With-U Challenges OC to Shape Up with 8-Week Health Challenge

Jan. 10, 2010 - PRLog -- Wellness In Total Health University (With-U), an Orange County-based online health education program, will follow up its popular Holiday Health Challenge, featuring a $1,500 cash grand prize, with STRIP, the Spare Tire Reduction Incentive Program. The eight-week, team-based healthy lifestyle competition will promote health and wellness with bi-weekly weigh-ins, weekly assigned nutrition and exercise goals, online support services and $2,000 in cash prizes and other incentives.

The STRIP competition will kick-off with an initial weigh-in on Saturday, Jan. 16, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Runner’s High in Irvine, and will end with a final weigh-in on Saturday, March 13.

With-U CEO Lindsey Fernandez said the company decided to kick off 2010 with a new health challenge due to the success of its eight-week Holiday Health Challenge that ended Dec. 28. The 90 participants in that event lost a cumulative total of 475 pounds, with 92 percent of participants either losing weight or maintaining their weight during the often-fattening holiday season. The winning Pink Ponies team, comprising five members of a Tustin, Calif., family, lost a cumulative 100 pounds to gallop away with the $1,500 cash grand prize.

“We’re finding that the team approach is extremely motivating,” Fernandez said. “Most people don’t want to let their teammates down, so they work harder to complete assignments and stick to healthy behaviors than they might if they were not accountable to others.

“At the end of the Holiday Health Challenge, many of the participants were so pleased with their achievements they were sorry to see it end. The team competition worked so well that the With-U team decided to hold quarterly health challenges during 2010, beginning with the STRIP Challenge in January.”

In addition to a $1,500 grand prize, the STRIP Challenge will offer bi-weekly drawings for cash prizes based on weight loss, inches lost and completion of health and nutrition assignments. Registration is $40 per individual or $200 per team. Participants must be age 18 or older and may form their own five-person teams or be assigned to a team. Contestants will again have access to WITH-U’s proprietary online POG (Plan Of Goals) system for setting and tracking personal fitness goals. Each contestant will receive a weekly newsletter and assigned exercise and lifestyle goals. Contestants will weigh in bi-weekly at Runner’s High in Irvine. Individual weights will remain confidential. Participants who do not wish to lose weight may still compete by completing the weekly POGs, which are designed to benefit people of all fitness levels.

With-U specializes in employee and student wellness programs for businesses and educational institutions utilizing its proprietary online POG (Plan Of Goals) system. For more information about the With-U STRIP Challenge and other upcoming health challenges, visit www.with-u.us or call 714-832-8590.

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With-U (Wellness In Total Health University) specializes in wellness programs for businesses and educational institutions utilizing its proprietary online goal-setting system. For more information about With-U, visit www.with-u.us or call 714-832-8590.