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Shape Up Sandy Still Successful After Nearly a Decade

Jun 13, 2016 08:39AM ● By Kelly Cannon

Residents receive a treat while participating in Shape Up Sandy. —Sandy City

By Kelly Cannon | [email protected]


For almost 10 years, Healthy Sandy has sponsored Shape Up Sandy, a fitness program that encourages residents to become active. According to Nicole Martin, the communications director at Sandy City, the program has been very successful and well received over the years.

“It’s no fun to try to lose weight by yourself,” Martin said. “If you do it with friends or family, it’s more enjoyable and people will participate.”

Step Up Sandy is a free eight-week program that happens both in the spring and the fall where participants meet once a week for a long walk. The location rotates around different parks, allowing for people to see new parks, visit their favorite parks and enjoy the outdoors.

“It’s much better than working out in your basement,” Martin said.

Each time they participate in activities in the program, they accumulate points. This includes the Monday walks, the lectures also held on Monday, an additional weekly challenge and checking their blood pressure before and after the activity. Shape Up Sandy provides small incentives for accomplishing these tasks such as a cup or a salad shaker. Martin said while the prizes aren’t big, they function as a rewards system for those following the program.

“Losing weight and getting healthy is not easy,” Martin said. “It makes it that much easier to participate for those eight weeks,” she said.

Martin said the participants love getting points and love getting them signed off.

“It’s such a motivating factor,” she said.

At the end of the program, all the participants are entered into a drawing for various health-related prices. Prizes include yoga mats or water bottles. One year, the grand prize was a new bike.

For the past three or four years, a new component has been added to the program. Called “Walk with a Doc,” a medical professional from Alta View Hospital participates in the local walks. There, they are able to talk to the participants, answer questions and give health-related recommendations. Martin said this element of the program has been hugely successful and they will continue to have it be a part of Shape Up Sandy.

Alta View Hospital is just one of the partners of Shape Up Sandy. Others include Salt Lake County, Alta Canyon Sports Center and Canyons School District.

The program is for all ages and all fitness abilities. Participants can walk at their own pace and are encouraged to bring their families and even their dogs. The program wants to encourage the social element of the program because that helps get people to not only participate in the program, but to also stick with it through the eight weeks.

The program draws around 100 participants, some of whom have been regulars for years.

“It’s something they look forward to every year,” Martin said. “It gives them a jump start on their fitness goals where it would’ve been far more difficult on their own.”

Martin said she has felt the program has been successful because of its longevity.

“It is absolutely the most successful program in Healthy Sandy,” she said.

To learn more about Shape Up Sandy and Healthy Sandy, visit http://www.healthysandy.org.