July 10, 2008: Vol. 31, No. 27
Past issues
The Paper in print
RSS feeds
Print edition (PDF)
Email Alerts- The current issue
- Neighborhood Map
- Bay Ridge
- Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
- Brooklyn Heights
- Downtown, DUMBO
- Carroll Gardens
- Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
- Fort Greene
- Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
- North Brooklyn
- Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
- Park Slope
- Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
- GO Brooklyn
- Brooklyn Cyclones
- Not Just Nets
- Police Blotter
- Perspective
- Parenting
- Politics
- Transit
- Podcasts
- The Brooklyn Bride
- Brooklyn Boom
- Classifieds
- Merchant news
- About The Paper
- RSS Feeds
-
‘Lighten up’ still on diet — but look what it did for this man!
for The Brooklyn Paper
Joseph Gannascoli (who played Vito on “The Sopranos,” trades weight-loss tips with Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Gerald Davis, who lost nearly 400 pounds, at the “Lighten Up, Brooklyn” kickoff on Tuesday.
Similar stories
Print this story
digg
del.icio.us“Lighten Up, Brooklyn” has slimmed down further from its already reduced heft of last year — but Borough President (and Weight-Watcher-in-Chief) Markowitz said the two park walks he’ll lead this weekend are more than enough to get people to finally make good on those New Years resolutions.
When the anti-obesity program was unveiled to much ballyhoo in 2002, it included discounts at local gyms, sponsored weight-loss classes and free weigh-in stations across Brooklyn to track the borough’s lost flab.
But last year, Markowitz cut the program to just seven park walks led by himself and fitness trainers. This year, the number of walks is down to two.
Markowitz said that two walks are enough because the goal of “Lighten Up, Brooklyn” is simply to “encourage people to walk every week — to get into a walking regimen.”
His spokesman, Mark Zustovich, added: “It’s not designed to hold people’s hands as they go through the entire process.”
While “Lighten Up, Brooklyn” has been greatly reduced in scope since its inception, it still includes its most-important feature: the ability for would-be weight-watchers to call Borough Hall for personal assistance.
Such a service, in fact, may have saved the life of morbidly obese Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Gerald Davis, who weighed 718 pounds six years ago.
At the time, Davis had been a shut-in for more than two years — but when he saw Markowitz’s “Lighten Up” campaign on TV, he made the call. The office hooked him up with an in-patient weight-loss program, and he ended up losing 372 pounds.
“That number saved my life,” said Davis, who broke down in tears at Markowitz’s press conference on Tuesday as he told about his life in his heavier days.
“Lighten Up, Brooklyn” walks will be held on Saturday, July 12 at 10 am in Betsy Head Park (Strauss Street and Dumont Avenue in Brownsville), and on Sunday, July 13 at 10 am in Prospect Park (enter at Grand Army Plaza). For info or to get personal help with the battle of the bulge, call Borough Hall at (718) 802-3700.
©2008 The Brooklyn Paper
Enter your comment below
By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:
You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.
