By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald
People in Hayward get serious about fitness
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Nicole Nathan is working for her father Gary Nathan this summer shown here in his office in Hayward at Woodland Developments and Realty. She is also spearheading a 6-week fitness program in the city -- a program she has not yet been successful in getting her father to join. (Catholic Herald photo by A.M. Kelley) |
HAYWARD -- People in Hayward want to get healthy and they're using all the tools they can get their hands (and feet) on: pedometers, presidential programs and prayer.
It all began when an idea called Joy in Movement caught the eye of St. Joseph parishioner Pat Parker last April.
Parker offered a series of 11 group lessons at the church inspired by the book "Lose It For Life" by Stephen Arterburn and Dr. Linda Mintle. The authors offer dieters alternatives to the all too common single-minded obsession with weight loss. Joy in Movement encourages emphasis on physical, emotional and spiritual health. It is not a diet and not an exercise program but a course that tries to help participants transform themselves from the inside out.
St. Joseph's pianist, Roberto Palombi, signed up after a disappointing weight gain of 30 pounds in two months.
"I'm overweight and worried about future health problems," he said. "I'm in good shape now (no health problems) but I need to change some patterns."
Joy in Movement is all about changing lifestyles and the first step is just that: take a step or two and keep moving for 10,000 steps each day. The word went out in the Sunday bulletin and Parker had 75 sign up -- 30 in the walking portion of the program, and 45 in the walk and weekly study group. The Sawyer County Health Department donated pedometers for walkers to measure their steps.
Friends started walking together, Hayward's mayor, T.J. Duffy, cheered them on and the owner of the local golf course offered free Sunday afternoon golf to people enrolled. Palombi, 55, who met for both the study and walking, said there was a "downside" to the group discussions.
"People had a hard time getting away from talk about diets," he said. "It's not a diet program. The emphasis is on life patterns and taking care of oneself as a temple of God, and how you look at yourself through the eyes of God."
Even so, Parker is happy with the study groups and the exercizers.
"It is all positive," she said. "People see you walking and wave and honk. Most talk about steps (moving/exercise) and not, 'I can't eat this or that.'"
Then Nicole Nathan got involved. She's a student at The University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and didn't make it home for the summer until classes were over in June. Her parish is Hayward's Grace Lutheran but her boyfriend, Chas Kadlec, is a drummer and a member of the music scene at St. Joseph's Saturday evening Masses. Since Nathan is a singer and attended the service with Kadlec, it wasn't long before she was a member of the choir.
"Sr. Mardelle (Mohs) lured me into singing," she said.
In the fall she'll return to St. Thomas for her junior year as a health promotions major in hopes of becoming a physical education teacher. In the same way she got involved in St. Joseph's music, her academic interests naturally led her to Parker's program.
Now the 20-year-old has picked up where the Joy in Movement program left off and for six weeks those that wish are joining her in the President's Challenge, a national fitness program.
The President's Challenge began 50 years ago for school-aged youngsters during the Eisenhower administration and has grown into a program for all ages. Nathan has signed up people from 8 to 77 years old and is making a research project out of the program.
"This summer it's a pilot study," she said. "Next summer it will be the real deal."
She'll test and chart participant's before and after blood pressures, measure flexibility and review behavioral health issues such as tobacco use and lifestyle. The goal in this program is for adults and seniors to exercise five days a week for 30 minutes, and for children five days a week for 60 minutes. The type of exercise is wide open -- gardening, dancing, walking -- what matters is to move.
"Health is an individual matter," she said.
Nathan has not always been interested in fitness.
"I wasn't a healthy kid," she said. "I was kind of chubby. The sit-and-reach tests and cardio tests, I failed miserably in high school."
Plus, she complained, physical education classes weren't geared for someone with her less than stellar athletic skills -- only towards the competitive.
"This is not what health has to be about," she said. "It's about personal goals, improvement and being active."
Palombi expects his health to improve as awareness of his fitness goals evolve over time with movement and prayer.
"A healthy program starts with acceptance of where you are," Palombi said. "Don't get into society's judgment of yourself because of where your body happens to be. Your body is where your spirit resides but that's not the sum total of what you are."
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2006