SAN ANTONIO -- How would you like to get some help shedding pounds at the same place you buy your food? That’s the premise behind a new weight loss program conveniently located in the grocery store.
Three San Antonio HEB stores now have RediClinics on site. As part of a new service, you can get weight loss guidance and shop for healthy food all at the same place.
Ronnie Ridge, 30, of Converse is a big loser and he likes it that way. Since he left high school a dozen years ago, his weight had slowly been creeping up until he tipped the scales at 318. That’s a lot of pounds on his 6’3” frame.
“I wasn’t working out as much,” Ridge said. “I stopped working out. I wasn’t doing high school athletics. I went to college. I just stopped watching what I was eating.”
Ridge turned to a unique new program called Weigh Forward for help. It’s a medically-supervised weight loss program in a RediClinics at several HEB grocery stores.
“Putting this right where the rubber hits the road, giving people advice about how to choose better food in the place where they’re choosing food, I think actually is fantastic,” commented Weigh Forward medical director Dr. David Katz. “It makes it real. It makes it hands on. It puts the relevant issue right at your fingertips.”
Weigh Forward patients get weekly meal plans with shopping lists of items they can purchase right there in the story. The program includes blood testing for important health makers and blood pressure checks to track progress.
“We’re looking at 1 ½ to 2 pounds a week,” Katz explained. “And over ten weeks, that means about 20 pounds of weight loss for most people. That’s just what we’re seeing.”
So far, so good for Ridge. He has dropped 25 pounds. “240 is my ultimate goal,” he added.
The ten-week Weigh Forward program costs $500. That fee includes weekly visits and the cost of the blood testing.
