FEED YOUR BODY RIGHT: THIS WINNER RUNS TO EAT

When Rick Myers decided to slim down, he gave himself a choice. He would either consume fewer calories or burn more with exercise. He chose the latter and took off more than 50 pounds.

Rick, a 46-year-old barber from Rockville, Maryland, admits that he has a passion for eating. But until he joined Weight Watchers in 1990, he had never exercised. “I got the message right away that I couldn’t lose weight and keep it off without working out,” he says. “So a week after I joined, I started ] walking.”

Back then, Rick weighed 240 pounds. He could barely walk for 15 minutes without tiring. But he stuck with it, gradually working his way up to 45 minutes—about 3 miles—every day. By the end of that year, he had lost more than 50 pounds.

More than a year later, still buoyed by his success, Rick decided to step up his exercise program. “I didn’t want to worry about every little thing that I ate,” he explains. “I figured that if I switched from walking to running, I’d burn more calories.” In fact, he started running the day that he successfully quit smoking, April 14,1992.

“At first, I thought that by running, I could cut my workout time a little,” Rick says. “But then I got addicted to running. My workouts were twice as long as when I was walking.”

Now, Rick runs for about an hour every day, covering roughly 7 miles. He also goes to a gym three times a week.

While Rick’s workouts may seem demanding, they’re the price that he’s willing to pay for the freedom to enjoy his favorite foods. “You have to strike a balance between the amount of food that you eat and the amount of exercise that you do to keep your weight pretty much the same,” he says.

Rick’s eating habits have improved, however. These days, he says that eating healthfully and exercising regularly are as natural for him as overeating and smoking used to be. And those 50 pounds that he lost never came back. “My only regret is that I waited so long before making these changes,” he says.

WINNING ACTION

Pick your battle plan. Consume more calories than you burn, and you’ll gain weight. Consume fewer calories than you burn, and you’ll lose. It’s that simple. You just have to decide whether you want to focus on reducing your calorie intake from foods or on burning more calories through exercise. Or if you want, focus on both. Just do what feels right for you.

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Tags: Weight Loss | Posted in Weight Loss