Teams try to lose in MUSC healthy living program

It may not be on everyone's radar here, but organizers and participants of MUSC's Healthy Charleston Challenge think the program is a pretty big deal.

"This is the most exciting and uplifting thing we've heard about going on in this town," said Dr. David Albenberg, a family physician at Access Healthcare.

Call it the inaugural season of "The Biggest Loser" in Charleston, minus the cameras and the $250,000 grand prize. Not to say there aren't goodies involved, but they are slightly more modest. The prize package for the first-place team includes a massage therapy session from the Center for Therapeutic Massage, $100 worth of healthy meals from Meal Week, $100 from Jason's Deli and a Gold Pass for one year of free admission to Charleston County parks. The second-place team will get $25 in gift certificates from The Sportsman Shop and $50 from Marine Repair Services.

Perhaps because of the lack of television fame and possible monetary fortune, the teams are much more willing to help each other. Team Boot Camp leads some of the workouts. The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission hosted a Challenge Course for the participants during the second weekend of the 12-week program, which started Jan. 24.

But like the popular NBC show, everyone has to weigh in each week. The 80 or so contestants are in teams of around eight. A team of experts is on hand to educate and aid these people on their journey toward a healthier life, including a personal trainer for each team, registered dietitian, a post-rehab therapist and exercise physiologists.

"They have access to us at any weak moment," said Janis Newton, program coordinator at the Medical University of South Carolina's Harper Student Wellness Center.

They can call or e-mail any of the people who are helping them toward their goal to answer questions, give advice or encourage them. Newton said that each team has a lot vested in making Charleston as a whole healthier and decreasing chronic disease. According to the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, more than 60 percent of adults in the country are overweight, leading to increases in heart disease, stroke, diabetes and more.

"These people have all tried and failed many times," Newton said about their repeated attempts to lose weight.

The ultimate goal of Healthy Charleston Challenge, however, is not so much to help participants lose weight as to help them make conscious lifestyle changes that promote healthier living.

To that end, the program's organizers are striving to make the challenge comprehensive. Each Thursday night, the teams go to the Harper Center to weigh in and learn about healthy cooking, diseases related to obesity and so forth. Then they have a group workout.

Last week, the tally came to 882.8 pounds of total weight lost. Robb Rosol found that he hadn't lost any weight over the previous week and clearly was disappointed.

"But that's OK," said Stacey Backstrom, a wellness center intern who recorded his results.

Rosol, a member of the Access Healthcare team, still feels good about what's happened thus far: He's lost 15 pounds. His wife, Vicki Tatum, has lost a couple more than he has, but he's not that competitive over it.

"I want to be doing this a year from now, to where my lifestyle will be so changed," Rosol said. "The great motivator is that I've got a daughter now and I want to be there for her."

Jennie and Molly O'Quinn, a mother-daughter team, respectively, decided to do the program together. Their family physician, Albenberg, told them about it and paid to enroll the entire team because he felt so strongly about the challenge's initiatives.

"I go to the gym for about an hour each day now," Molly said.

They both mentioned it helps that educators at MUSC have taught them how to work out and at what level they needed to start to build upon their goals.

Newton stresses an important concept to the people in the program that she attributes to author and speaker Zig Ziglar: "Motivation can start success, but habits are what will keep it up."

To learn more about the program, call Janis Newton at 792-4141 or e-mail at newtonj@musc.edu.

Reach Sophia Rodriguez at 937-5538 or srodriguez@postandcourier.com.