While January marks the beginning of weight loss plans for thousands of people, January 2007 marked the end for Pat Wickard’s weight reduction.
It had taken two years for Wickard, 54, to reach her ideal weight — and there were moments of frustration during weeks when there was no loss at all. But Wickard of East Pennsboro Twp. never lost hope.
She had gained weight over the course of a decade and had become discouraged by her appearance and lack of well being. “I was feeling tired,” she said. “I was reading about how being overweight could affect people’s health, with diabetes and such. I was determined to lose weight and take care of myself.”
An initial visit to Weight Watchers indicated that her ideal weight was less than 159 pounds. She was 50 pounds over that. Realizing only a combination of diet and exercise was likely to take the weight off and keep it off, Wickard also enrolled in Curves and Tai Chi.
Fortunately, too, the mother of one had the support of her daughter, Kristin (getting married in May) in preparing and eating healthy meals. “We’ve been careful to include four or five fruit servings a day and have lots of water,” Wickard said. “Sometimes it’s just the little things that help, such as substituting whole wheat for white bread or 1 percent milk for whole.”
In a sense, Wickard did make a New Year’s resolution two years ago — not to rest on her laurels. She became a lifetime member of Weight Watchers, where she attends a weekly meeting. “If you stay within two pounds of your goal weight, you can go for free,” Wickard said.
Setting realistic goals, such as a slow but steady loss, is one thing Wickard learned along the way. “A lot of people want to lose 20 pounds in two months, but they’ll often go back to what they were before,” she said. “I’m glad it took me that long, because the weight didn’t come back on. I had to learn to eat differently.”
That meant eating less in general but also cutting back on portions even of healthy foods. If she eats something not on the approved list, such as an English muffin, she makes adjustments later rather than berating herself.
Wickard was also challenged by her sedentary lifestyle. She sits at a desk all day in her job as a claims review specialist at DST Health Solutions. So she began walking up the 54 steps to her third-floor office instead of taking the elevator. She parks farther from her destinations and, above all, goes to Curves straight from work. “If I come home first, I lose momentum,” she said. She goes three times a week.
Kathy Trapp, owner of the Enola Curves franchise, calls Wickard a “winner and a role model” to the other women. “She tells them they can do it, like she did.”
While the women-only facility focuses primarily on an exercise course based on resistance, rather than weight, members also undergo an initial fitness assessment of their general health as well as their weight loss and fitness goals. “If a woman weighs 200 pounds and is 5 feet 7 inches and wants to go down to 115, we try to help her see it’s not realistic,” Trapp said. “That weight is great as a teenager, but not for an adult. We talk about lifestyle and what the person’s motivator or driving force is for losing weight and getting fit.”
Often that “motivator” might be attending a class reunion or becoming a grandparent for the first time. It could be a daughter getting married. Or it might be less positive — such as a husband or significant other making a truthful comment when a woman asks that classic question: “Does this dress make me look fat?”
“We call it the ‘X factor,’ something that breaks the camel’s back,” Trapp said. In Wickard’s case the “X factor” was partly internal and partly not. She was going through a divorce and beginning life anew.
Curves offers a six-week weight-management program, Trapp said, who has a degree in family and consumer science and teaches food and nutrition at Central Dauphin Middle School. The program focuses on simple behavior modification, such as drinking eight glasses of water a day.
Although Wickard turned to Weight Watchers first, she believes its program would have been less effective without the fitness program at Curves. What’s more, she feels better emotionally after a workout session. “On some days, it’s hard to go, but the program takes only half an hour, and it’s not real vigorous. I do a lot of stretching. It feels good,” she said.
Moreover, despite tiring days at work or finding motivation during bad weather, Wickard finds it easier to be committed to a structured program. “I have exercise tapes at home, and that works for a week or two,” she said. “But then I lose momentum. And with a program, I also get to know other women.”
