Jantell Cansler feels like a winner while she sheds pounds.
Cansler is among 40 Desert View High School employees taking part in a weight-loss challenge. She's lost 10 pounds by walking 25 miles a week, working out to an exercise video twice a week and eating healthy. She's five weeks into the challenge and hopes to lose 80 pounds.
"My students have been very supportive," said the 40-year-old English teacher.
Cansler, 40, joined 900 participants Wednesday at a health fair at Desert View hosted by HealthCorps, a nationally based health education and mentoring program focused on nutrition, fitness and mental strength.
Desert View is among 41 high schools in 11 states taking part in the program. In the gymnasium, while hip-hop and techno tunes lured teens to burn calories by dancing, others participated in fitness games and relay races to promote cardiovascular exercise. They sampled healthy food, including apples and low-calorie guacamole and burritos.
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"We are trying to make exercise fun and show others that it can be great and not boring," said Lupita Vasquez, 15, who teaches fitness to her peers and students in middle school.
Luis Barbosa, 16, who was overseeing a fitness station, said students will be able to join after-school clubs that offer mountain biking, yoga, a fitness class taught by a personal trainer, basketball, soccer and baseball.
For the past 10 years, more than $10 million in federal grants has been pumped into nutrition and fitness programs in elementary and middle schools in the Sunnyside Unified School District. In addition, Sunnyside is among 15 school districts that will benefit from a recent $15.7 million grant to Pima County to control and prevent childhood obesity.
Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at 573-4104 or cduarte@azstarnet.com
