TYLER (KYTX) - Two years ago the fit city challenge kicked off with a series of stories about the obesity epidemic. Since then, the Fit City Challenge has now grown into a grass roots movement, with the city of Tyler's support.
Not long after the Fit City Challenge started gaining momentum, Tyler Mayor Barbara Bass invited the community to walk with her.
"You don't have to be spending a bunch of money. You can just put on a pair of shoes and something comfortable and just get out and walk."
A year later, the mayor issued the Fitwalk Challenge to the city. City manager Mark McDaniel followed in the mayor's foot-steps issuing two challenges of his own. One was to ditch the desserts at city lunches ... something you could also do at your lunch time -- and
"Praying off the pounds was about dads mostly. Trying to make sure they can help take care of their families," says McDaniel.
Next up, 10 in 10... Lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks. McDaniel and Nelson CLyde took that show on road-- with close to 100 people weighing in weekly.
Stephanie Rollings is the director of Tyler's Parks and Recreation Department. She helped create her department's weight loss challenge with a week off, to the winner to stick with it.
Now their working on freezing their weight in parks and recreation. McDaniel hopes the city-- can help take the fit city challenge to the next level.
McDaniel says they're working behind the scenes with the Tyler Paper and the Northeast Texas Public Health District to hopefully take the Fit City Challenge tracking electronic so teams and groups can better keep tabs on their weight loss.
