As Susan and thousands of other participants have learned, Shape Up RI is more than just a weight-loss and exercise program. It is a grassroots community organization that calls upon Rhode Islanders of all fitness levels to come together and work together in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle.

The idea behind our program is simple: Teamwork and support from our social networks, combined with a dose of friendly competition, can provide a potent prescription for achieving long-lasting behavior change.

Excited by this new concept and encouraged by her doctor, Susan logged on to our Web site and took a chance by joining a team of people she had never met from a nearby town. And it worked. Over the next four months, Susan and her teammates supported each other as they worked hard to meet their personal fitness goals. Because of conflicting schedules, her team members never met in person. Instead, they communicated online daily, and Susan looked forward to tracking their success and sharing fitness ideas with her newfound health partners on the Shape Up RI Web site.

While she admits hitting plateaus and facing periods of extreme frustration during the three-month program, she reports that the support of her teammates propelled her forward. As their friendships grew stronger, Susan found herself driven to succeed by a desire to make her companions proud.