Why Black Butterflyz?

Have you ever looked at a situation and thought that something different should be done? Have you ever thought that the current "system" was broken and that YOU just might have the solution? Black Butterflyz is that "something different" that has the potential to be "the solution."  

Let me lead with this...... Black Butterflyz is about meeting Black women where they are and helping them to get where they want to be. It is not about imposing an archaic BMI ranking. It is not about telling them to weigh a certain amount. It is not about telling them to look a certain way. Black Butterflyz is purely about improving health and wellbeing by increasing physical activity. #SizeHealthy!

An increase in physical activity will lead to the health improvements that are needed to address the health disparities that disportionatley impact the Black community.
We are:

• 60% more likely to be diabetic
• 40% more likely to die from breast cancer
• 40% more likely to die from a stroke
• 30% more likely to die from heart disease

If that isn't enough let's look at a deeper population and statement of need:

Topeka, Kansas was ranked as the eighth fattest city in the nation in 2012, according to the Gallup Healthways Polls. Three years later, Kansas was ranked as the seventh fattest state in the nation. In 2017, the University of Wisconsin’s Health Population Health Institute reported that Shawnee County—the third largest county in the state of Kansas and the home of the capital city, Topeka—dropped from position 51 to 65 in health rankings. No single group is to blame for these rankings. But with four out of five Black women being either overweight or obese (Schiller, Lucas, and Pereogy, 2013), that means 65,612 Black women are contributing to these state rankings. 


Even more significant than the state rankings is the state of Black women’s health. Sadly, only 34% of Black women achieve recommended physical activity levels, representing the lowest prevalence of any race and sex demographic group (Joseph, Aimsworth, and Dodgson, 2015). Physical activity health benefits range from a reduction in body fat, protection against certain chronic diseases associated with obesity, reduction of stress levels, and improved mental health. Physical inactivity, on the other hand, contributes to declining brain function, muscle shrinkage (atrophy), poor blood circulation, and back pain, among other things. The Lancet, one of the world’s oldest and best known weekly peer-reviewed general medical journals, reported that “physical inactivity should be described as a pandemic with far reaching health, economic, environmental and social consequences.” 

If that STILL isn't enough.......

​#IfNotMeWhoIfNotNowWhen