High-Tech Diet

We use technology for all sorts of things these days from keeping up with friends to finding directions.  A new weight management plan in KELOLAND also is using some high-tech gadgets to help people lose pounds.

One look at Wendy Lampe's house and you can tell her grandchildren hold a special place in her heart. She wants to keep up with her grandsons. That's one of the reasons she's been trying to lose weight for several years.

"I had tried the old, conventional way.  Tried to be good with what I ate, worked out and wasn't very successful and was getting very frustrated," Lampe said.

Her newest weight-loss plan is the Profile by Sanford. Participants get a personalized, meal-replacement plan with an emphasis on high protein and low carbs, along with an exercise program from a health coach.

"We have over 80 different food products and different protocols that members will go on. Some will be on just a balanced approach, which is not that aggressive of weight loss. Some are on what we call reboot, where someone gets a little more aggressive," Sanford Vice President of Marketing Mark Elliott said.

Participants monitor their weight loss through a digital scale, pedometer and tape measure.  The high-tech devices record a person's data.  Then that information is transmitted to the health coach.

Most of the plan's clients currently live in Sioux Falls, but Elliott believes because of the high-tech gadgets, people around the world will soon participate.

"Those people who are out of state can step on their digital scale. That transmits to their profile web page, and we can have coaches in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that can actually communicate with these people who are out of town," Elliott said.

Lampe gives the diet a lot of credit for her weight loss. So far, she's lost 20 pounds and hopes to lose seven more. And as for this 57-year-old keeping up with her five grandsons?

"Running before was hard. Now when they ride their bikes, I can jog and keep up. Pushing them in strollers, bending down and sitting on the floor and getting up.  All those things with 20 extra pounds, you just can't do it as well," Lampe said.

To become a member, it costs $295 a year, unless you're a Sanford employee or a member of the Sanford Health Plan.  Then it's $150 a year.

That includes coaching and the digital scale, but does not include food, the digital tape measure or the pedometer.