Hospitals, Policy

How Oklahoma City collectively lost a million pounds

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett is an innovative guy. He’s made many changes for the […]

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett is an innovative guy. He’s made many changes for the Midwestern city, including attracting an NBA franchise. But one of the most notable ones, as the country is seriously battling obesity and diabetes, was his initiative to help his city lose weight as a team.

It started when Men’s Fitness named Oklahoma City one of the most obese in the country. That had Cornett self-reflect a bit, even check is own body mass index, and in fact, he was technically obese.

So he created a program online, thiscityisgoingonadiet.com, where people could enter in the amount of weight they lost and it would calculate it as a city total, showing how many people were involved. It ended up stirring up the city, getting people to motivate each other, and they eventually reached one million pounds. Talk about health incentives while simultaneously building a community.

Cornett also led the movement to pass MAPS 3, a $800 million investment in parks, urban transit and wellness centers to change the way Oklahoma City residents live their lives.

In his TED Talk, he explains how they did it.

Shares0
Shares0