Eastern North Carolina boasts a rich culture, with its fascinating history, friendly people and its tasty, but unhealthy, food.
A steady diet of fried foods, fatty meats, salty side dishes and sugary sweets along with a sedentary lifestyle combine to make a deadly combination.
“In this area, we do have high rates of obesity and (being) overweight, and one of the biggest problems that we see is diabetes,” said Angie Doncaster, dietitian for Lenoir Memorial Hospital. “Type 2 diabetes can be directly related to carrying extra weight, especially around the abdomen area. The biggest (problems are) diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and risk of heart attack.”
At the same time, Americans are inundated everyday with advertisements for quick fixes, weight loss surgeries and magic pills that promise fast results.
But hundreds of people in Lenoir County are sticking to their plan of losing weight the old-fashioned way — diet and exercise — as part of Lighten Up Lenoir, a free community weight loss challenge hosted by Lenoir Memorial Hospital.
“It comes down to calories in and calories out,” Doncaster said. “If you take in more calories than you burn, you gain weight. If you take in less calories, you’ll lose weight.”
The program is facilitated entirely on its website, lightenuplenoir.org, with the current session running from June 23 to May 11. It tracks people’s weight loss, and sometimes gains and provides important tools for becoming healthier, such as exercise videos and healthy recipes.
Let’s meet some of the people who are taking part in the 16-week challenge
The Martins
Trey Martin stands 6-foot-3-inches, every bit as tall as his father, a former basketball standout at Grainger High School. Martin was also athletic, taking after his father and playing basketball while attending Barton College in the late 1980s and early 90s. Martin had no idea that one morning his life would come to a screeching halt.
He woke up one day and noticed something was wrong — very wrong. He had no feeling in his right hand, and the numbness rapidly spread to his other hand and legs.
He was diagnosed with polyneuropathy, a neurological disorder that affects the nervous system, damaging his balance and mobility.
“I haven’t felt my feet in four years,” Martin said. “(Polyneuropathy) causes numbness, instability with balance and things like that. I’m limited in the things that I can do.”
On top of that, Martin also temporarily took steroids to treat his condition, which wrought havoc on his body. The treatment, along with an unhealthy diet of burgers and pizza, caused him to pack on about 80 pounds.
Martin decided last summer he would start doing what he could to lose weight. With a healthier diet and a steady workout regimen, he has lost 70 pounds so far, 10 pounds of which came off since the start of Lighten Up Lenoir almost three weeks ago.
Though he still must walk with a cane to keep his balance, he has regained feeling in his hands and some in his legs, something his mother, Phyllis, attributes to his healthier lifestyle.
“He’s come a long way since he was taken sick, because he had no feeling anywhere, his legs, arms or feet,” she said. “I attribute it all to the exercise and the diet because … he could hardly get out of the chair because he was so big and he had put on so much weight. Now he’s within 11 pounds of his original weight by dieting, eating right and exercising.”
Trey Martin is his mother’s inspiration for joining Lighten Up Lenoir, something she wanted to do to fight off health problems of her own, including having had five heart attacks and two bypass surgeries.
“I’ve been in cardiac rehab for 14 years,” Phyllis Martin said. “Every time you have a heart attack, you have to start the program all over … Had it not been for that, I probably would have not been here.”
Phyllis, 65, believes her heart problems are partially genetic — her father died at age 42 of a heart attack and three of her brothers had heart attacks — but she also admitted a diet rich in red meat and fried foods also played a role. But with Lighten Up Lenoir, and motivation from her son, she’s hoping to reverse it.
“(Trey) has been my inspiration, because I figured with his disability, if he can lose that much weight and have the disability that he has, anybody can do it,” she said. “I’ve been carrying around 50-60 pounds extra since he was born, and that was 42 years ago. I decided it was time for me to get some weight off. I just wished I had started when he started.”
Phyllis Martin now uses healthy cooking tips and recipes from the program’s website, exercises five days a week and uses the Weight Watchers point system to keep track of what she eats.
Phyllis Martin said she has lost about 10 pounds and giving up soft drinks has been one reason.
“I never drank water before,” she said. “I just hardly didn’t ever drink any, so now I’m drinking it all the time.”
Phyllis Martin’s husband, Titus, said he has seen his wife gain and lose a total of about 500 pounds since they got married 45 years ago.
“I’ve seen times in her life when she was too thin, believe it or not,” he said. “I know it’s tough, living in Eastern North Carolina and eating the way we do. … Growing up with us, we were always meat and potato people.”
Family man
Keith Hayes, a 37-year-old producer for Jake A. Parrott Insurance, was flipping through an edition of The Free Press a few weeks ago when he stumbled on an article about Lighten Up Lenoir. Though he had tried fad diets and working out before, he knew he was finally ready for something that would not only help him drop pounds, but keep them off.
“I was planning on starting a diet the same day Lighten Up Lenoir happened to start,” he said. “My mother in law called and I was at the house, and my wife talked to her. She said, ‘Do you want to do this?’ ”
Hayes’ answer was yes, but for him it was more than about just losing some excess weight. The self-described “Mountain Dew-aholic” was driven also because of his family’s history of heart disease. Hayes’ father had a history of heart attacks and passed away when Keith was only 17 years old. He wanted to avoid a similar fate, and wants to stick around for his 6-year-old twins.
Hayes has lost a staggering 22 pounds since starting Lighten Up Lenoir began three weeks ago, thanks to a strict diet and moderate exercise.
He started the Dukan Diet, which he said is designed to keep pounds off by heavy dieting at first and then incorporating lifestyle changes.
Along with dieting, Hayes found a workout that suited him.
“I’ll take 20-30 minutes out of my day and go walk at the track every day at the hospital,” Hayes said. “Unusually within that 30 minute time frame, I can fit in 2 miles. … It was probably two to three years ago, I’d go work out, kill myself for an hour or hour and a half and be zapped for the rest of the day. I’d do it again the next day, and eventually it just got to the point where I didn’t want to do it anymore.”’
Although he’s already lost a significant amount of weight, Hayes said he hopes to drop another 50 pounds and to stay on track.
“Playing with your kids, jogging … when you get overweight, it just becomes more difficult,” he said. “I’m looking forward to dropping it back off again and see if I can get back to my early 20s weight.”
Busy woman
As a branch manager for ResCare of Kinston, Veronica Lee is always on the go. Her exercise regimen used to be close to nothing, and she often ate fast food and processed snacks when out and about.
“Traveling from place to place, you find yourself doing a lot of fast food or snacking,” Lee said. “That was my biggest problem — I’m a snacker.”
Because her company promotes healthy living, and with encouragement from her doctor, she joined Lighten Up Lenoir to make her physical health a priority.
“I do have some medical conditions, hypertension and things of that nature,” she said. “I expressed to (my doctor) I have really got to do something … and he encouraged it.”
Lee, 41, said ResCare has three teams of four. Though there is a little bit of friendly competition, the most important thing for everyone involved is to keep each other on track.
“With the teams, we’re contributing funds and buying healthy snacks so we have nothing in the office to tempt us to do wrong,” Lee said. “We motivate and encourage one another. … We like to do things together as a team, because it kind of promotes morality in the organization.”
Lee said for some of the participants, staying on track may be a matter of life and death.
“We had one individual who, before the holidays, had a heart attack,” she said. “It so happened that the doctor had asked her to develop some of the things that we’re already doing (with Lighten Up Lenoir). She has done that, and she has done extremely well. She is back at work.”
Outside of the office, she now works out regularly and even has a new-found love of yoga.
She exercises at the Minges Wellness Center and finds inspiration in senior citizens who are still active.
“You see a lot of elderly people there,” she said. “People with physical disabilities, you see them making that effort to do it and that really is what motivates me. I’m thinking, ‘Yeah, I can do this.’ ”
Lee has lost 9 pounds so far, and she is also noticing she is livelier.
“I have more energy, and that’s my ultimate goal, as well as losing weight,” she said. “I don’t want to lose too much too fast, but I just want to keep it ongoing and just develop that as a continuous life style.”
Lee said she has cut fast food out of her life and now eats balanced meals consisting of fresh produce, fish and poultry.
“I’ve acquired the taste (for healthier food), and I’m okay with it, because there are so many different types of things you can use for seasoning that are healthy,” she said. “Where we are, (fattening food) is what most of us are accustomed to, but I’m leaving that lifestyle and developing better habits.”
Follow the leader
Marieta Miller, a case manager at ResCare, participates on the same Lighten Up Lenoir team as Lee.
Though she doubted that Lee would pull through, Miller was pleasantly surprised when she was proven wrong.
“(Lee used to be) the type of individual, she doesn’t believe in exercise and she would never go on a diet,” Miller said. “The only thing she wanted to do was eat and sleep. But she got motivated. … I was expecting it to last maybe two to three days, and I noticed she kept going. She really inspired me.”
Miller, 49, started making healthier changes two weeks before Lighten Up Lenoir started to get adjusted to the new lifestyle, and it has paid off as she’s lost 7 pounds so far.
Instead of being tempted by fried food, she eats baked chicken, whole grains, eggs and healthier alternatives.
Miller also goes to the gym three to four times a week, walks at home and looks forward to doing Zumba and other dance workouts with her coworkers.
Miller said she has also enjoyed the extra boost her healthier diet and exercise have given her.
“I have more energy,” Miller said. “I’m not as sleepy as I used to be because I used to sit down in my chair (and get drowsy) and when I get home, I would just fall out. But I’m finding that I’m not doing that any more.”
Miller said she is taking small steps and hopes to lose 15-20 pounds a month.
Miller said she doesn’t dread weighing herself, because the only thing that will show is the discipline and hard work she is continuing.
“I enjoy that weigh-in every Monday, because it’s exciting,” she said. “It’s kind of tempting during the week to go get on the scale, but I’ve got to wait till Monday. … I intend to keep Lenoir County light.”
Jane Moon can be reached at 252-559-1082 or jmoon@freedomenc.com.
Breakout 1: The Challengers
Keith Hayes
Age: 37
Height: 6-foot
Goal weight: 207 pounds
Weight lost since Jan. 23: 22 pounds
Reason for joining Lighten Up Lenoir: “I wanted to lose weight to be healthier, and my father had a heart problem history.”
Veronica Lee
Age: 41
Height: 5-foot, 3-inches
Goal weight: 160 pounds
Weight lost since Jan. 23: 9 pounds
Reason for joining Lighten Up Lenoir: “I do have some medical conditions, hypertension, things of that nature. I had joined the (Minges) wellness center, so I had heard more about it, which motivated me even more.”
Phyllis Martin
Age: 65
Height: 5-foot, 6-inches
Goal weight: 150 pounds
Weight lost since Jan. 23: 10 pounds
Reason for joining Lighten Up Lenoir: “(My son Trey) has been my inspiration, because I figured with his disability, if he can lose that much weight and have the disability that he has, anybody can do it.”
Trey Martin
Age: 42
Height: 6-foot, 3 inches
Goal weight: 210 pounds
Weight lost since Jan. 23: 10 pounds
Reason for joining Lighten Up Lenoir: “I was worried about me. With putting on so much weight, I knew it was a strain on my heart.”
Marieta Miller
Age: 49
Height: 5-foot, 3-inches
Goal weight: 185 pounds
Weight lost since Jan. 23: 7 pounds
Reason for joining Lighten Up Lenoir: “It is fun, because I have a group of people to do it with. … I have competition because everybody is racing to lose pounds, so it’s exciting.”
Breakout 2:
Top three tips for losing weight
Eat breakfast. When we’re trying to lose weight, eating breakfast is so important because it kick-starts your metabolism. If you skip breakfast, it keeps your metabolism lower, and your body is not functioning at its best Eat more fruits and vegetables. They are naturally low in fat and high in fiber. For example, a cup of carrots is 50-60 calories, the same as about seven potato chips Don’t try to change things too drastically. Look at making small changes you can sustain for the rest of your life
Source: Lenoir Memorial Hospital Dietitian Angie Doncaster
See the article here:
Kinston residents share stories of weight loss with Lighten Up Lenoir
