By Kelsie Bowman

These days, maintaining good health seems elusive.

Work, family, busy mornings and nights — life gets in the way of making it to the gym or even eating a balanced meal. It's easier, and sometimes even justifiable, to throw in the towel on our own fitness and wellbeing. We'll get to it someday, we say, but right now it's just too hard.

But five Chattanooga locals have decided that the time to make a change for the better is now, and though it may be hard, they're up for the challenge.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press is introducing the Erlanger Live Fit Challenge in which five Chattanoogans team up with five local gyms to compete for prizes, bragging rights and, ultimately, healthier lives over the next seven months.

More than 100 people applied for the challenge, says CTFP Health and Safety Coordinator Sarah Bass. The Live Fit committee then narrowed the competition down to 25 for personal interviews. After that, the contestants were narrowed down to only 10, at which point each of the five gyms got a chance to choose between two candidates.

Bass, who's at the helm of the Live Fit Challenge, says the challenge actually originated with the CTFP's employees. "We did the same thing here," she says. "One employee lost close to 200 pounds and 3.5 feet in circumference. Several lost close to 100 pounds. When we saw this change take place in our company, we saw an opportunity to take this to our community."

Each contestant has promised to attend at least 12 sessions a month with their personal trainer. They have to change their lifestyle, everything from their activity level to their eating habits, says Bass.

Every seven weeks, the five contestants will check in with an Erlanger physician, who will note their weight, circumference at 12 points on their bodies, blood pressure and body fat percentage as it changes over the course of the seven months.

With each check-in comes an opportunity to earn points, explains Bass. For example, the contestant who loses the most weight by the first checkpoint will get a certain number of points. The person who loses the second most will get slightly fewer points, and so on. It works the same way for all three other categories, Bass says.

The winner will be the contestant who amasses the most points by the end of the seven-month challenge. The winner receives a prize package worth $500. The winning gym will receive an advertising prize package, says Bass.

And though all five contestants are in it to win it, they are still getting a lot of value out of participating in the challenge itself, including free personal training and lots of gear from sponsors. New Balance Chattanooga, for example, is outfitting each contestant with shoes, clothing and even a fitness watch.

"We're trying to make sure we are taking care of our community and that we all stay well-informed about health," Bass says. "Having our readers read about real people in their community that are doing these life-changing programs, they'll realize they can do it too."