Dawn Bonker
It wasn’t a big deal moment. But when a certain birthday rolled around and Peter Westenhofer took a look in the mirror, he made a decision. He needed to lose weight.
“I thought, ‘You know I could probably be doing better than this,’ ” he said. “It wasn’t a mid-life crisis or anything. I was just well, ‘Let’s give it a try and see what happens.’ ” So he joined the Weight Watchers at work program offered at Chapman University and 76 pounds later, the rest is history.
Now Westenhofer is a lifetime member successfully maintaining his weight loss and the kind of guy who always takes the stairs. But he has plenty of company. Thanks to a generous incentive program that reimburses faculty and staff who enroll and attend the at-work program, more than 60 people are now attending the Wednesday noon-hour meetings. And the program was working well even before the incentive plan. Since the at-work meetings launched in October 2009, the total weight loss for the Chapman crew is 1,000 pounds.
Meetings are Wednesdays at noon in Argyros 201, with weigh-in beginning at 11:30 a.m. New members are welcome at any time and all paperwork can be completed at the meetings.
Congratulations, Peter! You are truly an inspiration for all of us.
As are you, Chris! What’s your best tip to others?
best tip…hmmm…I would say, the best tip is to take a localized approach as opposed to trying to take in the whole picture. When starting out, it’s really easy to get overwhelmed with how far you have to go. When you get overwhelmed, it’s far easier to just quit and go back to your old ways.
Instead, take one task (i.e. drinking 64 oz of water each day) and focus on that. Once you have mastered that task, add another task (i.e. eating slowly during meals). As time goes on, more and more tasks are added and soon you start to see the weight just shed off.
When many people start a weight loss plan, they think they need to start off with a huge bang. Yet, when the reality sets in that they won’t be able to keep up that intensity over the long haul, their dedication and motivation wanes. Weight loss is a lifelong goal so there shouldn’t be a rush to get to your goal in a specific time frame.
As the old adage says: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. A step is easier to comprehend than a thousand miles, don’t you think?