February 4, 2002
By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
It's time to get fit, Chicago.
Sure, like many of us, you were a bit surprised in January when Men's Fitness
dubbed us the second fattest city in America. Lest we comfort ourselves
with the fact that we're not yet the fattest city in the nation--that distinction
belongs to Houston--bear in mind that just last year we were a distant
No. 10.
Well now, it's time for
us to do something about it.
February is "Chicago Sheds
a Ton" month, and the Sun-Times wants you to help our city to lose a collective
2,000 pounds more. All you have to do is commit to get fit. Check the paper
throughout the month for daily diet and nutrition tips from Weight Watchers,
exercise how-tos and success stories.
We encourage you to form
teams at work, church or with your social clubs to motivate one another
to trim a pound or two. We'll help to keep tabs on you when you e-mail
the names of your team members to suntimes.com. The Sun-Times wants to
share your success stories and offer guidance from diet and fitness experts
during this campaign.
We'll report back to you
the tally of pounds lost. By the end of February, we hope to be a leaner,
meaner city.
Leading by example, four
teams have already formed to get Chicago motivated. Staffers have committed
to losing at least 1 pound a week, but we need all of of you to help to
reach our goal of 2,000. Our teams are: Kaboom, a nonprofit that builds
safe playgrounds for kids; the City of Chicago's Office of Special Events;
Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Chicago Urban League.
"Chicago isn't alone," says
Karen Miller-Kovach, chief scientist for Weight Watchers. "We as a society
are getting heavier, so being fatter has become the norm for us. If you
look at older TV shows, the TV stars were thin and fit, but they represented
the majority of Americans during that time. Now, the thin actors we see
on today's shows represent a minority of the population."
Still, it just doesn't seem
as though 1 in every 5 people has a serious weight problem. Miller-Kovach
attributes that to perception. Or rather misperception.
"Our view of what's normal
changes as we change," she says. "The people who really notice our weight
are foreigners who come to visit America. They're shocked when they look
at us because most nations don't have obesity problems like we do."
Case in point: The majority
of complaints about the snug stadium seats at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul,
South Korea, came from Americans--not Europeans or other Asians.
So what does a society do
when "super size" has become a part of our everyday vernacular and "bigger
is better" a mantra?
"We just need to change
our behavioral patterns," Miller-Kovach says. "It's certainly not easy
to do, but it can be done. It's not just overeating that's making us fat,
because our caloric intake isn't that much more than it used to be. But
we're moving less, and that's taking more of a toll than eating more."
She points out that suburbanites,
who tend to walk more and drive less, fare even worse than urban dwellers.
Julie Burke fell into that
trap, using modern-day conveniences to avoid being active.
"I used to always have my
kids get things for me or park as close as I could to the store at a shopping
center," says Burke, 35, of Crestwood. "I've always been heavy so I did
everything there was to lose weight. I even went to a hypnotist, who suggested
the reason I was overweight was because I had been sexually abused as a
child. She said the same thing to my friend. Neither of us had ever been
abused.
"I do come from an overweight
family, but I wasn't fat just because of that. For me, I was fat because
I really just liked food and I enjoyed eating. I didn't eat because I was
unhappy or depressed. I just like the way it tasted. To lose weight, I
had to stop eating as much and burn off some of the calories. It was as
simple as that."
For more than four years,
the stay-at-home mom lost 72 pounds, going from a size 22 to a size 4.
Initially, she was disappointed by her slow weight loss. But experts agree
that's the best way to keep pounds off permanently.
"The best thing about losing
weight is that I learned how to cook more healthy meals for my family,"
Burke says. "We buy margarine probably two times a year now. We don't eat
toast with butter anymore. I serve reduced- fat peanut butter with breakfast,
and the kids love it."
Burke also didn't join an
expensive health club or hire a trainer. Rather, she picked an activity
she liked--walking--and made sure she walked two to four miles a day, four
times a week. And instead of asking her children to act as go-fers, she
did more for herself.
Now that the weather outside
is frightful, she gets her cardio workout by shoveling snow.
"I always make a deal with
myself that if I shovel, I don't have to go on the treadmill," she says,
laughing.
Miller-Kovach says staying
active is exactly what more Americans need to do to win the war with fat.
"Today, parents--myself
included--drive their children to school so they don't even need to walk
a block," she says. "We're worried they're going to be snatched off the
streets so we don't encourage them to ride their bikes around the neighborhood
in the evening. Instead, they sit inside playing computer games."
But the longer a child is
overweight, the more likely he'll carry it over into adulthood. The number
of overweight adolescents has tripled since 1980. According to the Surgeon
General, 13 percent of America's children have weight problems. Some 300,000
deaths in America are associated with obesity. Compare that to 400,000
deaths associated with smoking.
But take heart, Chicago.
There is hope for us yet.
"On the positive side, Chicago
is a vibrant city that provides lots of opportunity for activity," Miller-Kovach
says. "The lakefront is gorgeous and, unlike many urban centers in the
United States, it's a city where people can feel safe walking around. The
food is great there, but you're used to portion distortion. If you keep
getting large portions of food, that's what you expect and that's what
you eat.
"I always tell people when
they eat out to tell the server to wrap up half their meal in a doggie
bag before they even bring it out to the table. Or share an entree with
your dining partner. In most restaurants, that's plenty of food. Food choice
certainly is important in keeping fit. But the quantity of what you eat
is even more important."
Diet teams find the perfect fit
March 5, 2002
Chicago may have been dubbed
the second-fattest city in the nation, but we're moving on down--the scale,
that is--thanks to all of you who've joined our Chicago Sheds a Ton campaign.
With weekly strategies for
working out, plus the Sun-Times/eDiets.com seven-day diet, and snacking
and dieting tips provided by our campaign partner Weight Watchers, and
eDiets.com and the American Dietetic Association, teams throughout the
city and suburbs did their part to lose 1 pound a week.
The Chicago Urban League
team has lost 33 pounds so far.
"I've lost a total of 41/2
pounds and have increased the number of glasses of water I drink daily,"
reports Simone Mitchell-Peterson, 38. I'm still working on getting to the
gym three times per week, but I'm pleased with the progress I've made.
It's a great feeling to be in control of my eating habits!"
Adds team member Jackie
Dukes, 59, "I am greatly pleased with my fitness results. My clothes show
that I've lost 2 to 3 inches in my waist, hips and biceps. I have been
consistent with my 30-minute workouts each morning. It has been years since
I have been able to stay on a program like this. Now, I am almost addicted.
This is success in itself. Now, I must work harder on staying within 27
points on the Weight Watchers program to lose the extra pounds. Overall,
I'm very pleased with my results."
The Schain, Burney team
also is a success story. The six women have lost a collective 35 pounds
and say their support team has made losing weight a lot more fun and effective.
"We don't call it a diet,"
says team leader Juanita Sullivan, a secretary for the downtown law firm
of Schain, Burney, Ross & Citron. "We call it our way of life. We discuss
what we're going to eat for lunch and support each other if we're having
problems sticking to our plans. When two of us gained weight one week,
we motivated each other to get back on the horse and see it through."
Like the rest of her team,
Sullivan, 40, knows exercise plays a big role in staying fit. She gets
up at 5:15 a.m. to exercise.
"It's not as bad as it sounds,"
says Sullivan, 40, who lost almost 8 pounds in February. "Plus, it's nice
to be able to report to your friends how well you've done this week."
These folks are getting
fit the proper way: by eating sensibly and exercising.
"Some people hate exercising
and think they'll lose weight quicker if they just stop eating," says Richard
Cotton, an exercise physiologist and spokesman for the American Council
on Exercise. "Our bodies have this fabulous survival mechanism. When we
don't eat, it thinks we're trapped on a desert island with no food, so
it slows down its metabolism. So we have to trick it with exercise to burn
up the calories. When you gain muscle, it burns fat. The more muscle you
have, the more fat you're burning even if you're sedentary."
You don't need to join a
gym to feel the burn, either. Try walking. Start with something simple,
such as walking 10 minutes a day, every other day. The idea is to be consistent
and build up to 30 minutes each day, four to five times a week.
"It's hard to establish
a habit that hurts," Cotton says. "Ten minutes a day doesn't hurt."
Also, don't become a slave
to your bathroom scale. The numbers may not be telling the whole truth.
"Often people will experience
weight gain when they begin exercising because they're adding muscle mass,
which weighs more than fat," Cotton says. "This is common. But if you try
on a pair of pants that once were tight, you'll probably find that they
fit better."
But if they're still tight,
don't delude yourself into thinking your bulk is muscle.
"It takes a substantial
amount of exercise to make that kind of difference," says Karen Miller-Kovach,
chief food scientist at Weight Watchers. "If the clothes are fitting the
same and the scale stays the same, you haven't converted fat to muscle."
Not every team was successful
in reaching its goals. But they haven't given up.
"No one lost any weight
on our team," admits Krystal Wells-Nowden, 40, team leader for the U. of
C. Admission crew. "But we're going to keep on trying."
The eight team members have
upped the ante: There's money at stake now for whomever loses the most
weight.
"Hopefully we'll all lose
so much we'll just have to split the pot," Wells-Nowden says. "We started
to get serious about it again and are trying to get motivated about getting
fit. It has been hard for me 'cause I did lose a lot of weight before and
then started gaining it back again from the stress of working and going
to school full time. But I'm not making excuses this time."
Michelle Trevino says after
a shaky start, her team of six has lost a combined 30 pounds.
"We've always talked about
getting healthy, but we still walk in with our Popeyes, McDonald's or Taco
Bell for lunch," Trevino says. "I think this [program was] the motivation
we had been waiting for."
Now that you've gone a month,
don't slack off. This is the perfect time to rededicate yourself to losing
weight and staying fit.
"The newness of losing weight
wears off around the one-month mark," Miller-Kovach says. "You're not losing
weight as quickly anymore and some of your old bad habits may creep back
in. You may have stopped exercising or gone back to indulging in old favorites
that aren't great for you. Don't give up if this happens. Losing weight
isn't a fad. It's a goal that is within your reach."
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