pounds first over the next year in a campaign known as “The Battle of the Bulge.”
“We are proactively fighting the obesity epidemic by engaging 25% of the state,” said Mayor Parker. “I believe good health is good business. I urge every Houston area employer to help us win this ‘Battle of Bulge’ by encouraging their employees to go online to www.ShapeUpHouston.org and confidentially pledge to lose some unhealthy pounds and track their weight loss progress to within CDC recommended BMI standards..”
Houstonians’ weight loss will be tracked by Shape Up Houston, a 501c3 nonprofit that launched the Million Pound Challenge in January of this year together with the City of Houston, HEB grocers and the Greater Houston YMCA.
Earlier this month FitCitySA engaged Mayor Castro in their own Million Pound Challenge along with San Antonio HEB and the Greater San Antonio YMCA to do the same. Mayor Julián Castro upped the ante by challenging Houston.
“The real winners will be all the folks in San Antonio and Houston who take the challenge to become more fit and more active,” said Mayor Castro. “A healthy community is a productive community, which results in a stronger Texas economy.” said San Antonio Mayor Castro.”
Lan Bentsen, Founder and President of Shape Up Houston, says he is pleased to see the friendly challenge take place.
“This will be a unique battle.” Bentsen noted. “It is two cities joining to fight a common foe. Confronting obesity is not about vanity. It is about closing a major gateway to diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer for the two-thirds of our citizens who are overweight or obese. We are very fortunate to have the support of these major and visible organizations to take up the call, and we are recruiting more like them every day to join the battle”.
In Houston, the City will be encouraging its employees to register by department and compete between departments at www.ShapeUpHouston.org. Teams will receive aggregate team data only – not information on individual participants. Shape Up Houston is recruiting corporations to sponsor teams, “and if they have a San Antonio counterpart, all the better.”
Bentsen noted that for the campaign to be a success, “ we must have executives show real leadership by encouraging their employees to participate. Positive results will lead to lower health care costs, employee turnover, absenteeism, and improved productivity, all of which are good for the employee and the bottom line.
The Texas Comptroller has noted that the direct and indirect cost of diabetes has doubled over the past ten years and will triple to an unaffordable $32.5 billion if unaddressed. Corporations will ultimately bear most of that cost in the form of rapidly rising employee health care costs.”
Individuals may also sign up for the battle and use Shape Up Houston’s free and confidential tracking journal on the web site.
