MARQUETTE - The new year has brought with it not only resolutions for change - including shedding unwelcome holiday pounds - but also the newest session of the Healthy Weight Journal.
The Mining Journal and Marquette General Hospital have conducted the Healthy Weight Journal four times, in an effort to engage the community in healthful thinking and action.
This time, however, the program will focus less on weight loss and more on the aspects of health which indicate/promote overall fitness. Accordingly, this session is titled "Focus on Fitness."
Focus on Fitness began Jan. 12 and will run through May 31. Expert guidance will be provided by Donna Marlor, registered dietitian and director of MGH Weight Management; J. Bryan Dixon, M.D., of MGH Sports Medicine; Northern Michigan University associate professor Barb Coleman, ACSM certified exercise specialist; and Wallace G. Pearson II, M.D., of Orthopaedic Surgery Associates of Marquette, who will serve as orthopaedic consultant.
The nine Marquette residents accepting this challenge for change are: Mark Mattson, athletic director for Marquette Area Public Schools; Ken Mullins, accounting instructor at NMU; Cathy Bolm, a lender at Northern Michigan Bank & Trust; Deb Duquette, a commercial bank associate at Northern Michigan Bank & Trust; Jamie Dolan, Regional Director of the Office of Highway Safety Planning; Teresa Kauppila, a legal assistant/victim witness assistant; Barbara O'Neill, owner of The Embroidery House; Susan Divine, a behavior analyst at Pathways Mental Health Center; and Helene Pytyck, a retired teacher.
At their first meeting, group members cited various reasons for participating, including staving off prediabetes and getting off diabetes medication, learning to make themselves and their health a priority, preparing for marathons and taking/keeping weight off.
All have goals beyond weight loss, and the Mining Journal will publish full-page summaries of their progress toward meeting those goals. Included will be changes in health indicators such as total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and medications.
This new program is based on scientific data, and focuses on the measurable benefits of proper eating habits and adequate, appropriate exercise.
At the meeting, Dixon reassured the group of the program's resources, saying, "You have access to the best trained scientific minds in our community."
For the first 13 weeks, members will exercise three times weekly through the Get Fit Program at Northern Michigan University. Thereafter, exercise programming will continue at different sites, based on group input.
Educational/stress management sessions will meet at Peter White Public Library in Marquette.
One benefit of this changed focus can be a slower, thus more sustainable weight loss. Being overweight is associated with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, as well as the excess stress/wear on weight-bearing joints: ankles, knees, hips and spine.
Marlor gave the group some starter advice for food management. "Focus on food choices; logging is a way to get into the nitty gritty of responsible eating.
"Those who lose 10 percent of their body weight over a year's time keep it off," she said, stressing the need for a slow weight loss.
Marlor emphasized the importance of setting goals. "Put work into perspective, plan for shopping and meals," she said.
"Each day, there are two possibilities. You can get up with a goal, or you can drift through the day and just let things happen to you."
Fortuitously, on the same day, the pervasiveness of the obesity "epidemic" in the United States was underscored when the National Center for Health Statistics released results of a 2005-2006 government-funded study.
Statistics showed, for the first time, the rate of obesity in this country has surpassed overweight. The study reported 34 percent as obese, with 32.7 percent overweight (less than 6 percent morbidly obese). These numbers are the most recent data, and represent more than 72 million obese adult Americans.
Obesity and overweight are calculated using a formula called body mass index. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is classified as overweight; 30 to 39.9 is obese; and 40 or more, morbidly obese. The U.S. National Institutes of Health BMI calculator is available online at www.nhlbisupport.com/ bmi/.
While readers take a peek at the Web site to determine their own position on the weight spectrum, Focus on Fitness members will be exercising, logging their meals and snacks, and focusing on their future.
The next education meeting will be Wednesday.
