A 'Healthy' resolution
By Tim Gallaghertgallagher@siouxcityjournal.com | Posted: Friday, January 02, 2009
For Erik Nieuwenhuis, the goal wasn't to lose weight. He wanted to gain muscle.
"My goal was to gain five pounds of muscle," said Nieuwenhuis, 36.
He accomplished that and lost one pound of fat along the way.
Nieuwenhuis was one of hundreds around Siouxland who took part in the 100-day Lighten Up Iowa effort last winter. He's excited to participate this year in the follow-up effort, Live Healthy Iowa's 100-Day Wellness Challenge, a team-based nutrition, activity and weight-loss effort that's charted on-line daily. (Information is at www.livehealthyiowa.org.)
"For me, I've been living healthy for most of my life," said Nieuwenhuis, a physical therapist, work-injury prevention specialist and wellness consultant for St. Luke's Regional Medical Center. "But I knew I needed to get back into lifting, doing squats and lunges at Four Seasons. I also had to eat more protein."
Those thoughts married with a group program that emphasized realistic goal-setting, offered personalized meal plans, customized workouts and more fit the bill for Nieuwenhuis, who led a group of 10 Sunnybrook Community Church members in the 2007 effort. All told, the church had 47 people involved on 10 different teams, and lost a combined 350 pounds.
"Live Healthy Iowa focuses in on increased physical activity and healthy nutrition," he said. "All this is done in a team-based format as it can be hard to do by yourself."
Everywhere we go, he indicated, we are bombarded with fattening foods high in sugar and big on portion sizes. With the wellness challenge last year, Nieuwenhuis didn't stop eating; he just ate more sensibly.
"I drank more water and ate a lot more grilled or baked chicken and turkey," he said. "I also ate more eggs, like boiled eggs, scrambled eggs or omelettes with fresh vegetables like red onions, green onions, a little cheese and fresh tomatoes."
Nieuwenhuis' teammate lost 18 pounds of fat, but gained 10 pounds of muscle for a net loss of 8 pounds. Another teammate who Nieuwenhuis said "looks like a new person" lost 6.5 inches off his waist, chest and biceps combined.
A husband-wife team lost 10.34 percent of their body weight taken when the 2007 challenge began. Another family recorded 318 hours of physical activity over this period.
That's the feature Nieuwenhuis likes as much as anything: It encourages activity!
"There are a lot of days when I go home from work and I want to be lazy or just spend time with my daughter," he said. "But in this, I make the time for exercise. Or I ask my wife and daughter if they want to exercise with me."
And whenever a participant might slip, either a teammate or an e-mail is there to remind them of the greater goal.
"You track all of this through an on-line journal," eh said. "You receive weekly e-mails from Live Healthy Iowa that gives you healthy recipes and tips for exercise. There's also a leader board updated every night so you can see what team or individual is ahead."
The goal, of course, is to see that everyone plays. And, therefore, wins.
New Year's resolution
Here's information on what the 100-day challenge:
Live Healthy Iowa's 100 Day Wellness Challenge runs Jan. 14 through April 23, 2009. Participants are encouraged to set realistic goals and make informed decisions about their health.
With registration, each participant will receive:
* Live Healthy Iowa T-shirt
* The chance to win individual and team prizes throughout the 100-day challenge
* Weekly activity, nutrition and recipe tips via e-mail
* A personal online tracking page
* Team leaderboard
* 100 days of access to TrainingPeaks
* Personalized meal plans, customized workouts and more!
* A one-year subscription to select lifestyle magazines (Fitness magazine, Mens Journal, Heart-Healthy Living, Ladies Home Journal and others)
The entry fee is $18 per participant with free shipping for t-shirts. Beginning Jan. 1, Hy-Vee will offer an $8 discount for each team member if a total of $15 worth of certain products (Hormel, Dannon, Kraft, Kellogg, Coke and others) are purchased. If the $15 total is reached, the coupon will be printed on the back side of your receipt. On-line registration at is found at www.livehealthyiowa.org.
"My goal was to gain five pounds of muscle," said Nieuwenhuis, 36.
He accomplished that and lost one pound of fat along the way.
Nieuwenhuis was one of hundreds around Siouxland who took part in the 100-day Lighten Up Iowa effort last winter. He's excited to participate this year in the follow-up effort, Live Healthy Iowa's 100-Day Wellness Challenge, a team-based nutrition, activity and weight-loss effort that's charted on-line daily. (Information is at www.livehealthyiowa.org.)
"For me, I've been living healthy for most of my life," said Nieuwenhuis, a physical therapist, work-injury prevention specialist and wellness consultant for St. Luke's Regional Medical Center. "But I knew I needed to get back into lifting, doing squats and lunges at Four Seasons. I also had to eat more protein."
Those thoughts married with a group program that emphasized realistic goal-setting, offered personalized meal plans, customized workouts and more fit the bill for Nieuwenhuis, who led a group of 10 Sunnybrook Community Church members in the 2007 effort. All told, the church had 47 people involved on 10 different teams, and lost a combined 350 pounds.
"Live Healthy Iowa focuses in on increased physical activity and healthy nutrition," he said. "All this is done in a team-based format as it can be hard to do by yourself."
Everywhere we go, he indicated, we are bombarded with fattening foods high in sugar and big on portion sizes. With the wellness challenge last year, Nieuwenhuis didn't stop eating; he just ate more sensibly.
"I drank more water and ate a lot more grilled or baked chicken and turkey," he said. "I also ate more eggs, like boiled eggs, scrambled eggs or omelettes with fresh vegetables like red onions, green onions, a little cheese and fresh tomatoes."
Nieuwenhuis' teammate lost 18 pounds of fat, but gained 10 pounds of muscle for a net loss of 8 pounds. Another teammate who Nieuwenhuis said "looks like a new person" lost 6.5 inches off his waist, chest and biceps combined.
A husband-wife team lost 10.34 percent of their body weight taken when the 2007 challenge began. Another family recorded 318 hours of physical activity over this period.
That's the feature Nieuwenhuis likes as much as anything: It encourages activity!
"There are a lot of days when I go home from work and I want to be lazy or just spend time with my daughter," he said. "But in this, I make the time for exercise. Or I ask my wife and daughter if they want to exercise with me."
And whenever a participant might slip, either a teammate or an e-mail is there to remind them of the greater goal.
"You track all of this through an on-line journal," eh said. "You receive weekly e-mails from Live Healthy Iowa that gives you healthy recipes and tips for exercise. There's also a leader board updated every night so you can see what team or individual is ahead."
The goal, of course, is to see that everyone plays. And, therefore, wins.
New Year's resolution
Here's information on what the 100-day challenge:
Live Healthy Iowa's 100 Day Wellness Challenge runs Jan. 14 through April 23, 2009. Participants are encouraged to set realistic goals and make informed decisions about their health.
With registration, each participant will receive:
* Live Healthy Iowa T-shirt
* The chance to win individual and team prizes throughout the 100-day challenge
* Weekly activity, nutrition and recipe tips via e-mail
* A personal online tracking page
* Team leaderboard
* 100 days of access to TrainingPeaks
* Personalized meal plans, customized workouts and more!
* A one-year subscription to select lifestyle magazines (Fitness magazine, Mens Journal, Heart-Healthy Living, Ladies Home Journal and others)
The entry fee is $18 per participant with free shipping for t-shirts. Beginning Jan. 1, Hy-Vee will offer an $8 discount for each team member if a total of $15 worth of certain products (Hormel, Dannon, Kraft, Kellogg, Coke and others) are purchased. If the $15 total is reached, the coupon will be printed on the back side of your receipt. On-line registration at is found at www.livehealthyiowa.org.
