August 2011 - Congratulations to Erin Menacher for losing 43 pounds (and counting) in a myInertia 12-week corporate weight loss challenge!

When Erin's company, Cerebral Palsy Inc., Green Bay, Wis., started the challenge, Erin, who weighed 262 pounds, and her husband, who weighed nearly 500 pounds, were ready for a lifestyle change. "We needed to give something a shot. This came about at work and I thought, 'Well, why not,'" she said.

The couple switched to a low-fat diet and Erin joined a gym. Soon, she was winning the challenge at work each week. "It wasn't easy, but it was easier than I thought it would be," she said. "As soon as I saw the pounds dropping, it was easier and easier to keep going." She credits her competitive spirit and the support of her coworkers in her success.

Erin progressed from being able to do "only about six steps" on an elliptical machine to finishing a 10K and walking an estimated 20 miles in 14 hours during an American Cancer Society Relay for Life fundraising event this summer. "I would never, ever have been able to do that before. I'm just feeling a ton better," she said.

Her BMI and blood pressure are both down, and her doctor is happy Erin is getting healthier through diet and exercise.

The health benefits have lasted beyond the end of the challenge. To date, Erin's lost 52 pounds and her husband has lost over 75 pounds. "We did it together," she said. "That was the coolest part, I think."

Erin's office is set to begin a new myInertia weight loss challenge in late August, and her goal is to lose 50 more pounds. She said, "I am anxiously awaiting the start of the new challenge to kick it into high gear."

July 2011 - Log into your myInertia account, navigate to your myProfile page and set your notifications – it's a great way to stay on track with your goals when you don't have time to log into your account.

Set up email or text messages to be sent to you with your activity statistics. You set the time of day to receive the messages, what data you want to see and where you want the messages sent.

Setup your own personal web link that can be used with any web browser, including those on smart phones (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android phone, etc.). You can see your data any time of day or night by clicking on your link.

June 2011 - myInertia & Sunnyside Elementary School in Pulaski, WI:

Earlier this spring, the Sunnyside Elementary School Running for Kids program and myInertia teamed up to begin preparing for the Bellin Run (a 10K run/walk event schedule for June 11, 2011). Every week the Sunnyside Running for Kids program offers training runs according to the Bellin Run training schedule.

MyInertia donated the use of the Newton (pedometer) for these training runs to help the Sunnyside students and Running for Kids coaches track their distance. The myInertia website summarizes the data from each student's Newton allowing the coaches to manage their progress with ease and keep the students motivated!

Students and coaches were also given myInertia t-shirts and bracelets to recognize their accomplishments at the mid-point of the training schedule. As an added bonus and fun incentive, each day a Sunnyside student accomplishes their running goal, tracked by the myInertia program, they receive a piece of duct tape. At the end of the training, students will be able to use their tape to stick the coaches to the wall!! Students are truly able to make every step count!

What a great example of how myInertia can work in your community! Sunnyside School has created a healthy and fun way to keep their students motivated! MyInertia is available in many different types of programs and can also be customized to meet your needs.

May 2011 - We love to hear about the success our members are having with the program. Check it out:

"I have been using the myInertia product since August 2010. I must say that I love it. As I work at the Post Office and walk A LOT, I always wondered how many miles I was walking. Not anymore. Since August of 2010 I have walked almost 1.5 million steps. That is over 620 miles. The Newton is amazing. I don't know of any other product that can do what the Newton can do. It is small, and very durable. I can't even tell that I am wearing it. While the Newton keeps track of my daily walks, myInertia keeps track of everything that I may forget. They just recently sent me a new Newton to replace mine because they knew the battery was dying! Everything that you could want from a device to keep track of your distance, calories, and time is right here. I can't believe that I ever wasted my money trying to figure this out with other products. This one is by far the best. Thanks much to the myInertia crew. You guys rock!"

- submitted by Brian F., Flint, MI

Employees at the CP Center have been using myInertia since January, 2011, and have been having a blast with it. It has been educational, motivating and is bringing our wellness program to a new level. We have a new spirit of competitiveness in a fun way. We have seen weight loss results and overall improved fitness. One of the most impactful results has been the increased self-awareness and the need to do more. We're looking forward to many more activities, challenges, and adventures!"

- submitted by Julie Kozicke, CP Center Inc., Green Bay, WI

Thank you, Brian and Julie, for taking the time to share your feedback with us!

April 2011 - MyInertia is proud to announce recent enhancements for members:

Dashboard:  The dashboard now offers a weekly goal-setting option. The daily goals section of the dashboard continues to be a great way to set and track your progress towards daily activity goals. Members asked for a way to track weekly goals, as well. With this enhancement, you can now set daily and/or weekly goals and track what is most important to you.

myActivity:  All of your walking, running and moving information is displayed on the myActivity page – the number of steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned and time active. Now you have the tools you need to review subsets of this data for any timeframe you want. It's your data, your way!

This enhancement enables you to:

1. See daily, weekly and monthly data sets
2. View subsets of data (walking only, running only, etc.)
3. Display data in a bar or line graph
4. Easily move back to previous days, weeks or months of data

March 2011 - Food and Food Components to Reduce ~ Dietary Guidelines for Americans

In the last myInertia blog entry we discussed some very general and broad strategies for eating healthy. The next three entries will focus on more specific nutrients and strategies to improve overall diet.

SODIUM
Pros: Sodium is an important, essential nutrient responsible for maintaining fluid balance, transmitting nerve impulses and influencing muscle contraction and relaxation in your body.
Cons: Increasing levels of sodium intake are directly related to increased blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, congestive heart failure and kidney disease.
Reducing: Individuals age 9 to 50 require an Adequate Intake of only 1500 mg per day of sodium. The average American, age 2 and older, actually consumes an average of 3400 mg of sodium per day! The easiest way to reduce sodium consumption is to eat more fresh foods and fewer high-sodium processed foods (canned foods, breads and pastas made with refined white flour, packaged high-calorie snack foods, frozen dinners, packaged cakes and cookies, boxed meal mixes, sugary breakfast cereals and processed meat).

SOLID FATS/SATURATED & TRANS FAT SOURCES
Pros: Your body needs some saturated fats to function; however, it is able to produce enough on its own to meet these needs. Trans fats are not essential for our bodies and offer no positive nutritional benefits.
Cons: Increasing consumption of saturated fat is directly associated with higher levels of LDL, or "bad," cholesterols and therefore increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Trans fat consumption is directly related to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Reducing: Most foods with high levels of saturated and/or trans fat are solids at room temperature (butter, beef fat, chicken fat, pork fat, stick margarine and shortening). Major sources of solid fats are sweets, pizza, cheese, sausage, hot dogs, bacon, ribs and fried potatoes.

ADDED SUGARS
Pros: Sugars are found naturally in fruit, milk and milk products and add to the overall nutrients and other healthful components of these foods. They provide energy for our body.
Cons: The large majority of consumed sugar, however, comes from added sugars. Most foods that contain added sugars supply calories but are of limited nutritional value. Added sugars contribute to tooth decay, overweight and obesity.
Reducing: Added sugars include high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, raw sugar, malt syrup, maple syrup, pancake syrup, fructose sweetener, liquid fructose, honey, molasses, anhydrous dextrose and crystal dextrose. Major sources of added sugars are soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, desserts, sugar-sweetened fruit drinks and candy.

REFINED GRAINS
Pros: Refined grains are whole grains that have been processed, removing most of the nutrients. Most of the nutrients—the vitamins and minerals—are added back through a process called enriching.
Cons: Dietary fiber is stripped out of refined grains and not added back in during the enriching process. While foods made from refined grains can add necessary vitamins and minerals to a healthy diet, most often they contribute excess calories.
Reducing: Reading food ingredient lists is the best way to limit the amount of refined grains. Anything listed as refined or enriched should be replaced by foods with whole grains listed in the ingredients. Major sources of refined grains are yeast breads, pizza, grain-based desserts and tortillas, burritos and tacos.

For more information on the nutrients discussed above, please visit www.dietaryguidelines.gov or talk with your physician or a registered dietitian.

February 2011 - Over the past several months I've noticed, even more than usual, how much conflicting dietary information is presented in the media daily.

Recently I've been seeing confusing articles on breakfast. Breakfast, of all things! Earlier studies suggested those who ate a large breakfast consumed fewer calories overall. Now there's a backlash – "Eat a big breakfast to lose weight? Maybe not" . . . . "Dieters beware! Big breakfasts won't curb your appetite" . . . . "Big breakfast may make you fat after all".

January 2011 - Are you still going strong on your New Year's resolution?

If you are like 50 percent of the United States population, you made a New Year's resolution this year. That's great! Anytime you pause to reflect on your life and determine a goal you want to accomplish, it is beneficial. So congratulations to those of you who took the initiative. Making a New Year's resolution makes you ten times more likely to reach your goal.

But about 30 percent of New Year's resolutions are broken within the first week of January. If this includes yours, don't despair. Here's how to set and reach a goal effectively.

First, do your homework. Consider all the factors that might make it easier (or more difficult) to reach your goal:

• WHAT do you want to accomplish? Specific, realistic, short-term objectives get you closer to a long-term goal, allowing you to see and feel accomplishments along the way.
• WHY do you want to accomplish this? Your reason should come from within, not because of societal pressures. You may need to restate what you want to accomplish after this step, but you are far more likely to reach your goal if it is the right goal for you.
• HOW are you going to accomplish this goal? Think about what tools you need, what support you have, what information will be useful. Also, think about what hurdles will get in the way and plan how you will clear them.
• WHEN do you want to start and when do you expect to reach each of your objectives? Be specific. Hold yourself accountable.
• WHO is your support network? Goals are much easier to reach when you have support from a spouse, friends, family members, social network—anyone you can go to without judgment to push you to succeed.

Remember change takes time. Don't give up. One bad day does not erase all of the positive efforts you've made. Believe in yourself. And keep moving toward what you want!