ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010080
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES STAFF WRITER
An estimated 11.4 million daily viewers watched NBC TV's "Today" show as Dr. Art Ulene mentored and monitored the weight loss and physical fitness progress of 183 volunteers in the Northern Virginia town of Berryville last month.
Fran Hart wasn't among them, though she and her staff have spent the last five months putting together a similar program for the City and County of Bedford.
"I believe in the idea of synchronousness, though ... that an idea can be out there floating around and be picked up by different people in different places," said Hart, who is director of the Bedford Department of Parks, Recreation and Cemeteries. "I think this is just an idea whose time has come."
"Bedford Get Fit In '96" got underway Saturday at Bedford Elementary School with approximately 80 people committed to participate and an estimated television audience of 106,000 viewers, thanks to news coverage by channels 10 and 13.
During the next nine months, Bedford extension agents, restaurants and businesses such as the YMCA, beauty and toning salons, karate studios, fitness trainers, counselors and hospitals will join Hart's department in an effort to improve the physical and mental shape of Bedford residents.
The program will be paid for by department funds, user fees and donations.
Various physical fitness programs and events will be offered in conjunction with coupons for free and discounted classes, trips and products; healthy menu items at area restaurants; a free cookbook and help with redesigning personal recipes and eating plans; cash incentives for reaching weight-loss goals; mental fitness programs; and make-overs to boost self-esteem and show how to look good as well as feel good.
"We took a look at our past successful programs and found that we'd had many requests for cooking and lifestyle classes," Hart said. "We're seeing more and more of a trend toward getting fit and staying healthy. I think a lot of it has to do with baby boomers starting to realize their mortality."
Kitty Warlick, definitely a nonboomer at 87, was among the 155 people who steadily trickled through Saturday's two-hour fair. Warlick, already a member of the department's Moonwalkers' walking club, demonstrated her form as she moved briskly among the vendors' tables around the school gym's perimeter. She said she hasn't walked much this year because of the weather, but plans to resume as soon as it gets warmer.
Joan Kernan hoped that the fair would pique her husband William's interest in a fitness program. She said they hoped to find some activities to supplement the exercise they'd be getting on their newly purchased Nordic Rider. William did eventually show interest in some tasty trail mix samples and sign up for golf classes.
"I've been playing for years, so I thought it was time I learned how," he joked.
Weight loss, an optional facet of Get Fit, was one of the fair's most popular draws. At one end of the gym, people lined up to take turns going into a big blue tent to be confidentially weighed and measured, to set weight-loss goals and perhaps to be paired with a "fitness friend" with whom to work as a co-support during the next nine months. At the gym's other end, Weight Watchers representative Susan DeMoss' popularity would have given the lonely Maytag repairman cause for envy.
Lois Miller, who spent a long time at the display, said she had decided to change her lifestyle, get fit and learn how to eat and exercise correctly. Miller's sister, Virginia Williams, spent not only time but money, buying a Weight Watchers cookbook and a Get Fit T-shirt.
"I've been trying to lose weight and I wanted to get some ideas on how to do it," Williams explained.
Virginia Cooperative Extension agent Brenda Mosby had plenty of the type of information that Williams sought, including models of food groups and servings, based on the USDA Food Guide Pyramid, and tubes that graphically showed the fat content of many popular foods. The fair also featured door prizes, blood pressure screenings and demonstrations of square dancing, karate and aerobics.
During the next few months, besides traditional fitness courses, Get Fit will offer a stress profile, a beginners' course in meditation and one or two "clothing exchanges" for the thinning among Bedford's' population. The final fling, on Oct. 4, will prepare Get Fit participants for surviving the holidays.
Sign-up for the program's weight-loss option ended Wednesday, but many classes and events are still open for registration. For details, call 586-7161. And if Berryville's program is news to you, as it was to Hart, a tape of "Take It Off TODAY 1996," including Ulene's fitness tips and goals plan, is available for $19.95 plus $4.95 shipping and handling, by calling (800) 420-7755.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Fran Hart thinks "Bedford get Fit in '96" is an ideaby CNBwhose time has come. color.