The Rocky Fitness Challenge

Source: By Lisa Ryckman, Health & Fitness Editor, Rocky Mountain News
September 13, 2005

Nothing can keep our Fitness Challenge pairs down.

Not shinsplints. Not bad knees. Not surgery.

Not the stairs at Red Rocks. Not the lure of chocolate. Not guilty feelings about taking time to take care of themselves.

Our seven sets of partners - co-workers Scott Hutchings and Denise Perez; sisters Maria Watts and Jennifer Kelley; moms-daughters Joyce and Heather Deese, and Mouy Sanchez and Justina Chao; best friends Karen Thorne and Lydia Marshall-Mack; and spouses Ron and Pauleta Oehlerking and Charles and Michelle West - have reached the halfway point in their six-month adventure in healthy living.

And they're looking and feeling better than ever, thanks to perseverance - and personal trainers Denise Tryner and Malena Marquez and Drill Sgt. Mandy Seiverts from Bootcamp360. The proof is in the amazing results of the assessments done by wellness specialists Debbie Reiman and Carol Brown at the Denver Athletic Club: Everyone has lost body fat and added years to their lives.

There have been setbacks, to be sure. Michelle's nagging Achilles pain prompted her to consult a podiatrist, who promptly immobilized her lower leg in a boot. So much for cardio workouts.

"Because immobilization didn't reduce or end my Achilles pain, I felt that surgery would bring a quicker resolution of my problem," says Michelle, who is recovering nicely and is eager to get back on track.

Scott had been ignoring the pain in his heels and shins since the Challenge began. When he finally went to the doc, the diagnosis wasn't pretty: He suffered from shinsplints and plantar fasciitis, which usually results in heel pain.

"I learned a really tough lesson: Listen to your body!" he says. "I (had) to give up running and high-impact work for at least a month, which meant quitting bootcamp and totally switching around my workout schedule."

Scott's advice: "If something continues to hurt after icing and ibuprofen, you probably need to see a doctor quickly."

Not all the struggles have been physical. Jennifer says she's learned to live without a daily candy bar, and she's dealing with her emotional eating issues.

"When I do want what I call my comfort foods, I'll drink a glass of water first and then ask myself what is it that I really want," she says. "Usually, it's something far from food - a hug, to vent, to cry or just someone to listen. I'm learning to take care of myself and not smother my feelings with food."

She's grateful she has her sister, Maria, to lean on when she's wrestling with cravings. As for Maria, she's dealing with her own conflicts.

"I almost feel guilty sometimes going to get my workout in and missing my son's baseball or football games, or leaving work at 5 p.m. instead of staying until 6 or 6:30," she says. "I know how important it is to stay in shape for my own health - emotional and physical."

Joyce has gotten over the initial shock to her system of regular exercise and now misses her workouts if she skips one.

"That's improvement, because so many times you reach a certain goal and then you just start sliding by, and you lose the momentum and energy that keep you on track," says Joyce, who has lost 14 pounds and reduced her body fat by nearly 5 percentage points. "I'm convinced that I will finish the Challenge with a whole new mind-set that will keep me on a healthy and fit road."

The Challenge isn't a competition, but if it were, Pauleta and Ron would be the winners. They're the oldest of the seven pairs at 65 and 64, respectively, but their energy and enthusiasm (not to mention their wellness ages, a measurement of how they compare fitness-wise with their peers) reflect the fact that they're younger than their years. In the past three months, they've lost nearly 30 pounds together - all without nagging each other once.

"Ron is the champion," Pauleta says of her husband of 40 years. "His flexibility is better than mine - and I'm the one who stretches!"

In three months, Ron's aerobic capacity has gone from fair to superior. That's the kind of improvement that can happen if you're willing to get up before dawn and run stairs - despite a bad knee.

"If you can feel this much better in just three months," Ron says, "why not make it your lifestyle?"

Bring on the second half!