New year, new season for resolutions, lifestyle changes

JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - The Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall Commander's Race Series and the OohRah Run Series are both on hiatus until the spring, but patrons can visit the Fort Myer Fitness Center or the Cpl. Terry L. Smith Gym to witness that individual health and wellness certainly are not.

Both locations are busy 'round the clock with people armed with a sweat towel, bottled water and resolution.

"Over the holiday, I visited one of my husband's relatives who is in a nursing home because of her weight, and that's scary," Robyn Waters, a military spouse said.

Waters was joined by a group of friends at the Fort Myer Fitness Center on Jan. 4 to sign up for a five-week weight loss challenge and competition called Strive for Five.

Following weigh-in day, and over the next five weeks, participants receive fitness and weight loss challenges via email, and using the "honor system," must achieve them. The first week's challenge is to drink 64 ounces of water per day; the second week's challenge is to cut out sugar from their diet; the third week's challenge is cutting alcohol consumption; the fourth week's challenge is to participate in at least 30 minutes of exercise every day. The final week's challenge tasks participants to commit to seven days of "clean eating" (unprocessed foods).

"There needs to be guidelines, because I don't want people to lose confidence in achieving their goals early into the new year," said Mark James, Fort Myer Fitness Center fitness coordinator. "This is a lifestyle change and the scales will tell the truth."

In regards to the weight loss challenge rules and results, the challenge is not based on pounds but a percentage of weight lost.

"There's a formula that we use," James said. "You take how much weight the person lost and divide it by the initial starting weight and that will give you a number and you multiply that by 100 which will give a percentage."

The final weigh-in and announcement of the top male and female winners will be Feb. 8.

"What I want to do is beyond a competition," Waters said, acknowledging that all registered participants, including herself, should consider themselves winners in their own right. "And it doesn't matter if I lose a quarter of a pound a week, as long as I'm going in the right direction."

Waters was joined at the scale with friends Judy Buchholz and Mona Murphy.

"In the last three years, I've lost 25 pounds, and I've kept it off," Buchholz said. "Five more pounds during this challenge would be all I'd want to lose. That would be great."

"As a group, we'll all encourage each other," Murphy said. "It's a very motivated group."

At the Cpl. Terry L. Smith Gym on the Henderson Hall portion of JBM-HH, staff members are just as motivated and busy working with active duty service members who are not only entering the fitness facility with a resolution but a physical injury as well; Marines and Soldiers who are currently being treated by a medical provider who want to take a more active role in their physical training and conditioning.

The facility's athletic training room is staffed by reconditioning and prevention specialists, who train Marines and Soldiers, who suffer from muscle and skeletal injuries, who are committed to staying fit.

"This is a great resource and place for people to come to get assistance," said Derek Soloway, MCCS Henderson Hall Semper Fit Division. "People have met their clinical goals with their medical providers; my job is to get them to meet their tactical goals. That's where my program fills in the gap."

In response to the barrage of resolutions, Soloway said service members and their families should expect more health and wellness promotions during the month of January; Smith Gym will re-instate tobacco cessation classes, spin classes and Zumba.

"We've got a lot of things coming down the pipe and this is about building a better fighting force," he added. "We're busy improving people's health, they're quality of life and they'll perform better. And who doesn't want that?"

But Soloway reminds guests and regulars that regardless of the type of resolution they may have, should they falter Smith Gym is committed year-round to support "tactical athletes on the job, in recreation, and in sports management."

More information on scheduled classes and hours of operation is available on the Cpl. Terry L. Smith Gym website at www.mccshh.com/smithgym.html. Or call 703-614-7214.

Information, scheduled classes and hours of operation for both Fort Myer and Fort McNair Fitness Centers is available at www.jbmhhmwr.com/fitness-centers-sports. Or call the Fort Myer Fitness Center at 703-696-7868, or the Fort McNair Fitness Center at 202-685-3117.