Shape Up RI launches 4th annual campaign

Registration has begun for the fourth annual Shape Up RI, the statewide exercise and weight-loss challenge that to date has inspired nearly 20,000 participants to lose more than 39,000 pounds.
The kickoff event for this year’s campaign is scheduled for Feb. 7, with the competition running from Feb. 9 to May 3. Founder Rajiv Kumar, a Brown University medical student currently on leave to focus on this and a second fitness-related project, said he expects the “teamwork, group support” and “friendly competition” to draw “record numbers” of participants.
In a news release, Kumar noted that Shape Up RI aims to address America’s obesity epidemic by changing unhealthy lifestyles and replacing bad health habits with good ones.
Participants compete on teams and track their weight, exercise hours, and/or pedometer steps over a 12-week period. Each participant pays a $20 registration fee, which includes a digital pedometer, reminder wristband, competition logbook, access to the online Team Tracker system, weekly e-mails with health tips, eligibility to win prizes, and free access to hundreds of health and education events hosted throughout Rhode Island. Many employers choose to pay the registration fee on behalf of their employees as a benefit.
“Ours is a ‘self-help’ program that expansively defines ‘self’ as ‘community,’ ” Kumar said. “All of the resources required to adopt wellness as a way of life are readily available within ourselves and our neighbors. Together we embody the strength, the will, and the sense of shared purpose that remain the keys to good health.”
For more information about Shape Up RI, visit www.shapeupri.org.