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Resolution 2008: get fit

Be Reasonable and Go Slow, YMCA’S Ebony Young Advises

By Jim Mount

Fort Wayne Reader

2008-01-21


With the New Year upon us, as you look down at that slight bulge that obscures your line of sight to your feet, maybe you’re looking at that exercise bike in the garage buried under a pile of boxes and remembering that commitment you made to yourself: a commitment not just to get slimmer but to feel healthier and to be more active.

With the start of the New Year and the start of another resolution to lose weight and get fit, this is the time of year when memberships at the YMCA spike. Just ask Ebony Young, Executive Director of the Southeast Family YMCA.

“Yes! They go way up in January,” Young laughs.
Young hopes that the popularity of Y programs like its Obesity Program will help gain new members and retain existing ones by helping them develop a more satisfying and active lifestyle. Young describes the Obesity Program as a coaching program that she believes will help people develop a more solid and stable workout routine.

“(The program) coaches people to change and to have an effective lifestyle instead of just signing people up for memberships and leaving them on their own,” Young explains.

For many people, however, getting beyond where they are now in terms of motivation is a formidable obstacle that prevents future success. Taking the first step on what promises to be a long-term commitment can be intimidating. Before you get overwhelmed, Young has some advice on how to make a solid resolution and then translate that resolution into a consistent and active lifestyle.

Her first rule is to be realistic about how much you are going to accomplish in a given period of time.

“Losing a hundred pounds in three months, or working out every day – there’s no way,” Young warns. “Don’t set goals that aren’t realistic or achievable.”

That leads to Young’s second piece of advice: start slow.

“Start out slow, maybe one or two days a week. Do a Monday and a Wednesday, thirty minutes each of those days. Start out with lighter weights. Take a water aerobics class. Build on those concepts two days out of the week for two months then add a day - Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Build into it, slowly adding more workout and water aerobics time.”

As far as her own personal resolutions for ’08, Young is enthusiastic.

“One of my resolutions is to tone more and lift more weights,” Young reveals. “I do a lot of cardio workouts four days out of the week. As of now, I’m doing well and have been (in the weight room) two days this week”.

Only a few weeks into the New Year, Young is off to a roaring start on her resolutions and hopes that others will be inspired to do the same.

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