Western Cape Entrepreneurs launch Waist change Initiative “10 cm to better health”  

Neels Stander and Hansie Louw launched their Western Cape “10 cm to better health” in Cape Town on Wednesday 1 October 1014.

The two entrepreneurs challenge one million people from Western Cape to change their Waist to height ratio. Just start with 10 cm first, is what they say.

Riaan Moll is the first competitor who has signed up for this challenge. He has a waistline of 114 cm and his height is 187 cm. His waist to height ratio is almost 61%. He will attempt to reduce his waist by 13 cm in the days to 29 October.  If he is successful in his effort the ratio will be 54% which is still not the desired 50% or below, but he would have made a huge change.

What prompted Stander and Louw to launch this project? Louw has been working (and living for a period of 18 months) in Khayelitsha for a period of about 8 years already. He said, ”I  have met people with many different health problems, ranging from inability to walk with ease to  high blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems. They all could drastically improve their quality of life by losing (in most cases) or gaining a few centimeters around the waist. In Khayelitsha you could easily talk to someone about losing some fat around the belly as opposed to talking about weight loss. We challenge everybody in the Western Cape to calculate their waist to height ratio (Wthr) and make an effort to adjust it by 10 cm or more where required.”

Stander is the owner of Cape Town Ozone Health at Tygervalley. He sees people on a regular basis coming for ozone treatment to improve their health and quality of life. Many of the customers here are overwaist. Stander recommends, “Measure your waist relative to height. If this measurement is over 50% you need to make adjustments.  Good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle with exercise is what will assist you to achieve this”.

South Africa was indicated as number three on the obesity list according to research by the WHO based on BMI (body mass index).  According to further research an amount of 72% of people from Cape Town is overweight.  Although BMI  is a measure to use, Dr Margaret Ashwell, OBE, Phd started to use the measurement of waist to height as a better indicator of health risks. She devised the Ashwell® Shape Chart, which shows how waist-to-height ratio (a proxy for abdominal obesity) can predict health risk. According to the chart that she developed we could plot an individual.

Louw said, “It is easier to motivate and teach a person how to reduce the waist line than it is to lose weight in the first instance. That is why we are launching the ‘10 cm to better health campaign’. Often when you exercise and eat more protein your weight will go up although your waist may in fact reduce. If we focus on the scale, we will not appreciate the significant change. We want to motivate 1 million people in the Western Cape to adjust their waist by 10 cm. Plot yourself on the graph. If you need to reduce, do that. If you need to increase your measurement change your habits to do that.”

 Riaan Moll is the first contestant for his project. Members of the public is welcome to register for this challenge. Stander and Louw have a friendly bet to see if their first participant will reach his goal to lose 13 cm in 28 days

Contact:

Hansie Louw 021 946 3717 / 082 776 5462 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Neels Stander 021 914 6109 / 083 667 3977 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Cape Town Ozone Health,
Shop 145,
Tygervalley,
Banking Mall.