Women Encouraged to Join the Go Red BetterU Challenge
For the first time in Westchester County, the American Heart Association will conduct the Go Red BetterU Challenge, an innovative 12-week women’s heart health program designed to improve heart health for 15 selected local women. The program, sponsored locally by White Plains Hospital, is designed to remind all women of the need to make healthy lifestyle choices to reduce their risk of the number one killer of women–heart disease.
Applications are now being accepted to be one of the 15 women who will be chosen to participate. Each participant will receive free nutrition and cardiovascular health counseling from White Plains Hospital and a free three-month gym membership, including training sessions, from Will2Lose in Scarsdale. Participants will blog about their progress on a special website devoted to chronicling their progress.
Each week focuses on a different area of heart health and provides step-by-step guidance to help women transform their overall health through simple, small choices.
“BetterU is a free nutrition and fitness program that can help all women to make better lifestyle choices,” said Dawn French, vice president of community relations and marketing at White Plains Hospital. “(The) hospital is committed to women’s heart health and we hope that all women will join (the) Go Red for women movement online to learn how to prevent their number one health threat – heart disease.”
“Our goal is to make heart health a priority for local women by demonstrating that small changes can improve heart health in a big way,” she added.
Heart disease takes the life of one in three women–almost one every minute. Research shows, however, that 80 percent of cardiac events in women are preventable with simple changes in lifestyle choices involving diet, exercise and smoking.
Vito DiMatteo, owner of Will2Lose, has donated gym memberships and personal training for the BetterU participants.
“At Will2Lose our first priority is to educate,” DiMatteo said. “We believe education equals knowledge which equals power to change and yield results. We are proud to be part of the BetterU program.”
BetterU begins Jan. 31 and runs through April 19. The deadline for applications is Dec. 21. To apply, visit www.heart.org/westfairgoredluncheon and download the application. For more info, call Samantha Barnes at 914-640-3263.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
