It’s week 7 of Biggest Loser: Detroit Edition II and the contestants are starting to see results, but they are also feeling the psychological effects of the competition. Last year’s winner, Marilyn Kluka, knows all too well about the emotional rollercoaster they’re on right now.
Biggest Loser: Detroit Edition 2009 winner, Marilyn Kluka, talks about her weight-loss journey with WDIV reporter Shawn Ley.
Yesterday, Marilyn met with the contestants to talk about the triumphs and struggles of her weight-loss journey on WDIV’s 5 p.m. news broadcast. She talked about finding a balance between eating healthy but occasionally enjoying her favorite (but not so healthy) foods.
“Last weekend I had a wedding to go to. I knew I was going to have a glass of wine and a piece of cake. But I also knew that the next day I was going to head to the gym,” she said.
Michelle Fullerton, Blue Cross director of Wellness & Care Management, is interviewed by WDIV reporter Shawn Ley.
Marilyn emphasized the importance of staying on track and using the tools and advice provided to them by their Blue Cross health coaches. She also encouraged the contestants to keep in touch with their coach – and each other – after the competition ends.
“This is more than an 11-week weight-loss contest, it’s a lifestyle change,” she said.
For Rose Borst, deciding to lose weight was an easy decision. After back surgery and double-knee replacement she decided that her weight was no longer going to slow her down. This is the third videoin a series telling the amazing stories of four individuals who decided that they were ready to lose weight and adopt healthier lifestyles.
At 352 pounds Rose Borst slipped and fell on a sheet of ice in her driveway. Her ankle was broken. But worst of all, she could not physically get herself up off the ground.
At that point, Rose knew that it was time for her to make a serious lifestyle change.
She started eating healthy and quickly noticed results when she stepped on the scale. She read Jodi and Jon’sblogs and discovered the health benefits of walking. After recovering from her surgeries she began to add walking to her daily regimen.
And to this date Rose has lost and kept off 130 pounds.
Rose is an everyday woman with an amazing story. She heard about Jodi and Jon and realized that if they could lose the weight, she could too. No fancy diet. No surgery. All it takes is that first step.
Now Jon’s father has become part of the “movement”. His story is the final video in the series…for now. Stay tuned to see the inspirational story of Eric Stanton.
Who will inspire you? Your success story could change someone’s life.
If you would like to share your inspirational story and find out more about how walking can work for you, visit www.walkytalk.com.
This is the second post in a series of four telling the amazing stories of individuals who committed to adopting healthier lifestyles. Jodi Davis inspired Jon Stanton to change his life. Then Jon inspired Rose Borst and Eric Stanton to do the same. They have kept each other motivated and together they have begun a walking movement.
Jon weighed 430 pounds in 2007.
At 31, Jon had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and symptoms of congestive heart failure. When his doctor diagnosed him with Type 2 diabetes, Jon made the commitment to completely change his lifestyle habits.
Around that time, Jon received his Living Healthy magazine from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Jodi Davis, walking and healthy habits advocate for the Blues, happened to be on the cover that issue. Jon began reading Jodi’s blog on WalkyTalk.com and corresponding with her regularly. They are now close friends and work together to inspire Michiganders with similar experiences to take the personal accountability to improve their health.
Jon has lost 230 pounds. He didn’t have surgery. He didn’t diet. He walks or bikes on a daily basis and changed the way he ate. Jon is on a mission to help create a healthier Michigan.
Jon and Jodi’s stories are inspiring because they’re achievable. They literally improved their health by taking one step at a time. If they can do it, you can do it!
So, who will you inspire? Join our walking movement. Your success story could change someone’s life.
Losing weight is more than a physical challenge, it’s a psychological battle that can take a demanding toll on the mind and spirit. Staying motivated can be one of the most difficult aspects of losing weight.
Biggest Loser: Detroit Edition II contestants know the psychological battle with weight loss all too well. For the past seven weeks each has worked hard to stay motivated, but the journey has not always been easy.
The Biggest Loser: Detroit Edition II is a local version of NBC’s nationally-televised Biggest Loser. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan health coaches provide counseling to each contestant as part of our mission to promote a healthier Michigan. The competition is in its second year of motivating local residents to lose weight and achieve a healthier lifestyle.
The contestants of this year’s competition include:
You can follow the inspiring stories of each contestant on their blogs found here: http://www.biggestloserdetroit.com, and help them stay motivated by commenting on the site and sharing links with your friends. You can also see how they continue to support one another as they comment on each others’ posts.
You can also tune in to WDIV (Local 4) to learn how Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan health coaches provide emotional support to the contestants, and see how last year’s Biggest Loser: Detroit Edition winner, Marilyn Kluka continues her commitment to a healthy lifestyle almost one year later.
The winner of this year’s competition will receive prizes, including a spot as the honorary Grand Marshall of America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Who will you inspire? This is Jodi’s story.
Jodi Davis started a very healthy trend. She began living a healthier lifestyle and inspired Jon Stanton, Rose Borst, and Eric Stanton to do the same. This is the first post in a series of four that shows how one person’s lifestyle change can encourage others to make changes they never thought they could.
“One bite tastes the same as twenty,” is one piece of advice that WalkyTalk.com's blogger Jodi Davis has learned and shared with others over the years. Jodi was obese for nearly 25 years and one day, she realized she had to lose weight in order to live her life to the fullest.
Jodi is a mother of three from West Michigan who took personal responsibility for her health by beginning a daily walking regimen that brought her to a 162 pound weight loss in about 16 months. Since the weight loss, she has become Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s walking and healthy living advocate.
When Jodi is out at events—talking with the public and sharing her story—people have a hard time believing that Jodi lost the weight all on her own, without the help of diet pills or an expensive gym membership. It may sound too good to be true, but Jodi began eating the right foods and walking daily and the weight began to fall off.
Jodi’s blog on WalkyTalk.com has garnered a great deal of followers who are inspired every week by Jodi’s stories and ideas. Who did Jodi Davis inspire to lose over 200 pounds? Stay tuned tomorrow for Jon Stanton’s story.
So, who will you inspire? Join our walking movement. Your success story could change someone’s life.
The key to Michigan’s economic recovery is the growth of small businesses.
That’s why we are developing more affordable plans such as Simply BlueSM. This PPO plan is designed like no other and it’s the most competitively priced product that we’ve introduced in years.
Designed to give employers flexibility, Simply Blue has several deductible and copayment plan options. It can also be paired with a health reimbursement arrangement or health savings account. Employers can complete their employee benefit package with dental, vision and prescription drug plans.
In addition to the introduction of Simply Blue, our product portfolio will also include PPO and HMO wellness-based and consumer-directed health plans. These new plans will be available to small business owners on Jan. 1, 2011.
Our goal is to help small businesses attract and retain top talent by offering quality health care coverage to their employees at a cost that won’t break their budget. It’s that simple.
Our new website, Healthy from Head to Toe, provides a number of interesting insights about how combining medical, dental and vision care can make you feel better and lower your medical expenses.
If you’re a business owner, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan offers a combination of medical, dental and vision plans that can help your employees maintain better overall health, help reduce your health care costs and increase workplace productivity. And you can’t beat the convenience of having one ID card for medical, dental and vision services?
Discounts that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan negotiates with health care providers and collaborations with physicians and hospitals have realized more than $13 billion in savings, according to the 2010 Annual Report of Program Value (PDF), released Friday.
We’ve gone on record saying that one of our biggest concerns with health care reform is a lack of measures to contain costs. That concern is also echoed by many business owners, many of whom will have to begin offering insurance to employees in the coming years.
That’s why we feel it’s important to spotlight the important work taking place to lower costs and improve health care quality right here in Michigan.
The report outlines savings on hospital, professional, pharmacy and dental rates for members that total $12.9 billion.
In addition, the Blues work with more than 8,100 physicians and more than 40 hospitals across the state on projects that address factors that drive up costs and diminish the quality of health care. A few examples:
Doctors participating in our Physician Group Incentive Program saved nearly $9.5 million in 2009 through more judicious use of high- and low-tech radiology services.
An initiative to increase use of generic drugs helped save $700 million over seven years.
A collaborative initiative targeting angioplasty in hospitals saves an estimated $15.2 million annually and has reduced both hospital deaths and post-procedure blood transfusions by nearly a third.
A cardiac surgery initiative has decreased incidence rates of post-surgical prolonged ventilation, saving $25,000 per case.
And our Patient-Centered Medical Home program, at 1,800 participating physicians, is the largest in the nation and is beginning to see positive effects in just its second full year. Preliminary data have shown that PCMH practices have lower rates for adult and pediatric inpatient admissions, radiology utilization and ER visits than non-PCMH practices. Comprehensive data on first-year results of the program are expected later this year.
Blue Cross is proud of these accomplishments, of course because they are saving valuable health care dollars, but more importantly, because they are creating a safer, higher quality atmosphere for health care in Michigan for everyone.
Only the serious showed up at Fuller Park in Grand Rapids on our recent squishy Sept. 11.
But, they were enough.
The hardy band of cold, damp souls I met at the park was there to mark the midpoint of this year’s Body & Soul BLUE Challenge, a three-month wellness competition between 11 African-American faith communities around the city. The Blues are co-sponsors of the Challenge along with the American Cancer Society.
Participants had free massages awaiting them in the park, a Zumba®warm-up, rows of health and fitness vendors, a group walk to the Fulton Street Farmers Market and discount tokens for the goods they’d find there.
That persistent rain had no chance of causing a wash-out.
There was too much heart there for that to happen.
And, if you’re unsure about that, just check out this video from that day:
Or consider that participants in last year’s Challenge, which was won by Ms. Moody, who you’ll meet in the video, and her husband Rev. Nathaniel’s church, logged a whopping 167,000 miles. About 49,000 of those miles were from members of Moody’s Brown Hutcherson Ministries alone.
Considering the date, an observer couldn’t help but think a lot about transformation as he walked around the park. I asked everyone I spoke to that day whether they were seeing lives being changed and every one of them came back with an emphatic yes.
Holding such an event in the African-American community makes a certain amount of sense. It’s true that many African- Americans are at high risk for many serious and often fatal diseases, some of it lifestyle-driven, some of it not.
But, I quickly found out that there was much more at work here.
The bulk of the conversation that came back to me that day was about how taking care of the body is a spiritual act in itself. Others talked about having a responsibility to their spiritual selves to be as fit as they can be. “Bringing together the health and well-being of whole communities,” BCBSM’s Cle Jackson called it.
This year’s Body & Soul Challenge will end Oct. 2 at the Grand Rapids African American Health Institute Rhythm Run at Martin Luther King Park in Grand Rapids.
But, in a more important sense, Body & Soul won’t end that day … or on any other. It can’t, really.
People were changed through their participation, this year and last.
Transformed.
I saw fuller lives at Fuller Park. It’s tough to go back once you’ve been there.
What can Michigan businesses expect as federal health care reform gains momentum?
That was the big question being asked during a Health Care Reform: Defined event and panel discussion Tuesday at the Detroit Regional Chamber.
The answer, of course, depends upon many factors, including the shape of yet-to-be-written regulations and how the Nov. 2 election shakes out in both Washington, D.C. and Lansing. But the consensus was that businesses will likely need help both from tax and employee-benefit advisors as well as from statewide insurance exchanges set to be established in 2014.
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