The Garden City Telegram
NEW E-Edition!
Subscription
Required
Add Your Comment | Read (15) Comments
AP: Brownback launches weight-loss challenge
Published 11/28/2012 in News
TOPEKA (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback and members of his Cabinet are taking the lead in a weight-loss contest aimed at encouraging Kansans to fight obesity and adopt healthier eating habits.The Republican governor on Tuesday challenged other executive, legislative and judicial branch employees to field five-member teams that will compete to lose the largest percentage of body weight. The contest will run Jan. 15 through May 15.
Brownback said that in Kansas — and nationwide — two-thirds of the adult population and one-third of children were overweight or obese. He formed a council earlier this year to address obesity in the state and develop strategies for curbing weight gain and reversing the trend.
The governor said by building a team to lose weight, residents can find support and motivation to change their habits.
"Don't give up. That's the biggest thing about this," Brownback said. "It's not about winning. It's about getting healthier.
Dr. Robert Moser, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the percentage of Kansas residents considered obese rose from 15 percent in 1995 to 30.1 percent in 2010. He said that poor nutrition and physical inactivity were the two leading preventable causes of death, behind tobacco use.
"There are many programs statewide that directly or indirectly support obesity prevention, and it's in our homes and local communities where the greatest work to combat obesity can be achieved," Moser said.
Teams can register for the challenge starting Dec. 17 at www.weightloss.ks.gov . It also has contest rules and information about physical activity and nutrition.
The governor said he's recruiting four members of his Cabinet to join his team. Prizes will be awarded to the top two state employee teams with the biggest weight losses by percentage. Teams that beat Brownback's team, but aren't already in the top two, will be eligible for additional prizes.
Brownback also encouraged local governments and private businesses to form teams and join the challenge, but those teams won't be eligible for state prizes.
Found 15 comment(s)!
Weight loss
All I said in the beginning was, "When something is proposed by Michelle Obama, the republicans come out of the woodwork to oppose her, but if the same thing is said by a republican governor, it is given credit." SIMPLE as that, and I proved it!
Posted by: Concerned Citizen on 12/10/2012
Obesity
If you are obese without an underlying medical condition, you ought to banned from buying food with more calories than a celery stick.
Posted by: GC Advocate on 12/7/2012
in all honesty
Somebody needs to do something. All I see are over weight people, every where I go. So many health issues are associated with weight. Hopefully people trying to get healthier will encourage others to do the same. If parents are educated about health/ weight maybe they will in turn make better food choices for themselves and their kids at home. I notice the folks who are overweight tend to have overweight kids. Children have no choice but to eat how the family feeds them.
Posted by: BB on 12/6/2012
How Do You Know?
GC Resident: How do you know that the troll is a female? I just assumed it was a male but don't know why.
Posted by: Kelly on 12/6/2012
Speechless
Speechless, So you are saying that all the tea baggers who had the signs calling President Obama everything in the book are inferior, I agree with that! And you say they are trying to divert negative attention away from themselves? I agree with that. I even bet that you were one of the tea-baggers who held a negative sign about our President. Why don't you get a life? AND quit causing trouble?
Posted by: Concerned Citizen on 12/5/2012
GC resident
AMEN GC Resident!! C C is a bored, un-interesting, mis-informed trouble maker with nothing better to do than name call and argue. It doesn't matter WHAT the subject is, they will always go against the grain. People who continually name call are inferior and KNOW they are inferior, so they name call to try to divert the negative attention away from themselves. For decades and decades, people have raised children using disipline and have fed their children without all the fuss now-a-days. NO ONE has any right to FORCE others into how to or what to feed their children, simple as that. as stated, it's not the food that is the problem, it's society today. Kids used to go outdoors to play, run, climb, be ACTIVE. Now they just sit in front of a tv and play video games. THAT'S where the problem is. C C you need to chill out for real on the name calling, less KARMA come to kick you in the butt.
Posted by: speechless on 12/5/2012
http://www.japan-lingzhi-2daydiet.com/Imelda-perfect-slimming-diet-60-pills.html
Imelda Toxicity eliminator fatness trimmer takes the most advanced scientific method in extracting traditional Chinese Medicine from natural herb and plant. The effective component inside natural herb and plant can adjust metabolism of human body, reduce accumulation of subcutaneous fat, eliminates toxic substances from body, and reduce the fatness.
Posted by: 2 day diet on 12/5/2012
Stop feeding trolls
Have you not noticed that CC doesn't do anything but come on here and cause trouble? She doesn't have anything intelligent to say and comes on here for the sole purpose of starting arguments. Stop feeding the troll and she'll go away!!
Posted by: GC Resident on 12/4/2012
CC
CC you seem to enjoy only the Messiah's Socialist Narrow-minded Bullcrap Center (MSNBC) but I do not see anyone calling you names or worried what you watch for news, free country and sorry people have a different view point than you on how to keep it free, arguing with people is not productive!
Posted by: SWKS on 12/3/2012
CC
You are too sensitive, dude.
I never said that parents don't care about what there kids eat. I just said that it would be better if kids had more physical activity to maintain a healthy body.
I never made reference to political party ideology, so it is an assumption on your part that I am a member of the Tea Party and I think this assumption of yours has blinded you to reasonable dialogue in this format.
Posted by: James on 12/3/2012
James
James,
So parents do not care about the health and obesity of kids due to what they eat. Interesting! This is not an outrageous thing put forward by Michelle Obama and if she had been a republican, you would have been all for it. AND to say that school districts are not educators first is an insult to all educators. The educators in America care about the kids and put the kids first. You and I both know what this is about, a democrat is in the White House and all republicans are crying foul and opposing everything because they are all babies!
AND there is not a school district in America who would lose money if they did not follow suggestions. I will say it one more time, would you LISTEN this time? It is not a law, it is only a suggestion just like BROWNBACK'S suggestion, but the t-turds came unglued when it was suggested by a democrat, but said NOTHING when Brownback suggested it. AND if you don't like name calling, why are the t-turds out there with all their signs of NAME CALLING of our President? I call that a DOUBLE STANDARD! AND DOUBLE STANDARDS are what the republican party is all about!
Posted by: Concerned Citizen on 12/2/2012
CC
True CC, no laws that were voted on were passed concerning the school food. However, Michelle Obama wanted lower calorie meals and less salt in the food in an effort to combat obesity and other health problems in kids. So in order to stay in good political favor with the ruling party, the National School Lunch Program simply issued a new set of regulations that all school districts must follow. All school districts are bureaucracies first and educators second, so a new regulation carries the same weight as a law.
Keep in mind that school districts are obligated to stay in line with these new regulations or risk losing money. This how a simple suggestion by the presidents wife can become a bureaucratic rule that never goes away. Time will tell if these reduced calorie and tasteless lunches will even have an impact.
We would have been better served if the new regs emphasized physical activity and left the food alone.
By the way, name calling just makes you look small and reduces the effectiveness of your argument.
Posted by: James on 12/1/2012
Simple
Kelly,
There were NO LAWS passed with the lunch program. It was simply suggestions. THIS is what happens when you watch too much fox nazi!
What Brownback did is the same thing that Michelle Obama did. EXACTLY the same thing but since Brownback is a stupid t-turd, it is okay with you. GROW UP!
AND I am sure that the school lunch program in Kansas has nothing to do with what Michelle Obama said. If that were the case, your boys would not be allowed to bring their own lunch. You just don't want to admit that the t-turds were WRONG!
Posted by: Concerned Citizen on 11/30/2012
Simple
The difference is simple, Concerned Citizen. Michelle Obama wants legislation to force people into losing weight. For example, my teenagers are now not getting enough to eat at school because of Ms. Obama's plan to avoid obesity. Our boys are fit, healthy, and practice football or basketball every day. They don't need someone to tell them how much lunch is available to them. (They now take their own lunch.) Governor Brownback is simply offering a challenge to state employees to take off some weight. He is not passing laws to demand weight loss.
Give it a break, CC. We should not have government telling us what we can or cannot eat.
Should I start calling you a Democrap since you insist on calling conservatives "t-turds"? It doesn't help your argument when you insist on calling names.
Posted by: Kelly on 11/29/2012
Brownback
Where are the t-turds who came out of the woodwork and criticized Michelle Obama when she said, "We need to help young people avoid obesity?" The t-turds said, "You can not tell us what to do or what to eat"! WHERE are the idiots?
Posted by: Concerned Citizen on 11/28/2012