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MURRAY — It's a roller coaster that many people have been on but few enjoy.
Taylor Pitcher, a West Jordan father of three, had dropped 60 pounds over the years but gained 40 of them back after the birth of his youngest son. This time, the weight was more difficult to shake.
Faced with high blood pressure and the stress of his son's congenital heart condition, Pitcher and his wife signed up for the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute's 100-day My Heart Challenge: Family Edition.
The eight families chosen for the challenge received coaching and counseling from cardiologists, exercise specialists and dietitians throughout the challenge, which kicked off in April.
Emma Mills, a mother of two from Riverton, said she and her husband lost a combined total of about 30 pounds in 100 days.
The trick? "A lot more salads," her 13-year-old daughter whispered. "A lot."
Katy Woodruff, a sports dietician at the LiveWell Center, led the families through six nutrition classes throughout the 100 day-challenge. Woodruff said the most common question was how to make lifestyle changes as a family.
She encouraged parents to get the kids motivated by including them in meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking and even gardening.
"The more involved they are, the more likely they are to engage in healthy behaviors," Woodruff said.
It's important for parents to model healthy behavior for their children, said Dr. Kirk Knowlton, the institute's director of cardiovascular research.
Knowlton joked that he still eats Cheerios for breakfast at 60 years old because that's what he was fed as a young boy.
"We're more likely to be successful as a group if we diet and exercise as a family unit," Knowlton said. That means everybody eats the same food — not just one unlucky person picking at a salad while the rest of the family eats burgers.
Knowlton advised families to focus on a few simple things: Increase fruit and vegetable intake, reduce how often you dine out and do everything in moderation. For families scattered across the country, apps like MyFitnessPal can help relatives stay in touch with each other's progress and give encouragement, he said.
Experts at the institute kept careful track of the parents' progress during the challenge. At an awards ceremony Friday, counselors revealed that the parents from the eight families lost a total of 189 pounds, dropped total cholesterol by 13.4 percent and shrank their waist circumference an average of 4.7 percent.
Including the children, the families also recorded 26,937 minutes of exercise and 2,310 servings of fruits and vegetables.
Based on a combination of health outcomes and participation grades, counselors awarded the final prize — a year's worth of passes to Boondocks Food & Fun — to the Pitcher family.
The hardest part, Taylor Pitcher said, was cutting screen time to an hour a day. But in doing so, the kids discovered a new love for biking, scootering and jumping rope, he said.
And by cutting down portion sizes, Pitcher was able to drop one blood pressure medication.
Both he and his wife have noticed obvious physical and mental health improvements as well, he said.
"We knew whether we won the final prize or not that we were going to walk away winners," Pitcher said.
