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Apple Valley Doctor is Health Coach for Man Living at Mall of America

The man behind the glass at the Mall of America is promoting a healthy lifestyle as part of the Blue Shield and Blue Cross of Minnesota "Do" campaign, and Apple Valley resident Dr. Marc Manley is coaching him every step of the way.

Dr. Marc Manley is used to promoting healthy lifestyle choices among Minnesota residents. But coaching a man living out of a glass apartment in the Mall of America is new territory.

For the past few weeks, the Apple Valley resident has been the primary health care professional working with the man behind the glass at the mall, whose name is Scott.

Scott is the 45-year-old star of the “Human Do.ing” project, the latest marketing campaign from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and part of the “Do” campaign that has been promoting healthy lifestyles for years.

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According to a recent study by Blue Cross and the Minnesota Department of Health, more than 60 percent of Minnesota adults are obese or overweight. This social experiment is an unorthodox marketing campaign aimed at reducing this statistic.

“This is an attempt to show people that a regular person can actually make the changes in his life that lead to better weight and better health,” said Manley, the chief prevention officer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. “We are showing people that someone can change their life, their exercise habits and their diet and be successful at it. A lot of people don’t believe that they can do this so we want to demonstrate that.”

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Scott, who has chose to keep his last name private for security reasons, is living for a month out of a glass apartment that is poised for temptation next to a cookie shop and an ice cream stand near the Nickelodeon Universe theme park at the mall.

“I really do live out of this apartment 24-7,” Scott said. “People think I’m locked in here … but that’s just not what this is designed to be. I live my life from here but I go on walks, do my own grocery shopping and go out to yoga class and other activities … and I do sleep here.”

Scott said he had high cholesterol and was around 40 pounds overweight when he started the project. His inspiration and drive to change comes from the outpouring of support he has seen by letting mall shoppers watch nearly his every move, from his meal choices to his exercise sessions—he is active three to five times a day.

Online viewers can peer in with the webcams and video blog he keeps daily, and Scott is nearing 4,000 fans on Facebook. More than 1,000 people have voted on what daily activities he should partake in.

Manley, along with a nutritionist and a fitness expert, check in regularly with Scott to oversee all aspects of his routine. They have private consultations and meet routinely to coordinate diet suggestions, but for the most part, Manley said he can do a lot of the work from the computer and through social networking.

“It’s interesting because the majority of our interactions are right on Facebook,” Manley said. “I try to check in and see what’s going on with him; it’s sort of tele-medicine.”

During the NCAA men's basketball tournament, Scott had planned to meet with Manley to go over healthy snack options for a March Madness party he planned to host.

“I created a list and we're going to review that ... so I’m kind of excited,” he said. 

Scott said he used to be a “carb craver,” but the way he feels when he eats healthy has made it easy for him to want to continue to consume food by looking at it as fuel and not a pasttime.

“I was really worried the first few days because he really hadn’t exercised that much and looked pretty tired, but he managed to pace himself and has really become a model eater,” Manley said about Scott's progress.

People have been coming from as far as North Dakota and Wisconsin to walk with Scott, and the stories and support have struck a chord.

“I knew these people would be watching me, but I didn’t realize how far it would go and how many people would be willing to share their stories,” Scott said. “I was really surprised and grateful to discover how quickly I felt that what I was doing went beyond the glass.”

Competitions like “The Biggest Loser" TV show gauge success by measuring weight loss during the course of the show. Scott said he wants to lose weight, but he isn’t going to weigh himself until the end of the project.

He said he won’t measure his success by the number of pounds he loses, and neither will Manley.

Manley said he'll view the success of the project when Scott moves back home with his wife, Julie, and their two dogs, and continues to adapt to a healthy lifestyle.

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