Our Get Fit Challenge Winner Shares Her Success

Several months ago we offered the chance for our readers to tell us why they wanted to get in shape. We received many submissions from people across Southeast Michigan. Some had never exercised and wanted to get started, others had once been fit but over the years had let themselves “slip.” Even more were concerned about their health and their abilities to enjoy the every day things in life.

The person we would select would have the opportunity to workout at Bally Total Fitness for three months with a personal trainer.

We selected 28-year old Elizabeth Schmaltz whose story reflected her battles with diets, working out and losing unwanted pounds. Elizabeth was like many people who struggle with obesity, she knew she needed to lose weight, but didn’t know how to go about it. Even though she had a gym membership, she was too intimidated by the equipment to get an effective workout.

As our winner, Elizabeth has spent the last three months working out at the Bally Total Fitness in Troy with certified personal trainer Brian Gambino. Brian put Elizabeth on a workout plan and gave her nutrition guidance, beginning with a food diary to monitor what she was eating. A disciplined workout combining cardio and weight training and Elizabeth was on her way.

We are happy to report that Elizabeth has lost 25 pounds since she started.

So, how does she feel now?

“I feel great, fantastic, to the point where people are starting to notice. I had a co-worker who said, ‘Oh, I can see your collarbones,’” Elizabeth candidly shares with us.

Great attributes to Elizabeth all through this process have been her humor, optimism and motivation. She has never pretended that her weight hasn’t been a struggle, yet she is comfortable with who she is. Her primary goal was to be a thinner, healthier, Elizabeth.

Although getting started was difficult, she is now a natural around Bally Total Fitness.

“I’m pretty familiar with all of the machines in the weight area and I’m increasing my own intensity in cardio,” says Elizabeth. “I’m doing some jogging and that is going really well. I really like it, it’s a challenge; but it’s a good one.”

She has also been able to change her outlook on her past eating habits. By keeping a food diary, she was able to monitor what she was eating, how much, and how many calories she was consuming.

“It was tough doing the food diary. I was trying to justify eating a muffin in the morning every day, I’d say; ‘It’s okay to eat a 400 calorie muffin.’ But now to look back, I ask myself, ‘Why was I doing that?’ It was awful to do at first, but there was no way I was going to write down 12 potato chips,” says Elizabeth. She has since changed that attitude and consistently logs in what she eats throughout every day.

Elizabeth is very positive about her experience and her success at losing weight. “I think I thank you every time I talk to you, but this has been enlightening and has been such a good experience. I’m so glad I took the opportunity to do it,” she says.

She also recommends that others in her situation take the opportunity to get into a gym, and even hire a personal trainer.

“I would say it is a worthy investment even if you do it for two or three sessions, just get an idea on what to do, and what machines to use. There is a ton of information online that is helpful. But, you really just have to try and find a way to stick with it,” she suggests.

Elizabeth credits her personal trainer, Brian Gambino, of Bally Total Fitness for getting her on the right track. “Working out with Brian was fantastic! He increases the intensity of what we do every week and there were a lot of exercises I was doing and I wondered what I was doing to myself? But once I got used to it, I just figured out that this (workout) was how it was going to be and I embraced what was given to me,” says Elizabeth.

She adds that working out with Brian was “fun” and that he continually supported and motivated her throughout their time together.

Elizabeth is well on her way to improving her health as she continues to work out on her own. She still gets to the gym 5-6 times each week, despite working a full-time job and earning her second bachelor’s degree in business at Oakland University.

She has not quite set a final weight loss goal for herself, but is taking things “one day at a time.”

“As a person who has never been thin, I have no idea of what anything less than 200 lbs. looks like, so once I get there, I will decide how far I want to go,” says Elizabeth.

Somehow, I think whatever goals she sets, she will reach.

Editor’s note: Be sure to watch for our January issue when we wrap up this series with Elizabeth’s personal trainer, Brian Gambino, share her workout with you, as well as excerpts from her food diary.

Fitness: Gut Check Time

So here we are, the end of beach season. Many people are sorry to see it end, others say, “Thank goodness I don’t have to wear a swim suit for another 9 months!” Most people’s New Years or Memorial Day resolutions to get in shape did not turn out the way they wanted. Oh well, better luck next year, right? It doesn’t have to be that way.

Before deciding which of the thousand new fad diets or exercise programs you may look into in the next 12 months, first look inside and do a “gut check” as to why things have not worked out thus far. As you read this article, be true to yourself about how much any of this applies to you. If you are happy with your physical self, then great! If not, stop doing the same thing you have been doing, but hoping for different results, and make the change.

DIET

Before addressing what my clients SHOULD eat, I always first look at what they ARE eating. There are a number of diets out there, and most of them do work for some people, but none of them work for everyone. We are not going to compare and contrast the differences, let’s point out why many people cannot succeed with their diets.

1. Right idea, but missing the point. “I don’t know why I’m overweight, I pretty much just eat salad all the time”, or “my diet is healthy, I eat high protein which is low in fat”. Let’s examine a typical salad – iceberg lettuce (almost no nutritional value), cheese (take your pick which kind, they are generally processed with lots of chemicals and fat), bacon bits (not a good source of protein, but plenty of fat and sodium), croutons (sodium and fat), maybe a little bit of cucumbers and a tomato (the only redeeming value of the salad), and plenty of dressing (even most of the low fat alternatives are not exactly healthy). Or the protein eater – what was it cooked in (butter, oil, etc?), what did you eat with it (that wonderful salad, or maybe a good creamy sauce). Don’t get me wrong, I like salad and protein, and they can be extremely healthy, but just because you eat salad and chicken does not automatically make you a healthy eater.

2. The old standard: “just don’t eat anything.” Super-low calorie diets have been a staple for people looking to lose weight forever. Fortunately some very smart people have figured out that eating a cracker and a diet coke all day is not the healthy alternative. Starving your body will cause it to feed on areas you do not want to lose, like muscle tissue; and affect overall functioning throughout your body. Furthermore, these types of diets basically destroy a person’s metabolism, causing your body to burn very few calories on its own.

3. Think before you stuff: the people who do actually eat healthy, and then some. It is amazing to me how generous people can be. As a physical therapist, I am often blessed with thank you gifts from my patients. I cannot accept money or other similar gifts, and people know this. So what do they give: food. This is the case in most office settings, the thank you gift, or it could be leftovers from someone’s party – brought in for the office to share. While it usually tastes good, the food is rarely good for you, but instead some sort of “sugary” treat. When sweets appear, or maybe it is a bag of chips lying around, people often will shovel it in without thinking. So while someone may eat healthy meals, it is the unhealthy snacking that gets them.

I have found that the best first step towards eating right is to keep a food journal – a pain in the butt, but effective. There are only a few requirements, write down everything you put in your mouth (and I mean everything), how much of it, and what time you did it. Try to be as specific as possible – don’t just write “salad” or “sandwich”; write down everything in it. If you have water, write down “1 glass (8 oz.) of water at 9:17 a.m.”.

This task helps in multiple ways. First it makes you actually think before you eat, and decide if putting that cookie in your mouth is worth having to write it down. Second, it makes you aware of your current eating habits and what needs to change. Third, if someone else is helping you with your eating (a personal trainer, dietician, etc.) they can have the facts vs. what you tell them (which is often less than accurate).

EXERCISE

1. “I belong to a gym”, or “I have a great gym in my house.” This may be true, but indicates being in shape about as much as a person who owns a lot of books claiming to be an intellectual. Many of the big, expensive gyms are losing members to the cheaper, more basic gyms. People’s philosophy, why waste $100 per month on a membership I don’t use, when I can just waste $20 per month – can’t argue with that logic.

2. “I am at the gym 3 hours a day.” I actually had a woman say this to me once in an attempt to brag about what great shape she was in. After taking one look at her, I thought, “then you are wasting 2 1/2 hours per day.”

I estimate (and this comes from observing many people) that for every hour the average person “works out,” they get about 20-30 minutes of work done. The rest of the time is spent chatting, taking unnecessary breaks, or just standing around not having a clue.

The other end of the spectrum is the person who actually does spend hours working out. Unless someone is training for a specific endurance event, these people usually are sacrificing quality for quantity, and are risking overworking their bodies, which can be a serious condition.

3. “The lazy exerciser”: the person who does quality exercise on a regular basis, but is lazy the rest of the time. These are the people who drive around a parking lot for 10 minutes looking for the closest spot to the door so they don’t have to walk too far, the first in line to take the elevator to the second floor, or the person who comes home and plops down on the couch, because they are tired from sitting all day at work. Let’s get real, 60 minutes of exercise does not compete with 1380 minutes of laziness.

4. “My job is physical enough.” The truth is, most of the time, no it isn’t.

5. “I don’t have time.” It’s understandable – people need to spend time at work, driving, sleeping, eating, watching TV for four hours, “working” on the computer for two hours, etc. It’s not my place to tell people how to prioritize their lives, but everyone needs to prioritize their own life.

6. “I got off schedule when I went on vacation.” People like to claim that they have specific days that they work out, and specific things they work on those days. For example, Saturdays they work chest and shoulders, Tuesdays are legs (men usually skip that day), Thursdays are back and arms. While all of this probably sounded good in the Muscle and Fitness article where it came from, it gives people the excuse that since they missed the Saturday workout, their schedule was off and that’s why a month has gone by without being able to “get back on.”

There is a simple solution. Schedules will be thrown off; unless you are competing for Mr. Olympia in the next week, start back today. You don’t need to wait for New Years, Christmas, or Rosh Hashanah – be like Nike, “just do it.”

7. “I don’t know what I am supposed to do, or how to do it.” So, instead they do nothing. Here’s the deal: LEARN, or if you don’t want to learn, find someone to tell you what to do. If none of that works, use common sense – you know you should not just be sitting around all the time, start walking every day (and don’t say you walk all day at work).

8. My favorite: “I workout with a personal trainer 3 days per week.” Refer back to number 1 – talking to your trainer for an hour about what they did over the weekend, how their week is going, and what their weekend plans are, does not constitute working out. Obviously, as a trainer myself, I think having a personal trainer is a great way to go, but only if you are doing it for what it is meant.

As I said, this article is meant for everyone’s personal use. It may seem harsh at times, but reality often is. I don’t want to make light of legitimate reasons for not being in the kind of shape you want, because there are many. The point is to examine if you are in the kind of shape you want to be in, look at what may be contributing to it, and make necessary changes. If you try something and it doesn’t work, make another change and keep trying until you find what works for you. Remember, “the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary” – unknown.

Bob can be reached by email at bob@functional-strength-training.com or visit his website at www.functional-strength-training.com

Women & Weight Loss: Why the Difference?

With Ernest Quin of Physician Directed Hy-Tch Weight Loss

So, why do men seem to keep winning on the reality television show, “The Biggest Loser?” Well, it is not simply coincidence. In fact, men generally have an easier time losing weight than women because of their physical makeup and because of some of their dietary preferences.

It is a well-known fact that the more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn. Your metabolism will be higher, and your body will process the calories you consume much more quickly. Men tend to have a physical makeup that contains more muscle tissue than women; however, women can be very successful at losing weight using some of the same approaches as men.

According to Ernest Quin of Physician Directed Hy-Tech Weight Loss, most diets don’t work for men or women because they’re temporary. “After a person loses the weight, providing they stick to the diet, they gain the weight back because they return to their old eating habits. Weight loss programs that use meal replacements have the same problem. Once they stop purchasing the pre-packaged meals (which can get expensive), they gain the weight back,” says Quin.

Successful weight loss is truly about changing your lifestyle. There are many fad diets out there that may help you lose 2-15 pounds quickly, but many people quickly regain that weight once they stop the diet. Why does this happen? It happens because people return to their eating habits (which were generally poor) after they discontinue the diet.

Some points to consider when trying a true weight loss program is to consider how you are going to maintain your new body once you are finished with the program. If you simply have replaced your meals with meals from a program, but didn’t learn what the calorie intake and nutritional value of the meals were, you have not learned the skills to change your lifestyle when you return.

Keep in mind, exercise is important. However, if you are taking in 5000 calories a day, but only burning a fraction of those through exercise, then you are not going to lose or maintain any weight loss.

“A successful program measures a persons metabolism (which can be different from one person to the next) in order to customize a nutritional weight loss program for that individual,” says Quin.

Other considerations in choosing the right weight loss program for you:

• Program should have no meal replacement

• Program should not be a “one size fits all” weight loss program

• Program should strive toward lifestyle change for permanent weight loss

Men tend to carry their weight in different areas than women. For example, men tend to gain weight in the belly area, where women tend to put weight on in their lower body such as legs, buttocks and abdomen. No matter where your problem areas are, the process if very similar: exercise regularly, and eat properly.

A true commitment is necessary to losing and maintaining weight regardless of your program. Too many people begin a program, only to slowly fade off the regimen and never fully completing the lifestyle change necessary. This is where you see the Yo Yo dieter.

So, when you sit down and start looking at your weight loss opportunities, do the research. Take the time to find a program that meets your needs, and has the best possible outcomes for long term maintenance. You will be happy you did so.

Weight Loss for Life

With Tom Rifai, MD

Statistics state that over 100 million adult Americans are overweight or obese. This may surprise you. After all, every day we read in the paper, see on television, or hear on the radio how obesity is a major risk factor for heart attacks, diabetes, cancer and more. So why is it that with all of this information so readily available to us through clinical studies and public awareness campaigns we are still seeing a rise in obesity in America?

Well, where do we begin to look for the answer? We hear experts say, “Carbs, no carbs; fats, no fats; count calories, cut portion sizes, eliminate sugars, exercise, do this, do that.” This jumble of information can be overwhelming to anyone just getting started on a weight loss plan.

According to Dr. Tom Rifai, a board certified nutrition specialist, for some people it is simply the lack of knowledge of how to start dieting. “The knowledge of what to eat is lacking for many people,” says Dr. Rifai.

The American lifestyle is set up for obesity to thrive, according to Dr. Rifai. Fast food restaurants, foods high in trans fatty acids, and a sedentary lifestyle has helped cultivate an obese society.

“It’s the environment, the environment, the environment,” repeats Dr Rifai. “It is at school, at work, at home. We can’t change the world, but we can change what foods are in our home.”

Many people try to diet, but still bring unhealthy foods into their home to satisfy other family members’ cravings. Dr. Rifai says this is dangerous for the person trying to lose weight because the temptation of the food is always there.

“Will power can only take you so far, and eventually you are going to give in,” says Dr. Rifai. “The key is to not bring any of the indulgences into the house and don’t use excuses like: ‘I have kids, and the kids like cookies.’ That is ridiculous. There is no rule that says kids MUST have cookies.”

Many times people set themselves up for failure to lose weight right from the start by setting their weight loss goal too high. According to the National Institute of Health’s guidelines on weight loss, as little as a 5% to 15% reduction in body weight for an overweight individual can have a dramatic impact on his/her overall health, lowering their risk of many diseases. For a 200 lb. person, this equals a loss of only 10 to 30 lbs. A person setting a higher weight loss goal may be focusing on an inappropriate and therefore unattainable weight.

“A good weight loss program involves a doctor, dietitian and a support group when necessary,” says Dr. Rifai, referring to those who are obese. Successful weight loss is a commitment. The patient must be committed to changing their eating habits, lifestyle and environment, according to Dr. Rifai.

One such success story is Joe L. of Michigan. At 295 pounds, this senior citizen decided he was tired of being overweight. He made a commitment in July 2006 that it was time to finally shed the pounds that had accumulated over the last 45 years.

Joe’s story may be very familiar to many: “I’ve been on every diet. You name it. I could lose weight for major events such as my daughter’s wedding. I’d lose 25 pounds for pictures and everything, then I would gain 30 pounds back after. I started this program and I’ve lost 90 pounds in about 8 1/2 months. I never realized how bad I felt before I started this diet. I didn’t realize how much my weight impacted me after 45 years of consistently gaining weight.”

In addition to losing the unwanted pounds, Joe discovered that his health improved significantly. He was able to discontinue his blood pressure medication, reduce the dose of his cholesterol medication and begin resuming a more active life.

One of the keys to dieting is to “stay ahead of your hunger,” says Dr. Rifai. This consists of eating small, healthy portions of protein foods every 2-3 hours. This way you never get hungry and overeat.

“People can quit smoking, quit heroin or cocaine, but you can’t quit eating. We need to eat. The key is to not let yourself get hungry,” says Dr. Rifai. “Our bodies are designed to gain weight to survive.”

Exercise is another key element to losing weight, but it does not have to necessarily begin at the same time as the food modifications. However, an exercise regimen is important to maintaining the weight that you do lose, says Dr. Rifai. Unfortunately, our sedentary lifestyle doesn’t always lend itself to exercise.

“We went from building pyramids by hand back in ancient times to riding moving sidewalks from the north side to the south side of Somerset mall! I know it’s very stressful to walk that,” Dr. Rifai states sarcastically.

“Exercise can be as easy as parking farther away in a parking lot, gardening, mowing the lawn, or taking the stairs. It doesn’t have to be 2-3 hours in a gym.”

So many benefits can result from weight loss that most patients of Dr. Rifai’s find themselves with a new lease on life. The motivation that patients feel to continue the program and the benefits they reap from feeling better about themselves translates into more sustained outcomes.

“This is not a war on obesity for people, this is a war on poor lifestyle,” says Dr. Rifai. “Thus, the war requires a plan, and we give people that plan.”

Key mistakes people make is skipping meals to lose weight, says Dr. Rifai. By skipping meals, you are letting your body get hungry. When there is no nutrition in the body to feed from, then it starts feeding from your muscle, which in turn reduces muscle mass. With loss of muscle mass comes a decrease in metabolism, which in turn causes us to burn fewer calories and gain weight.

“Many people skip breakfast. You should never skip breakfast,” says Dr. Rifai. “You should always eat within one hour of waking. Think about it, you’ve gone through 7 to 8 hours without eating, and then you skip breakfast and add another 4 to 5 hours on to that time. You have to stay ahead of the hunger.”

Utilizing a multi-disciplinary approach to weight loss is the cornerstone to successful weight loss, believes Dr. Rifai. By exercising, changing your lifestyle and educating yourself on healthy foods, you are more likely to be successful.

“We teach you how to cook and eat properly. We don’t teach you to drink four shakes a day, because all you learn is how to drink four shakes a day. You don’t learn how to eat properly and nutritiously,” says Dr. Rifai. “There is a place for protein supplements, but as part of the whole program, not the focus of dieting.”

So, the question still remains. If we know being overweight is dangerous to our overall health, why do we continue to see obesity rising in America today? The answer may simply lie in knowledge.

Tom Rifai, MD, BCPNS, is a lipid disorder and bariatric specialist as well as Director of the UnaSource Weight Control Program in Troy, Michigan. He graduated with “Highest Honor” from Michigan State University with his Bachelors of Science in Psychology and Pre-Med in 1992. He received his Medical Degree from Wayne State University in 1999 and completed his Internal Medicine Residency at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, in 2003.

« Previous Page