Citywide Diet
Well, this is certainly ambitious. Oklahoma City's mayor wants the city to drop 1 million pounds as its New Year's resolution. Sean Murphy of the Associated Press reports:
Prompted in part by his own struggle to lose weight, Cornett wants to end Oklahoma City's dubious distinction as one of America's fattest cities.Can they do it? I don’t know. They’ve only got 359 days to go! Although, what might help is bulldozing all the fast food restaurants. I don’t know, just a thought.
"The message of this obesity initiative is that we've got to watch what we eat," Cornett said Thursday. "Exercise is part of it and the city is trying to change into a city that is less sprawling, has more density and is more pedestrian friendly, but you're not really going to take on obesity unless you acknowledge that we eat too much and don't eat the right foods."
As part of the initiative, residents can sign up and track their weight loss on a new Web site, http://www.thiscityisgoingonadiet.com. More than 2,600 people had registered by Thursday. They've lost more than 300 pounds.
Besides a body mass index calculator, the site includes recipes and links to metro-area fitness centers. Plans call for expanding the site to include the opportunity to blog and network with other participants, Cornett said.
"It's always easier if you're doing something hard if you have other people to do it with," he said.
