IA/IL QUAD-CITIES - According to a survey from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2.1 billion people - almost 30 percent of Earth's population - are either overweight or obese. America's population includes 78 million obese adults, and nearly 30 percent of U.S. children and teens are either overweight or obese.
"Obesity has become a global epidemic," said Dana VanGilder, General Manager of Fitness Xpress, a locally owned fitness club with locations in Davenport, Moline, and Iowa City. "At Fitness Xpress, we offer the Project 10 Challenge to help people in our communities to develop healthier lifestyles and slim down."
Visitors can register for the Project 10 Challenge at the Fitness Xpress website,
www.fx247.com. This fitness and weight-loss program features an effective mix of exercise and eating right. Fitness Xpress has partnered with ViSalus Sciences, developers of Project 10, to provide clients with Vi-Shape, a high-protein shake mix which is integral to the program. ViSalus Sciences is a healthy lifestyle company which has developed a platform for achieving weight-loss and fitness results by encouraging participants to concentrate on losing just 10 pounds at a time.
Fitness Xpress will be part of ViSalus' upcoming World's Largest Simultaneous Group Workout. "We're working on setting a Guinness World Record," VanGilder said. "People in 11 countries will be participating." The event will be held at 11:45 a.m., Saturday, January 3. Local sites for the event will be the three Fitness Xpress locations:
109 East 50th Street, Davenport, IA 52806,
563-386-2348
1059 Hwy 6 E., Iowa City, IA 52240,
319-351-1729 For every person who participates in the Jan. 3 event, ViSalus will donate 30 kids' meals through their Project 10 Kids program. Locally, the meals will go to the Project 10 In the Schools program, designed to help kids fighting childhood obesity, or the Backpacks for Kids program of the River Bend Foodbank.
"If 500 people participate at each location, that translates into 45,000 meals donated for local kids," VanGilder said. No purchase or membership is required to participate. To find out more or to sign up, visit
www.fx247.com.
Helping the Community
According to VanGilder, the Project 10 Challenge has proven to be especially effective - and, it helps the community.
"With every 10 pounds a client loses, he or she receives a month of free membership, if they continue using the Vi-Shape shake mix," VanGilder said. "Another perk of the program is that ViSalus awards participants with ten chances to win $1,000 for every ten pounds they lose."
She noted that ViSalus offers an additional benefit to help others. "ViSalus will send 30 meals to a community charity for every 10 pounds lost by a client through the program. An excellent example of such a charity is the Backpacks for Kids Program of the River Bend Foodbank." The Backpacks for Kids Program, which is funded by John Deere, strives to make sure that children don't go hungry over the weekend when there are no school meals available.
"Fitness Xpress plans to sponsor at least 1,000 kids in the Project 10 In The Schools Program, designed to educate local overweight students and their parents in exercise, proper meal planning, and nutrition," VanGilder said.
VanGilder and the Fitness Xpress team invite more community members to take the Project 10 Challenge. "It's a win-win deal," she said. "It helps clients to lose weight, and it helps the community. Our goal is for at least 5,000 new people to try the program in the next six months. We want to become the Quad-Cities' transformation location."
The Fall Fashion and Gun Show
Later this year, Fitness Xpress will host their first Project 10 Fall Fashion & Gun Show. "In this case, the 'guns' are muscular arms!" Van Gilder said. "It will be a fundraising fashion show, and the models will be people who have lost weight through our plan. The models will get free outfits and makeovers. It will be held Sept. 3 at the Clarion Hotel in Davenport and will include dinner, a silent auction, and much more."
VanGilder noted that their plans for the community fit in well with the Fitness Xpress Mission, which reads: "To motivate our community towards a healthy lifestyle; to empower our members with ideas and techniques that produce results; to inspire our fitness family to discover the meaningful parts of life through the happiness of health. We change lives!"
To find out more about Fitness Xpress, visit
www.fx247.com.
