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Learning to be healthy

Published Sunday, March 22, 2009

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Scale Back Alabama was a big success for Billingsley School this year. In fact, the school’s 13 teams, composed of 52 participants, lost 389 pounds during the campaign. While the program isn’t necessarily about losing weight, it is still good for the school to have performed so well.

Scale Back Alabama is a program that is designed to help Alabamians become healthy. In a nutshell, it teaches people to eat less, eat better and exercise more. This is something that we should all strive to do.

The program began in January, and it ended last week with the final weigh-ins.

The Scale Back Alabama curriculum, which is free to all participants, features eight lessons. Some of those include setting goals, counting portion sizes, eating more fruits and vegetables, decreasing screen time, getting physical activity every day, drinking fewer sweetened beverages, using milk to lose weight and keeping off lost weight.

“What people have learned the most is how to incorporate more exercise into their daily lives. Everyone is also watching their portions of what they eat,” Billingsley School nurse Wendy Glasscock said.

Out of the 13 teams, Billingsley had two teams — “The Weight Warriors” and “Bama Booty Busters” — where everyone on the team lost at least 10 pounds each. They will be able to participate in the statewide drawing for cash prizes. Out of the 52 participants, 21 people lost at least 10 pounds and will be eligible for the individual drawing for cash prizes.

The person who lost the most weight, Ray Price, dropped 26 pounds during the event. Even Billingsley principal Van Smith weighs 16 pounds less than he did to start the year.

This is a great thing not only for the school but also the whole community. Glasscock said the participants are going to continue to lose weight and become healthy even though Scale Back Alabama has ended.

We should all take a good lesson from Billingsley and learn how to live healthier lives. It is something that will help us all.

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