A self-proclaimed health nut, Mark Jeffreys, brand manager of Nice and Easy of North America through Procter and Gamble, started brainstorming ideas of how he could create a healthier workplace for P&G. As the ideas started rolling, he realized that he could expand beyond his company and take it to the entire city.

"I thought, 'Wait a second. Why are we doing this alone? There's probably a better way to do this — and do it bigger,' " Jeffreys says. And that's how Go Vibrant was born.

Go Vibrant is a partnership of more than 25 organizations and companies geared toward creating a healthier Cincinnati. Now, the movement includes such big names as P&G, Kroger, Macy's and United Way.The foundation of the organization is in the idea that a healthy lifestyle isn't always the easier choice, so Go Vibrant makes it its mission to "make healthy living easier." "We're not targeting the health and fitness nut. We're not targeting the couch potato. We're targeting somebody we call 'ready and willing but something gets in the way,' " Jeffreys says.

By making a healthy lifestyle more easily attainable, Jeffreys and the rest of the Go Vibrant team are hoping to make the Queen City one of the healthiest in the country. "We're either at the bottom of the list or midway on the list, depending on rankings of healthy cities," Jeffreys says. "So the vision is within 10 years, we want to be a top 10 healthy city."

To make the magic happen, Go Vibrant will work to provide environmental changes like walking paths, bike paths and healthier eating options around town. Beyond the physical changes, the organization is working to promote a healthy culture through group events like their June 21 kick-off event in Fountain Square.

One of their events is a city-wide competition called "10 Better in 10." For the competition, teams of three to four people commit to a 10-week challenge. Individual teams come up with a team name and their own challenge. "It could be losing 10 pounds or it could be walking 10 minutes, or it could be eating 10 new healthy recipes," Jeffreys says.

The competition runs through Oct. 10 (at 10:10 a.m.), when the teams will post videos to YouTube about their experience. Cincinnatians then will vote on the team that had the most fun and the most success.

For more information about "10 Better in 10" or Go Vibrant in general, visit GoVibrant.org.

PHOTO CREDITS
Photo courtesy of Mark Jeffreys 

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