Do the right thing today
Stop putting things off until later. Pledge to take your loved one to the doctor today, not tomorrow. We often take our health for granted and visit the doctor only when something goes wrong. Taking preventive steps helps us live longer, so we can be there for our friends and family. It’s this kind of proactive thinking and participation that’s currently making The 50 Million Pound ChallengeTM a major success.

Pledge your pounds, too
Created by Dr. Ian Smith, The 50 Million Pound Challenge has successfully brought the community together to take on and overcome obesity. It’s more than just a weight-loss program. It’s a system designed to help you live a healthier life by changing the way we eat and live. It’s a long-term commitment to build a stronger community. Sign up at 50millionpounds.com and access the simple weight-loss tips and anywhere-anytime exercises provided by Dr. Ian Smith. More than a Web site, it’s an interactive community where you can read up on success stories, post queries and catch up with Dr. Ian’s Church Tour. This support system makes it easy for people to stick to The Challenge. So far, over 400,000 people have joined and, collectively, lost nearly 2,000,000 pounds. Joining The 50 Million Pound Challenge means becoming part of something exciting. It’s life-altering, historic and beneficial, not only for you but for others in your family and community, as well as future generations.

Why join?
Why not? Participating in The Challenge is not just about shedding those extra pounds — though that is critical to your health and well-being. It’s about all of us coming together and looking out for each other as we work to take greater control of our lives. It’s about taking the time to reach out and lock hands as we join forces to fight the very real risk that being overweight poses.

The crisis
The number one health crisis facing all Americans is being overweight. Two out of every three adults (66%) today are considered to be overweight, or even worse, obese. Even more troubling, 17% of all children in the U.S. are now overweight. The statistics for African Americans are even more alarming—where almost 80% of adult women and 67% of adult men are overweight. Equally worrisome is that 20% of African American teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19 are overweight, and this number appears to be rising.

Our teenagers are developing Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and in some cases, early signs of heart disease. This decline in our youths’ health can be attributed to many things, starting with poor diet, lack of exercise, and inadequate medical guidance.

What we can do
The very good news is that we have the ability to reverse these unhealthy trends. For many of us, it’s not just the simple matter of fitting into a smaller size, it’s truly the more serious matter of life and death. The Challenge can do so much, not just for our physical health, but for our minds and spirits, too. Below are just a few of the many things we can accomplish together.

• Shed those excess pounds, achieve healthier weights, and reduce our risk for life-threatening diseases.
• Unite as a community and pool our strength and resources to overcome the health problems that afflict us.
• Learn more about our bodies and what we can do to live healthier, longer lives.
• Teach our youth the importance of making healthy lifestyle decisions that will benefit them for years to come.