Think fitness this New Year’s
Published Friday, January 2, 2009
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS - Terry McCarthy and dozens of others braved extreme temperatures New Year’s Day and welcomed in the new year exercising at The Alaska Club.
“I’m just trying to stay alive,” said McCarthy, 60, a retired school teacher, who survived a heart attack last February.
Like McCarthy, some participated in an aerobics class led by Cheryl Warwick, and others walked the track, swam or worked out on Nautilus equipment.
Although a few new faces were spotted Thursday among the regulars, Warwick expects to see a huge increase in club membership in the next week or two when schools go back into session and people follow through on New Year’s resolutions
“The big hit will come Jan. 7-15, and consistently climb until spring break,” said the longtime exercise instructor.
Wearing a shiny princess crown handed out during Thursday morning’s exercise class, Jennifer Harte describes herself as “a diehard” when it comes to staying fit.
“It’s part of my life that I don’t want to give up,” she said.
In addition to regular workouts, the slim, working mother of teenagers rollerblades in the summer and runs with her dog in the winter.
“It gives me more energy, and it’s physically and mentally very uplifting and helps me to deal with everyday life with teenagers,” Harte said.
Sherry Stevenson, a 17-year Alaska Club member, works out six days a week.
“It’s kind of like a life insurance policy,” she said. “If I don’t come here for a day, I can’t wait to come back.”
Likewise, McCarthy isn’t new to the health club. But before his heart attack he had slacked off exercising and put on extra weight.
After angioplasty treatment, McCarthy participated in PACE, a cardiac rehabilitation program at Fairbanks Community Hospital for several months, before returning to the South Fairbanks health club in July.
Today, wearing a heart monitor, McCarthy not only exercises regularly but eats healthy as well and has shed 30 pounds in the process.
For first time exercisers, or anyone wanting to get back in the game, McCarthy recommends finding a slot in your day that is good for you. It may be early morning, lunchtime, after work or evening.
Harte encourages everyone to become more active wherever they are.
“It may be a struggle in the beginning, but when you see how good you feel, you can’t allow yourself to stop,” she said.
For those needing motivation, Warwick suggests joining a group where there is somebody there to lead and encourage, or enlisting a friend to exercise with, be it walking or joining a class together.
“Put your remotes away,” she said. “The first step, can just be walking or going up and down the stairs,” Warwick said. “Anything that gets you going. It’s just getting up and moving.
“You need to be selfish and do this for yourself if you want to see your kids and grandkids grow up.”
As a teacher, Warwick said, her goal is to have each of her students be successful.
“If you want to have quality and a long life, then you have to put in a little bit of quality time to do it,” she said.
Eating healthy is another important aspect of developing a healthy lifestyle.
For starters, Warwick suggests substituting spices for taste in lieu of sugar, fat and salt.
“Read those (food package) labels and look at the serving sizes,” she said, adding, “It’s better to buy whole natural foods rather than processed foods.”
Warwick recommends anyone seriously interested in changing nutritional and lifestyle habits to visit www.mypyramid.gov, a U.S. Department of Agriculture Web site, for more information and developing a personal eating plan.
For many health club members, regular attendance becomes a social part of their lives as well as their children’s.
“My children have been raised here,” Harte said.
Stevenson met her husband at the Alaska Club, and they continue to exercise together.
“I think it’s important that boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands and wives do this together as a team,” she said.
“It’s a way of life. It’s about being healthy.”
Contact staff writer Mary Beth Smetzer at 459-7546.
Community Discussion
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Instead of "Thinking fitness this year" how about let people think what they want and let them make their own choices? Wanna be fit and work out? Right on! Wanna stay on the couch and have another cookie? Right on! Wanna go have a beer and a cigarette? Right on!
I'm just saying - let people life their lifes!
How is an article about the benefits of health and fitness NOT "letting people live their lives"? An article with information about healthy living isn't interfering with anyone's life. Sorry to burst your bubble, vodp.
And frankly, there is nothing cool about being a couch potato, having a cookie, and never moving around. It's possible to be fit and work out and also be lazy once in awhile (I work out 1-3 hours a day most days but yesterday I lay around like third base after having more than one beer NYE).
About five or six years ago, when I was living in NYS, I was on my way to the gym one day (at the time I lived with my parents) when my dad looked up from his chair and said, "Can I go to the gym with you?" I was floored and thrilled. He started going with me every day. He shed something like 50 lbs and started "healthifying" his diet (he's the cook of the house). My mom also started going to the gym and she lost weight, too. A year or two after that my father had a heart attack that THANK GOODNESS was not fatal and in fact did no permanent cardiac damage. If my father hadn't gotten off the couch, lost the weight, controlled his blood pressure and cholesterol with DIET AND EXERCISE instead of DRUGS, he might not be walking me down the aisle in September.
For those of you who think this is the perfect time to make some healthy changes allow me to suggest a few great websites that I use.
www.yogatoday.com - a free yoga website with a new one-hour class every day (you can also choose between an archive of other classes if that day's workout doesn't suit you).
www.livestrong.com AND/OR www.thedailyplate.com - nutrition and workout tracking. Losing weight is simple - burn more calories than you consume! The Daily Plate is an online food diary - food diaries have been proven to equal long-term weight loss success.
www.eatbetteramerica.com - A couple hundred great healthy recipes plus "healthified" versions of your favorites.
www.fitsugar.com - geared toward women but a good, motivational website for all things health, fitness, diet.
Fitness? Yeah! You younger folks need to get some body work out. Even our young village people have been getting fatter and fatter over the years; and some of our older are sitting to much behind the pan and bingo table getting fat too and are not well. So many of my village people claiming they are living the native way but when I go out for wood or look at my sets I see a lot of land not used and this land has so much to offer. Quit eating so much store goods and sitting around watching games on tv that none of us can even play. Our history and legacy has proven our ability to do well in the Alaskan wilds. Folks, during this new year let’s get off our butts and get out in the woods. If we don’t we will find ourselves too fat to even work and just like those cannot exist without a fast food place around them and welfare to pay for it.
Thank you for the websites Christina Uticone. Everyone needs to move thier bodys, big or small.
You are welcome! I particularly love the Eat Better America website for the recipes and the online food diaries are so much easier than tracking yourself with pen and paper :)
In less than 2 years, I plan on retiring. Probably join a health club then. In the meantime, when I get home from work I'm exhausted from hiking, lifting, and climbing all day. If I joined a health club, it would be money wasted. I'd probably fall asleep lifting weights and hurt myself.
i would love to join but the fees would wipe out the paycheck.
Effective home workouts can be found on Amazon.com and I love workout DVDs. Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred is a killer and I'm a fan of Winsor Pilates. Home equipment is CHEAP - free weights, resistance bands, exercise balls, jump ropes, medicine balls...the list goes on. There are tons of online exercise websites that include workout videos for free. You can use your own body weight for toning in yoga or exercises like squats, lunges, tricep dips, pushups, plank poses, etc. etc., and plyometric exercises will get your heart rate up, improve muscle tone, and refine balance.
I prefer being outdoors - I love to ski, hike, swim, walk, run, even do yoga outside - but going to the gym is great "me time" and I learned to love the singular purpose of being there. Gyms are expensive but luckily there are TONS of great websites and DVDs out there. I just wish we got the Exercise channel on demand here - I had it in NYS and loved it. Speaking of TV - Denise Austin is on Lifetime, PBS has a yoga show and a "sit and stretch" show that's super easy, and one of the military channels has a fitness show as well that's really fun. Oxygen has "Inhale" - an informal, one-hour yoga class set to music. MSN.com has an entire section dedicated to fitness, much of it either home-workout focused or easily adaptable to home workouts.
Nothing says "healthy living" like Chinese Buffet.
Mmmm-mmmmmmmm!
(Belches contentedly)
Best hangover food in town! At least a close race w/ the Oasis...
Christina: I used to opt for 7-11 nachos with lots of extra jalepenos.
But I was much younger then.
Back home it was gas station pizza or diner quickies (burgers & fries smothered in gravy). Mmmmmmmm!
I've lost 60lbs last year.
Didn't diet just became more active....
But I do not like the Alaska Club. They're a joke and a rip off.
I forgot to mention NETFLIX.
You can order tons of workout DVDs and when you get bored, rent a new one.
I'm also a huge fan of Men's and Women's Health magazines. They focus on lifestyle, not just "dieting" or "losing weight".
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