Healthier Tennessee Launches "Streaks for Small Starts" App

Free app helps users create healthy habits through simple, daily steps

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Governor's Foundation for Health and Wellness, through its Healthier Tennessee initiative, released "Streaks for Small Starts," a new iPhone app to help Tennesseans get an easier start on the path to healthy living.

"Finding the time and the ways to live healthier can be overwhelming, but the Streaks for Small Starts app makes it doable," Governor's Foundation for Health and Wellness CEO Rick Johnson said. "It can help you take small steps daily and turn them into solid streaks of success."

Streaks for Small Starts builds upon Healthier Tennessee's innovative Small Starts tools, currently available at www.HealthierTN.com. The app was developed to make it even easier to access the Small Starts tools on the go, track progress, and be reminded and motivated.

Users can choose from nearly 50 small, daily health actions or challenges that encourage physical activity, healthy eating, and tobacco cessation. They can track their activities and how often they complete them, choose to receive daily reminder messages, and connect with other users to share success and provide motivation.

Tennessee consistently ranks among the least healthy states in the nation. Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure are at near epidemic levels, the rate of obesity has risen from 10 percent to almost 34 percent since 1988, only three states have higher rates of tobacco use, and our children now have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

The Foundation's Healthier Tennessee initiative is offering free, easily accessible ways for Tennesseans to start being more active, eating healthier, and not using tobacco. Available at www.HealthierTN.com, the Small Starts tools can be used by individuals, workplaces and faith congregations.

About the Governor's Foundation for Health and Wellness

The Governor's Foundation for Health and Wellness is a non-profit corporation dedicated to enabling and encouraging Tennesseans to lead healthier lives. Based in Nashville, the Foundation brings together a statewide coalition of employers, health insurers, hospital systems, local governments, school systems and healthcare-focused foundations and community organizations to effect positive, measurable change. The Foundation's Healthier Tennessee initiative strives to increase the number of Tennesseans who are physically active for at least 30 minutes five times a week, promote a healthy diet, and reduce the number of people who use tobacco.

About Baptist Memorial Health Care

One of the nation's largest not-for-profit health care systems, Baptist Memorial Health Care offers a full continuum of care to communities throughout the Mid-South. In 2012, Baptist was ranked No. 2 among large employers and No. 23 overall nationally in Modern Healthcare magazine's top 100 "Best Places to Work in Healthcare." The Baptist system, which consistently ranks among the top integrated health care networks in the nation, comprises 14 affiliate hospitals in West Tennessee, North Mississippi and East Arkansas; more than 4,000 affiliated physicians; Baptist Medical Group, a multispecialty physician group with more than 500 doctors; home, hospice and psychiatric care; minor medical centers and clinics; a network of surgery, rehabilitation and other outpatient centers; and an education system highlighted by the Baptist College of Health Sciences. The Baptist system employs more than 14,000 people, and in fiscal year 2012, contributed $229 million in community benefit to the areas it serves. According to the Sparks Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Memphis, Baptist Memorial Health Care's annual economic impact is estimated at more than $2.6 billion.