Entire Family Finds Food and Fitness Fun with Healthyroads

SAN DIEGO (October 3, 2007) – The innovative Healthyroads eXtremeFUN™ Weight Management Program for Children and Teens has helped an entire family in Liverpool, Pennsylvania lose weight and lower their risk of obesity and heart disease. The referral-based eXtremeFUN program is the creation of Healthyroads, Inc., a subsidiary of American Specialty Health (ASH), a premier national personal health improvement organization.

Tracy Aucker—along with her nine-year-old daughter Lynne—joined the eXtremeFUN program in 2006. Lynne’s school and doctor both suggested that Tracy look for a good program to help her daughter lose weight. And because the Healthyroads program is offered at no cost by her employer, Tracy had a convenient and effective way to improve her daughter’s health.

Tracy talked to a Healthyroads Coach™ about Lynne’s (and the family’s) lifestyle habits and about ways to improve them. Since beginning the program, Tracy has learned how to work healthy foods such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables into family meals. Tracy and Lynne also use the program manual to learn how to work physical activity into their lives in a fun way. Tracy knew that these lifestyle changes were important, but she admits that she didn’t understand how it all fit together until her family started doing them.

Since Tracy and Lynne enrolled in the program six months ago, the whole family has benefited. Tracy lost five pounds, Lynne lost 10, and Lynne’s dad lost 15 pounds. Even Lynne’s friends are commenting on her weight loss. Because there is a history of heart disease in the Aucker family, Tracy feels the weight loss is even more critical. But the best part, according to Tracy, is that the program is fun. The family feels like a team as they plan meals and activities that will help make their lives healthier.

“We just talk more about what we’re eating and what we want to eat,” says Tracy. “We talk more about what we’re going to do the next night for our exercise—whether it’s just dancing while we’re doing the dishes, setting up an obstacle course…we just talk more about the things we’re going to do instead of everybody coming home from work and school, you sit down and eat, you do your homework, and you do your work and you go to bed.”

“The personalized interventions and family participation that make up the eXtremeFUN program are integral in helping children and teens address the issues, challenges, and cultural values that often drive childhood obesity,” said ASH chairman, president, and chief executive officer George DeVries. “We are extremely happy with the way families—not just individuals—are connecting and benefiting from our programs.”

Other Healthyroads programs for kids include the eXtremeLIVING™ personal health improvement series and the eXtremeQUIT™ teen tobacco cessation program.

American Specialty Health Incorporated is one of the nation’s premier personal health improvement organizations, providing specialty benefit programs, fitness programs, health coaching and incentives, Internet solutions, and worksite wellness programs to health plans, insurance carriers, employer groups, and trust funds nationwide.

Based in San Diego, ASH has over 600 employees and covers more than 13.4 million members in specialty benefit, fitness, and coaching programs. For more information, visit ASH online at ASHCompanies.com or call 800.848.3555.