“We have over 400 miles of new sidewalks, over 100 miles of new jogging and biking trails, we’re building a downtown park. Even better, the people of Oklahoma City have decided to make fitness a priority. Over 40,000 people signed up, reaching the goal of one million pounds lost this past January. The movement was a groundbreaking success. Over 150,000 people visited the site in one day,” Cornett says. I was on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, I was doing worldwide media. The website went live on December 31st, 2007. He created the website to give residents of OKC a platform to obtain healthy diet tips, the locations of public parks in the city limits and answers to frequent questions regarding obesity. Instead, Cornett decided to start a conversation. He knew that something had to change, but he didn’t have the means to institute widespread changes immediately.
That was the culture that we had created for ourselves.” Couple that with the city’s traditional southern fare (see: carbohydrates and grease) and its not hard to see why we named Oklahoma City “City With the Worst Eating Habits in 2007. “Our inner city grade schools didn’t even have gymnasiums. No one walked anywhere-we didn’t have sidewalks to any great extent in the suburbs,” Cornett says. “I was seeing how we had designed the city around the automobile. If you want to be around for your kids and grandkids, every extra year, in most cases, is going to be related to the size you are.”īut more importantly, he began to notice some serious issues within his city. “There is a direct relationship between your longevity and your size. He lost a pound a week for 40 weeks, dropping his weight from 217 to his current weight of 180 pounds. He also played tennis whenever he could, and banged out 50 push-ups each morning and evening. To drop his own weight, he simply cut down his calorie intake, going from approximately 3,000 each day to 2,000. “You’d think a guy would know, but I had no idea.” “I weighed 217 pounds, went to a government website, typed in my height and weight, and it said I was obese,” he recalls. “I didn’t know what to do-I was embarrassed by it.” Even worse, Cornett realized that he had been gaining 10 pounds of fat each year he was in office. “ list came out, and OKC was on it,” says Cornett.
That’s why we were beyond ecstatic when the Mayor of Oklahoma City, Mick Cornett, told us that an article in Men’s Fitness had inspired the residents of Oklahoma City to collectively lose one million pounds. We work each and every day to bring you the best fitness advice out there, period. We want to help you live your life to the fullest, and that means being in the best shape possible. Duration: 4 Years Our goal here at Men’s Fitness is to help you.