Kathy Worgul, who lost 35 pounds through the Y Fitness challenge, shows how much weight she’s dropped.
Written By Donna Engle, Photos by: Gregory Blank
Sixty-two pounds ago, Jean Karadimos did not have a strategy for getting through the holidays without gaining weight. The 63-year-old Westminster woman, like millions of other Americans, ate and enjoyed.
A thyroid condition and her love of cheeseburgers and other high-fat goodies boosted her to 251 pounds. Medication brought the thyroid condition under control, but did not melt the pounds.
Karadimos did that, by controlling portion size, exercising and devising a holiday dining plan.
Now, at holiday gatherings, she starts with salad, eats slowly and limits herself to one tablespoon apiece of high-calorie dishes.
One tablespoon does not sound like much? “You don’t know how many dishes my family puts on the table,” she said. After Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, while others nap, Karadimos burns calories with an exercise walk.
Last year, Karadimos joined Westminster Curves’ fitness, weight management and behavior modification program for women and tapped into what experts say is the most effective way to lose weight: diet and exercise.
The combination worked for other successful local losers, such as Kathy Worgul, 56, of Westminster, who lost 35 pounds through the Carroll County Family YMCA’s Y Fitness Challenge, and for Jennifer Lovett, 28, of Manchester, who lost 38 pounds through the Carroll Hospital Center, Martin’s Food Market and Merritt Athletic Club’s Lose to Win Wellness Challenge
“The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat fewer calories and be active,” advises the American Academy of Family Physicians. Not an easy prescription during a season filled with parties and family gatherings around the table.
“It’s two and a half months of goodies and parties. It’s colder outside,” said Alison Manger-Weikel, registered dietitian at Carroll Hospital Center. “People who have kids are running them to games, and exercise kind of falls by the wayside.”
A National Institute of Child Health and Development study of adults aged 19 to 82 found that most added just one pound of weight during the holidays, although 10 percent of the study group gained five pounds or more. The bad news: Pounds added tend to remain with us as we go into the next winter holiday season. Just 500 extra calories a day equals one pound of body fat by the end of a week, said Manger-Weikel.
Suggestions for meeting typical winter weight challenges:
How do I know what to eat, what to leave?
Several local programs offer help. The Y Fitness Challenge, for example, teaches portion control, how to count calories, create menus and stay within caloric ranges. Lose to Win participants get healthy eating advice from a nutritionist.
Fitness Challenge participants “are not necessarily giving up anything because we want to let them eat the things they want,” said Tina Antkowiak, YMCA fitness director.
“I pigged out at the party. It’s hopeless.”
“A lot of people start eating and then they feel bad and eat more. I’ve done that. But if you cheat one day, it’s not the end of the world,” said Lovett, who kept on losing after Lose to Win, shedding a total of 150 pounds. She loves chocolate, ice cream and cupcakes, but if she eats a sweet treat, she steps up her exercise; and doesn’t eat any other “cheating” foods that day.
Lovett usually consumes 1,300 to 1,500 calories a day, but she and her husband give themselves a holiday break. “We make sure we exercise daily and just try to get through the season without gaining weight,” she said. One beneficiary: their dog Chewbacca, who gets lots of walks.
“I don’t have time to exercise”
Worgul used that excuse, but after her weight reached 184 pounds, “I felt like every cookie I had over the holidays was jiggling around inside me,” she recalled. The Y Fitness Challenge worked for her because exercise is required and she didn’t want to let her weight-loss team down at weekly weigh-ins. She continued exercising and lost an additional seven pounds after the program ended. Simple tricks keep her active in her sedentary job: walking around the office for a break or reading her email standing up.
To keep up your exercise level during the holidays, ask family members to come with you for a walk or organize games so the holiday is not just about food, suggested Diana McCarthy, who leads Weight Watchers meetings in Mount Airy, Eldersburg and Westminster.
If the break room is full of snacks…
“Avoid that area,” said Y fitness director Antkowiak. Brown-bag lunch and try to stay active so you’ll be less hungry for the snacks. The office soda machine can pack on pounds, too. A 12-ounce Pepsi is 150 calories, Classic Coke, 140, ginger ale or 7Up, 140. Switch to flavored water, she suggested.
If you can’t stay away from a holiday buffet…
Be careful at parties, warned Manger-Weikel. Munch on the veggies, but dip is usually loaded with fat. “A little goes a long way,” she said. If dinner will be served later, make sure you haven’t eaten an entire meal at the buffet before you get to the dinner table.
Think about a calorie budget like a household budget, Manger-Weikel said. Then you’ll eye the buffet for, “What is different, that I don’t get every day? I’ll spend my calorie budget on that,” she said.
If there is food left over from my party…
It can’t stay there. Share it at the office, Antkowiak suggested. Put it in the freezer, so it’s not out where you can just grab some as you go by, said Manger-Weikel.
Curves encourages participants to keep food diaries. “If you write it down, you won’t eat it,” said Westminster Curves owner Mindy Jenkins.
If my mom/grandmother/aunt keeps trying to fill my plate: They mean well, but you have to say no. Remember, you want to be able to get into that slinky holiday dress, said Manger-Weikel.
