May 072016
 

Well Hello!  To those of you who are new here, welcome.  For the next few weeks we are going to be chronicling our experience in the IHC My Heart Challenge.  The challenge this year is for families.  They chose 8 families to participate, and we were picked, based on this video:

 

After we were chosen, we had a couple of weeks to get ready for the whole challenge.  This challenge is all about being more active and heart healthy, with diet and exercise changes that will make all of our hearts stronger and ultimately let us all live longer!

We finally got to April, and were set to start the challenge at a kickoff breakfast on Brenda’s Birthday.  But before that, they had to get a baseline test for us.  None of these tests were for the kids, just the parents.  We did a full stress test that included lab work and a treadmill test that measured our heart rates during exercise and gave us some ideas of how we will be improving after the 100 day challenge is over.

At the kickoff, Fox 13 news was there as well as the Deseret News.  We got to be on Fox 13 with Big Budah, doing a “game show” guessing how many calories that household chores can burn.  It was a fun little segment, but I can’t get video to post.  However, there is a couple of pictures of us from the Deseret News, even if they did get our name wrong.  I have been called a lot of things, but never have I been a Williams.

Justin and Brenda Williams and their family wave as they are introduced as Intermountain Medical Center kicks off its 100-day 2016 My Heart Challenge: Family Edition on Thursday, April 14, 2016, in Murray. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

Justin and Brenda Williams and their son, Tristan, take turns weighing as Intermountain Medical Center kicks off its 100-day 2016 My Heart Challenge: Family Edition on Thursday, April 14, 2016, in Murray. Eight families from the Salt Lake Valley will compete in the challenge. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

Here is a link to the post if you want to read it all.  http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865652265/1-down-99-to-go-Families-kick-off-heart-health-challenge.html?pg=all

The weigh in was interesting, they waited until we had all eaten a heart healthy breakfast and were wearing our nice heavy clothes instead of our exercise clothes.  I was 8 pounds heavier than on Monday…. it will look better at the end I am sure.

We got a ton of information and class schedules all ready to take this 100 day challenge.  Everyone wants to call it a “journey” but for some reason I have a hard time calling it that.  I need to come up with a better term for it.  I will take suggestions in the comments.

So now, we are working towards getting healthier and the ultimate goal at the end of the challenge; to win passes to Boondocks Fun Center.  Oh and to be healthier.  Over the next few blog posts I am going to write about what we have been doing as a family each week, and how we have been growing more heart healthy and healthier overall.   You can find out more information about the whole challenge at www.myheartchallenge.org, or do a quick google search for the hashtag #myheartchallenge.

Any comments will be appreciated below!

Thanks, Justin

Group Photo 2_1

These are all 8 families that are participating in the My Heart Challenge 2016!

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