It's all about losing the weight with excessive pounds and obesity ravaging the Black community, 5 families take charge of their lives and accept the 'Ebony/Jet weight-loss challenge'

Ebony, July, 2008 by Ian K. Smith

When besieged by a crisis, it is not a time for us to mince words. So let me be transparently honest. We are killing ourselves and don't even realize it. I'm not talking about homicidal killings, for they are no comparison to the death toll that we are racking up on a daily basis because of our poor eating habits and refusal to be physically active. Thousands of our Brothers and Sisters are dying every day from illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and some forms of cancer--illnesses that are largely preventable with small lifestyle changes and a big determination to live.

I have personally gone through all of the emotions when I think about all of this senseless suffering and death. I'm angry that we say we love ourselves and each other, yet do things to our bodies that will only cause harm. I'm sad that so many of us lie in hospital beds, lonely and fearful about these illnesses that are destroying our bodies and taking us too soon. I'm hopeful that we will do what we have done since our arrival on the shores of this country--be strong and resilient and fight with every ounce of strength in our bodies to put an end to this needless suffering and leave a much better world for those who will come behind us.

The numbers are paralyzing--almost 80 percent of our women are overweight, nearly 70 percent of our men, 25 percent of our little girls and 18 percent of our boys. We are the heaviest we have ever been, which is why our life expectancies are shorter and our rates of related illnesses top the charts in almost ever), category.

In the words of civil rights advocate Fannie Lou Hamer, we must be "sick and tired of being sick and tired." No more talking; it's now time for action. This is why I started "The 50 Million Pound Challenge"--a free, national initiative to get us all to lose a collective 50 million pounds. The "EBONY/Jet WeightLoss Challenge," a project focusing on five families and their struggles with weight, joins our efforts to improve the health of our people.

Over the next six months we are going to share with you the journeys of change of these courageous people. They are like many of you, regular people with regular problems, and they are now determined to lose some weight and begin to live healthier lives. I have met and talked with all of them and customized individual weight-loss plans that are based on my diets, The Fat Smash Diet and The Extreme Fat Smash Diet.

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I'm hopeful that the successes some of us find in losing weight and spreading the gospel of health will become contagious and spread across the country from community to community, church to church, school to school. In this "EBONY/Jet Weight-Loss Challenge"--succeed or fail, good or bad--we want to share these journeys with you in the hope that you will be inspired to make changes in your own life and persuade others to do the same. If the time is not now, then when? If you won't be a soldier in the struggle, then who will fight for us? I've gathered my weapons of health and am ready to do battle. I hope that you will stand with me as we not only improve the quality of our existence, but actually save lives--our greatest act of love.

Join us at 50millionpounds.com.

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ABOUT JASON

NAME: JASON CHAMPION

AGE: 35

CITY: Charlotte, N.C.

OCCUPATION: EMI gospel recording artist (new CD is Reflections)

WEIGHT: 425 to 450 pounds

HEIGHT: 5 feet 11 inches

REASON FOR WEIGHT GAIN: Bad eating habits and possible genetic predisposition (several family members are larger)

TARGET WEIGHT LOSS: 200 pounds

IN THE REFRIGERATOR: Ice cream, cinnamon pastries, Kool-Aid, individual pizzas

MOTIVATION TO LOSE WEIGHT: To become healthier and prevent an early death related to obesity ABOUT RAY & KENDRA

THE INSIDE STORY: Jason Champion was 19 when he watched his father die at age 39 after experiencing a variety of weight-related problems. At the time of his death, Jason says his father weighed 800 to 1,100 pounds. Jason, a former member of the singing group Men At Large and a former backup singer for Kirk Franklin and Deitrick Haddon, says he is afraid that if he doesn't make changes in his life immediately, he'll experience the same fate as his father. And he doesn't want his wife, Paula, and their two sons, Isaiah, 13, and Michael, 8, to feel the pain and sense of loss that his father's early death caused him. "I want to be here for me, for my wife and our kids. God has given me a new opportunity, plus I'm getting older, and to be effective in God's ministry, I need to dig deeper and tackle this weight problem," says Champion, who has never weighed more than he does now. "As I'm approaching my 39th birthday [in four years], I refuse to have to look over my shoulder, worrying that the same death angel that took my father is coming for me." In recent years, Jason has made several attempts to lose some weight, but he says he didn't have enough commitment to succeed and the diets didn't work fast enough for him. "This is another chance for me to change my life," he says, "and this time I have to make it work."