100-day heart challenge

STILL no camera. I've finally resorted to using the camera phone and our video camera "still-mode" niether of which take the best of pictures but at least it's perserving memories. Anyway, that's my excuse for the lack of blogging.
However, this particular blog has no need for a camera so I shouldn't be using that as an excuse.
In June, Junior was chosen to do his companies 100-day Heart Challenge. He and 14 others were given personal trainers (though Junior's quit after a couple weeks so he was largely on his own) was given access to the hospital's gym, attended weekly nutrion classes and had to document everything they ate.
It was a fun challenge coming up with a bunch of new meals that were low-fat, whole grain, low-sodium (his biggest goal was to lower his blood pressure), low-cholestrol, yet not low-taste. We actually came up with some really good ones and have continued to try to eat that way the majority of the time (though it's nice to be able to eat a good roast dinner from time time).
Another big challenge was portion control. Junior usually at the typical polynesian-sized meals (large plate, lots of rice, lots of meats, lots of servings). We now eat of the dessert sized plates (our dessert plates are pretty decent sized) and try to have the veggies take up half the plate. He'll occasionally take a second plate but even then it's less then a single serving on a big plate).
He already biked to work most days but he started going to the gym and running and lifting as well. In fact for the grand finale of the challenge the contestants took part in a Run for Cancer 5K. Junior came in 1st in his group (the guy that came in actual 1st came in in under 15 min pushing a stroller. Still trying to decide if he's human or not).
At the end of it all (end of September) they did a nice fancy dinner and handed out awards for all the different categories (lbs lost, inches lost around waist, blood pressure, triglycerides etc). Junior won for dropping his cholsterol the most (big thing because a couple years ago his cholesterol was getting dangerously high which he regulated through slight change in diet) now his cholesterol is GREAT!
He also won the OVERALL!!! I was so proud of him. He's now down to 10% body fat, lost 2 1/2 inches around the waist, lost around 18 lbs, his triglycerides are down 78 points his blood pressure went down etc. He's my lean mean fighting machine! The night of the dinner some of the girls were poking at his muscles in amazement then apologized to me. I told them to poke away, I can't resist them either. Ha ha
Junior with the 2nd and 3rd place winners! (Who needs a camera when you can steal it from the company website!)

He now has access to the gym for the next year, won some gift certificates, etc. Mostly he's just grateful for the change in lifestyle it invoked in him. It was good for our whole family now the kids will have the healthy eating and importance of exercise ingrained in their little brains from the start and hopefully follow suit as they grow.