Rez HOPE, Cherokee based recovery nonprofit is partnering with Shift Wellness and Performance Center in Bryson City for a New Year’s challenge, coined Shift Stick With It Wellness Challenge.
The idea is a collaborative one between RezHOPE founder Kallup McCoy and Robin Duncan, who owns Shift.
The program, open to all local residents, isn’t for the daunted or easily defeated.
The program will kick-off with an orientation on Saturday, Jan. 4.
Participants will begin by making a $250 commitment to lose 10 pounds over the next 6 weeks.
Included in this is $75 for membership to Shift and entrance to classes and programs. The remaining $175 is where much of the personal challenge comes in.
If you complete the challenge, you get the $175 back and can keep it or donate it.
If you don’t hit your goals, you lose the money and it gets donated to three charities: Rez Hope, the Bryson City food pantry and Sweet Dreams emergency shelter.
“We’re trying to build community and encourage people to come out and be a part of it there will be a social media campaign as well,” McCoy said.
“We want to get people to stick with their resolutions because so many people make them and they don’t carry them out.”
This isn’t the first time McCoy is encouraging people to get involved in a program to live a healthier and more nutritious lifestyle.
Last year, he co hosted The Active Sober Movement Day 1 Event, which was held in collaboration with Spirtual Adrenaline founder Tom Shanahn and Bryson City’s CrossFit 2232.
Living a physically active and healthy lifestyle has played a big role in McCoy’s life in recent years.
As a person in long-term recovery from substance misuse, McCoy has found strength and increased energy to do community organizing and connect with people through living healthier.
McCoy ran a half Iron Man not long after he was spiritually saved while he was incarcerated.
Since then, he gained attention in 2018 for running the Trail of Tears across the country and fundraising for RezHOPE with a goal of opening a men’s recovery house in Cherokee.
Those who want to take part in the Shift Stick With It Wellness Challenge don’t need to be super athletes to be successful, and don’t have to start with big goals like taking part in an Iron Man.
The plan is to watch what you eat, increase your activity level and lose weight.
For more information, call at 488-3789 or visit Shift Wellness Center located at 80 Songbird Forest Road, Bryson City.
To learn more or get involved with Rez HOPE, find them on Facebook.