Syndicated radio host Steve Harvey says there’ll be room for everyone wanting to join him Friday as he hosts “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” live at Cobo Conference Center to celebrate the 50 Million Pound Challenge’s first anniversary.
Dr. Ian Smith, spokesperson for the 50 Million Pound Challenge and VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club” expert, will join Harvey with show co-hosts Nephew Tommy, Carla and Shirley. R&B singer Eric Benet will perform.
Harvey, who visited Detroit July 14 to kick-off the national weight-loss initiative locally, says he has made weight loss a key issue on his show.
“I’m trying to deal with it, not only for myself, but for a lot of people in our community,” the comedian said Sunday. “You can make all the money you want, but if you don’t take care of your health, you will spend all the money you have trying to get healthy.”
Harvey refers to his own weight loss since the challenge began April 7, 2007.
“I lost 23 pounds, but I lost a lot more fat,” he says. Harvey shed pounds by eliminating refined sugar, white bread, pasta, white rice and potatoes, and by working out. Since losing weight, he avoids carbs after 2 p.m. The Challenge aims to reach its goal by encouraging people to get fit, lose weight and turn back the epidemic of weight-related diseases threatening half of all Americans. African Americans have been hard hit by those diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
“We are losing too many people to health issues when it’s not even necessary,” Harvey says. “We want to eat pork chops, fried foods and gizzards. Come on, man. Nobody eats that stuff but us. I wish I could do more to help, but we’ve set a lofty goal.”
As of April 7, Detroiters ranked six nationally for the 8,965 registered at www.50millionpounds.com, challenge officials report. Together, they lost more than 43,000 pounds and formed 160 weight-loss teams. Nationally, nearly 500,000 people have participated, losing more than 2 million pounds. While those numbers are impressive, Smith says there’s still a long way to go to reach the 50-million pound goal.

detnews.com