THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508080426
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: FITNESS QUEST
The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star asked for volunteers to join a
six-month weight-loss and fitness program.
SOURCE: By DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 211 lines
THE AIR INSIDE the Hunton YMCA is thick and heavy. With a heat wave descending on Hampton Roads, the air conditioning in this aging Norfolk building has picked the worst possible time to break down. And, in keeping with Murphy's Law, the guy who is supposed to fix it is in the hospital.
So Reggie Towns' stress level is rising.
At 9:45 a.m. on this stifling day in mid-July, Towns, the Y's executive director, still looks cool in his crisply ironed, button-down white shirt and tie. But his broad face is beginning to shine with sweat.
``I'm not hot, but. . . .'' He gives in. ``I'm hot,'' he admits, wiping his forehead with a hand.
This kind of pressure is what contributed to Towns' nearly off-the-chart stress reading on the lifestyle evaluation he took last month as part of Hampton Roads' Fitness Quest.
And it is stress that leads him to eat the high-fat, high-cholesterol, high-calorie food on which he subsists.
His favorite food?
Fried crabs. Not fried softshell crabs, where a light coating creates a pleasant crunch, but fried hardshell crabs, where the grease bleeds through the white paper bag before you get them home. You eat these crabs by sucking the fattening batter off the hard shell, then peeling and devouring the succulent crabmeat inside.
If it's not crab, it's Whoppers from Burger King - with extra mayonnaise.
Or KFC's spicy barbeque wings.
A health-food nut Towns is not.
Which is probably why he lost only 2 pounds during the first month of Fitness Quest - despite integrating exercise into his daily routine.
The exercise is easy, Towns admits. A former athlete, he's been jogging around Norfolk Academy's field nearly every day. It's the eating that's throwing him off.
He rarely eats breakfast, but when he does it's likely to be the breakfast bar at Shoney's Restaurant, where he fills his plate with eggs, bacon and sausage.
He usually eats his lunch on the run, grabbing something from a fast-food restaurant.
Only dinners have a fighting chance in the healthy ring, and that's because Towns eats them at home. A recent meal included barbecued chicken, broccoli and rice.
Even during his weekly staff meeting later the morning of the air-conditioning breakdown, the talk turns often to food. In planning a staff retreat a major question is ``Who will order the pizza?''
Food, food, food.
``This is as close as I can get to understanding what an addiction is like,'' says Towns, who doesn't smoke or drink. He swears he will change his eating habits, but isn't quite sure where he'll get the willpower.
None of our Fitness Quest participants has demonstrated particularly healthful eating habits, as a computerized nutritional analysis showed. For three days in late June, just before Fitness Quest began on July 1, the four kept a detailed food diary, writing down every bite and sip that passed between their lips.
During that time, Towns consumed 184 percent of the daily recommended amount of fat. No surprise, given his food choices: pizza with pepperoni and sausage, pound cake with butter, deluxe cheeseburger and fries. His level of saturated fat - the ``bad'' fat that sends cholesterol levels skyrocketing - was 195 percent of the recommended daily level.
Towns admits his eating habits haven't changed a great deal since Fitness Quest began.
He might take a cue from another Fitness Quest participant, Dawne Brooks, who has been bagging it. When she goes out to eat these days, she orders a doggy bag with her food. Then she divides her meal in half, saving the rest for another day.
``I got to eat everything I wanted to, but I eat half as much,'' she said.
She's also stuck to her exercise regimen, even in the heat. She walks at Janaf Shopping Center in the mornings before the mercury rises.
That's where a reader recognized her. ``Are you walking because you're in that article?'' she asked Brooks.
``No,'' Brooks replied, not breaking her stride. ``I'm walking because I've got to lose weight.''
And it's coming off. This month, Brooks was the weight-loss winner. She lost 7 pounds by the weigh-in July 21.
Carolyn Sawyer, the overweight mom with three young kids, followed, with a loss of 3 pounds.
She's been vacationing most of the summer in New Jersey, where she joined a gym and has been working out regularly with her husband.
She's also changing her eating habits. When she picked up a bucket of fried chicken for her kids the other day, she got herself rotisserie chicken. When she makes burritos for her family, she uses fat-free cheese and refried beans.
And the results show. Not only has she lost weight, but her measurements are shrinking, and her physical strength is increasing.
David P. Swain, who tests the Fitness Quest participants through Old Dominion University's Wellness Institute and Research Center, was particularly pleased with Sawyer's weight loss. Given her love of sweets and the little exercise she usually got, he was afraid she wouldn't be able to meet her goal.
The disappointment came with George Bergmann's numbers. The 68-year-old retired Navy man didn't lose any weight, despite a rigorous, three-day-a-week workout schedule and two sessions with a personal trainer.
``I don't understand it,'' he said. ``I'm exercising like a son of a gun.''
Swain does. ``He's not exercising as much as he might think,'' he said. Bergmann is concentrating on resistance exercises, such as lifting weights, instead of aerobic exercises, which burn more calories.
And he's still eating fattening foods. ``I look in the refrigerator and say, `Why throw good bacon away?' '' Bergmann said. ``The minute I get through eating all this bacon I won't buy any more.''
Still, he says, he's changed some of his habits. He's down to six or eight beers a week - compared to 14. But he's drinking root beer, which has about as many calories.
Has he tried the diet variety?
``Diet?'' he said. ``They make diet?'' ILLUSTRATION: PAUL AIKEN/Staff color photos
Reggie Towns, left, catches his breath after a round of pushups as
program director David Swain watches. The exercises are easy for
Towns, a former athlete. It's his diet that's a problem.
Carolyn Sawyer's first month as part of Fitness Quest pleased the
experts.
Photos
PAUL A. AIKEN/Staff photos
After completing a mile walk, George Bergmann, right, has his pulse
taken by David Swain.
Jim Schoffstall takes the measurements of participant Dawne Brooks.
Graphics
HOW THE PARTICIPANTS ARE DOING
Dawne Brooks
Age:46
Weight: 263 pounds
Height: 63 1/2 inches
Waist: 45 inches
Hips: 57 1/4
Body fat: more than 44 percent
Flexibility: 16 1/2 inches
Situps (one minute): 9
Pushups: none
One-mile walk time: 20 minutes and 30 seconds
Heart rate (after walk): 136 beats per minute
Overall fitness score: 13
Carolyn Sawyer
Age: 29
Weight: 190 pounds
Height: 67 1/2 inches
Waist: 35 inches
Hips: 47 1/4 inches
Body fat: more than 44 percent
Flexibility: 18.7 inches
Situps (one minute): 11
Pushups: 6
One mile walk time: 15 minutes, 47 seconds
Heart rate (after walk): 162 beats per minute
Total fitness score: 15
Reggie Towns
Age: 33
Weight: 251 1/2 pounds
Height: 72 inches
Waist: 42 inches
Hips: 46 1/4 inches
Body fat: 23 percent
Flexibility: 17 1/2 inches
Situps (one minute): 42
Pushups: 30
One mile walk time: 15 minutes, 15 seconds
Heart rate (after walk): 124 beats per minute
Overall fitness score: 32
George Bergmann
Age: 68
Weight: 188 1/4
Height: 68 1/4
Waist: 41 1/2
Hips: 40 5/8
Body fat: 31 percent
Flexibility: 15 1/2 inches
Situps (one minute): 16
Pushups: none
One mile walk time: 16 minutes, 56 seconds
Heart rate (after walk); 120 beats per minute
Overall fitness score: 52
WELLNESS INSTITUTE
Old Dominion University's Wellness Institute and Research Center
is an outreach program whose mission is to enhance the community's
health and well-being through education, service and research.
The Institute offers a variety of programs, including fitness
assessments, body composition assessments (in which a person's
percentage of body fat is measured) and weight-loss programs. Fees
are charged.
For more information, contact the Center at 683-3454.
To join the quest or share your story, call INFOLINE at 640-5555
and press BFIT (2348).
by CNB