Eat less. Move more.

LINKS:
Current Challenge
Wellness Information (including a BMI calculator)

HISTORY OF GET HEALTHY

In 2003, San Angelo Community Medical Center saw the need for wellness initiatives in West Texas. Get Healthy was born as a hospital employee weight loss program.

Due to the growing obesity epidemic, San Angelo Community Medical Center, SACMC, assumed a leadership role to increase community awareness. SACMC implemented a pilot program to help our employees combat this problem and to be role models for patients they serve. Our pilot program involved a 10-week, team weight loss contest in which various hospital departments competed to lose weight with a health-related focus. During the first challenge, 85 hospital employees in 13 teams participated and lost a total of 589.6 pounds.

Building upon our success, we took our project community wide. Community invited Shannon to participate creating a true community-wide program. Quickly Get Health Challenge received tremendous support from local media and community leaders. The result was an eight-week community weight loss initiative: “Get Healthy Challenge.” Within a week, more than 700 individuals signed up to participate in 110 teams. By the end of the eight-week challenge, participants had lost 5286 pounds. Much of the success came from a simple theme: “eat less, move more.”

It wasn’t a diet, a book, a pill, a workout program, a personal training session, a health club membership, or a fitness club. It wasn’t dependent on income, social status, physical limitations, demographics, or work/family schedule. Community’s “eat less, move more” program was designed for everyone. Our program implemented a team/group approach to weight loss. The program was offered free of charge to participants and involved minimal financial expense to our hospital. Both hospitals working together to benefit our community was an added value of the program.

By 2008, participants lost more than 40,000 pounds in the Get Healthy Challenge. Participants lowered blood pressure, improved lipid profiles and decreased insulin usage. We received tremendous support from local TV, radio, and newspaper to get the message out and increase public awareness. Local radio and television stations provided free announcements and updates. The top 50 teams were posted in the newspaper each week along with a weekly health tip.

From the start of the first pilot program conducted with our hospital employees, the mission was to plant a “health virus” in our hospital and community. With the huge success of these challenges, we believe we accomplished our mission. In 2008, we took a break to focus internally on additional health concerns of our employees. We establish a new program called "Better Me" that was more than weight loss. It includes tobacco cessation, healthy eating to everyone, walking and exercise program, and better body mechanics. SACMC believes in making our community healthier.

We are glad to enter into this next chapter for Get Healthy. In 2009, Mayor Lown recreated the Get Healthy Program. We proudly support the expansion of this program under the city guidance.