By Scott L. Miley, Herald Bulletin Special Projects Editor
January 09, 2009 08:20 pm
—
Brad Cummings is a champion in losing weight.
Cummings, 43, participated in an autumn YMCA Weight-Loss Challenge sponsored by the local club, 28 W. 12th St.
He and at least 20 people weighed in every Saturday for 10 weeks. In between check-ins, they watched their diet, toned up with exercise and, primarily, changed their lifestyles.
Cummings shed 21 pounds from his starting weight of 244 during the first challenge and is down to 196. He was the top “loser.”
After winning his challenge and a load of prizes through Mounds Mall and General Nutrition Center, Cummings has stayed with the program.
“I’m doing exactly what I did when I won the contest,” he says.
His routine:
— Riding a bike for about an hour outdoors four to five days a week, though he planned to shift to an indoor gym for the winter
— Working out two or three days a week with weights in his home
— Performing calisthenics and crunches at home
— Having a daily calorie intake of between 1,400 to 1,600 calories
Like so many well-intentioned people, Cummings had wanted to lose weight for a long time. Then the Y came along.
“It gave me an incentive to actually start a program and got me on the right track of what to do and what not to do,” Cummings said. “The information was invaluable that I got from everybody there.”
Handing out the information is Angela Smith, the Y’s wellness and fitness director, who encouraged Cummings to increase his cycling time by 30 minutes.
Her work is to try to get people to change to be healthier.
“Change your diet, change your exercise program, you’ve got to change something over what you’re doing, and you’re going to have to change it several days in a row,” Smith said.
The top three things people like about the program are information, motivation and group support, Smith said. Nutrition and exercise information are handed out at the weekly weigh-ins.
“Seeing your name in the list of top five weight losers, stepping on the scale and hearing, ‘Great job, you lost 3 pounds this week,’ and hearing the ‘you can do it’ pep talk each week keep people motivated,” Smith said.
“Group support, knowing that you are not the only one struggling to lose weight and having people who understand when it has been a bad week or to celebrate with you when it has been a very good week is very helpful.”
Others have caught on to the message. A recent challenge drew more than 80 enrollees. Another challenge begins in early January.
Besides Cummings, a recent champ was Carl Bowen, a former Army man who hasn’t let his 65-year-old body go out of shape, though it came close when he weighed in at 214 pounds. He returned to the basics, with calisthenics, lifting weights and playing tennis. He also ran laps in his Anderson home basement; it’s large enough that he could run circles one way for 15 minutes and switch direction for another 15. He dropped to 165 and won the Y’s challenge that ended in November.
He said, “This time I’ll keep it off. I learned my lesson. You’ve got to watch yourself closely or you start putting it back on slowly or surely.”
Among others, Toby Gibson got out of the Army 12 years ago and gained 60 pounds. With hopes of losing half of those new pounds, the 39-year-old Gibson bumped his weight down to 200.
“I tried to go with less proteins,” said Gibson, owner of Mechanical Insulation LLC in Pendleton. “Instead of tearing into snacks, I’m doing away with those. Instead of two full helpings, I’ll go with three-quarters or half a portion.”
Lisa Sowers and her husband, Mike, have memorized their meal options: turkey burgers, chicken, cottage cheese. They may eat up to six times a day, but they stick to small amounts.
“Basically, we’ve been eating the same thing every day,” said Sowers, who is taking Ivy Tech courses to become a dental assistant. “We’re kind of tired of it, but when you see the pounds coming off, you stick with it.”
At 33, she has lost 12 pounds and her husband about 20.
“I think the program makes you realize if you watch what you eat, you can lose weight,” she said.
Early gym workouts
Mark Alexander hits the gym about 5 a.m. on his way to work as a senior engineer at Allison Transmission in Indianapolis. The Anderson resident had lost about 4 pounds a week and planned to drop a total of 50 pounds.
“I’ve changed the way I was eating, drastic changes,” he said. “One thing Angie Smith said from the very beginning really struck me. ... It was to stress health and not weight loss. And I had to make that decision early on to weight train. I wasn’t weight training. When I first started out I could not do a squat with weight on my back. I was incredibly weak. Now I don’t have the problems with mobility that I had before all this started.”
In his new regimen, he spends an hour of exercise daily, lifting weights twice a week and working on a stair-climbing machine. He also walks outdoors most evenings.
But one thing not in his regimen, for which he apologizes, are certain luxury foods. He still downs an occasional Dairy Queen Blizzard or a small steak and sweet potato at Texas Roadhouse.
And he loves an apple caramel pancake at Bob Evans. “It’s incredible.”
He added, “I might be pushing what she said a little bit and she might not appreciate it, but I varied my calories (and) I eat higher fiber,” he said, while munching on almonds.
The Rev. Terry Nennich, the 32-year-old pastor at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, had tried to lose weight before.
Under the Y program, he lost 47 pounds, was hit by a bad cold, gained back five pounds, and was ready to drop a total of 50 by the final weigh-in.
At 360 pounds, Nennich got the diet bug again during a health weekend at his church, which came just as the YMCA program was kicking off. Talk about motivation: Nennich lost 17 pounds the first week. The whole congregation soon knew about it.
He’s focusing now on a vegetarian-style diet with low sodium and low fat. He drinks water instead of pop and healthier fruit juices.
“I didn’t have anything structured,” he acknowledged. “Now I use a treadmill and go to lift, averaging three or four times a week.
“My lifelong commitment is not just a 10-week program. If you don’t make permanent changes, you’ll be right back where you started from. And I certainly know that.”
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Weight-loss tips
Get it on paper
Whether setting your first goals, tracking daily exercise or journaling daily food intake, writing things down crystallizes your ideas and paints an accurate picture of real life. If you lie to yourself in your journal, you are lying to yourself in life, so be honest. Sometimes people are simply unaware of what they are truly eating and how little exercise they are really getting. Writing it down honestly helps you become more aware of bad habits.
Set realistic goals
You did not gain the weight overnight, and you are not going to take it off overnight. Expect to lose ½ to 2 pounds per week. If you have more than 20 pounds to lose, break it down into smaller goals: “I want to lose 10 pounds this month.” When you reach that goal, celebrate your achievement.
Focus on everyday habits
The building blocks of a healthy lifestyle are forged in the smallest of actions you take every day and every week. Healthy
choices can become as natural as brushing your teeth or locking the front door. Build one habit, one action at a time. Today I will drink one less soda and one more glass of water. Tomorrow I will take the stairs, not the elevator.
Never stop learning
A healthy lifestyle is a process, a journey more than a destination. You can always learn more about nutrition, fitness and even yourself that can help you be just a little bit better tomorrow. Go online, visit your local library, or check out the local fitness facility to get information on exercise and nutrition.
Knowledge is power.
Allow for setbacks Accept the fact right now that you will make mistakes, and that it can be a positive thing. We are usually harder on ourselves than we are on anyone else we know. Be your own No. 1 fan. That means being supportive
(instead of critical) when you stumble, and enjoying your wins (rather than ignoring your accomplishments) when you
succeed.
— Source: Angela Smith, fitness/wellness
Carl Bowen, an Army veteran, is an avid runner who
takes his workout indoors during winter months.
Above: Bowen jogs in the basement of his home.
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