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The 2012 winners of the Waterbury Regional Chamber’s Health Care Council’s annual “Tighten Your Belt” wellness initiative will be announced at the Council’s 7th Annual Members’ Breakfast and Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, June 20th. Three winners, individuals and corporate, will be announced at the breakfast to be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Southbury as a culmination of the 2012“Tighten Your Belt” wellness challenge that began on March 19 and will end May 31st.

Robin Sills of Naugatuck Valley Radiology and chair of the Waterbury Regional Chamber’s Health Care Council, explained, “We have two challenges, one for corporate teams and one for individuals. The objective for all participants is to incorporate health and wellness behaviors and attitudes into their daily lives, and to sustain those healthy habits. The ambition is for better health and an improved quality of life that results from incorporating healthy attitudes in every aspect of their lives.”

The “Tighten Your Belt” wellness initiative annually invites teams off our from local area businesses, as well as individuals, to participate in this weight loss and sustainability program. Through a daily nutrition education and physical exercise program, participants are scored on their total percentage of weight loss. Each percentage of each individual’s weight loss equals five scoring points. Those points are then added to total bonus points to reach their total score. The team, teams and/or individuals with the highest total scores are the winners of the “Tighten Your Belt” wellness challenge each year.
 

“Participants in the program,” explained Sills, “are eligible to earn bonus points during their wellness challenge by tracking and reporting the number of minutes of exercise they do each week. Thirty minutes of cardio exercise equals one point, and they can earn a maximum of three bonus points every week. Thirty minutes of strength training equals one point and they can report a maximum of two points each week.”

Individual winners and the winning corporate team of the “2012 Tighten Your Belt” wellness challenge will receive a six-month membership with the Greater Waterbury YMCA; inclusion in a feature article on the winners in the fall 2012 edition of “Health Matters”, a supplement insert in the Waterbury “Republican American” daily newspaper; their photo and an article about them in the Waterbury Regional Chamber’s E-newsletter; an interview with the Chamber’s CEO and President Lynn Ward during one of her “Chamber Hour” broadcasts on WATR 1320 AM; and recognition at the  Health Care Council’s Annual Meeting on June 20, 2012.

Sponsors of the “2012 Tighten Your Belt” wellness challenge have been The Village at East Farms; AETNA; Greater Waterbury YMCA; Naugatuck Valley Radiology; Nancy Traver, licensed massage therapist; NOSS-Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics and Spine Specialists, PC; Saint Mary’s Health System; Waterbury Hospital; and Village Green of Waterbury.
For more information, and to obtain tickets for the June 20th HealthCare Council’s Annual Members’ Breakfast and Awards Ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Southbury, contact the Waterbury Regional Chamber at203-756-3507, or email Courtney Ligi at cligi@waterburychamber.com, or visit www.waterburychamber.com