Lives changing for the better on local football field - MSNewsNow.com - Jackson, MS

Lives changing for the better on local football field

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By Jewell Hillery - bio | email

Lives are changing one morning at a time on the Madison Central High School football field. While there's no football taking place in the morning, there's certainly lots of physical activity going on.

Monday marks the start of the sixth week of the eight week Paul Lacoste "Fit 4 Parents and Students" fitness boot camp. In just five weeks, participant Donald Gardner has seen some overwhelming results. He says, "I've lost 18 pounds and I've stopped smoking."

Gardner's eleven year-old daughter Kailyn works out with her dad. Kailyn who is already in good shape says she's lost some weight and toned up while working out. But she says that's not what's most important to her.

"I'm out here to support my dad and I don't get to do a lot of things with him, so my mom thought this would be a good bonding process, so I'm just cheering him on," says Kailyn.

Through hard work and determination, 25 of the 40 participants in the boot camp have already lost weight in the double digits. Part of that weight loss can be attributed to exercises like the one where women are required to run with a 25 pound weight in their hand and the men are required to run with a 45 pound weight.

We met mother-daughter duo LaShanda Vance and her daughter Alexandria Colbert five weeks ago. So far, the ladies have lost nearly 20 pounds combined.

Vance says, "I never, never, never thought we would continue this, but every morning it just gets easier to get up and come on out here."

"It's exciting and just makes me want to raise my goal up," says Colbert.

Gardner's goal is to lose 50 pounds total, and he thinks he can do it with his daughter by his side.

"My inspiration is my children because they are what I get up and look forward to everyday," says Gardner.

"Fit for parents and students" wraps up in a few weeks. So far, the group combined has lost a total of six percent of their body weight. Paul Lacoste's third run of his "Fit 4 Change" boot camp starts up in January. That boot camp is geared for lawmakers and state employees.

Copyright 2011 WLBT. All rights reserved.

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