Middle Georgia fitness experts share tips on how to stay motivated, healthy in 2020

This article is part of the series of Positively Healthy stories, brought to you with support from the Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

When Jerome Owens Jr. of Macon graduated from college, he stopped playing football, started eating a lot of fast food and his weight got out of control.

He had a wake up call when his aunt and his father started having health problems. He said at 355 pounds, he knew he had to change his lifestyle.

So, he went to a personal trainer.

“I did one session, and I didn’t see him again for three months,” Owens said with a laugh. “It was rough. I said, ‘I’m not doing this. I’m not doing this again.’ I said, ‘I’ll just be fat and happy.’”

Catalina Torres-Lopez, lead exercise physiologist at the Wellness Center on Northside Drive, Macon, said a lot of people lose their motivation to exercise and stay fit after the New Year.

“We usually see a big increase in participation at the gym in the first few months, and then they kind of start to taper off a little bit,” she said. “I think sometimes people just set very lofty goals for themselves, and they don’t necessarily have a plan.”

After a few months, Owens said he decided to give the trainer another try because he was playing flag football and wanted to get in better shape.

“Everything just started going good,” he said.

They went to a track a few months later for a run. Owens said he had lost around 40 pounds at that point, and when he finished his run, he said he didn’t realize he had gone three miles.

More than 60 pounds later Owens is working to complete the Abbott World Marathon Majors, a series of six marathons in different cities across the world. He has already completed two.

“You gotta have people who are in your corner. You got to have a great support system,” he said. “When you have a team of people who are like-minded and that will motivate you to continue to do better, that’s the best recipe for it.”

Where do we rank, healthwise?

Bibb County ranked 135 out of the state’s 159 counties in a breakdown of health data published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute through the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps program, according to Telegraph archives. Surrounding counties like Twiggs (158) and Peach (112) also ranked low while Houston (22) and Jones (13) ranked much higher.

The rankings are determined by health outcomes, which measure life expectancy and how healthy people are, according to the article.

In another Telegraph article, Bibb County’s average life expectancy is lower than the overall state and national averages.

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in people over the age of 35 in Bibb County and all of the surrounding counties, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

In Middle Georgia, some of the leading health problems are diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. Torres-Lopez said exercise can help all of these ailments.

“Exercise is literally medicine,” she said. “Exercise is literally the best thing that you can do for any of the chronic diseases.”

Torres-Lopez said people who are trying to become healthier should focus on four lifestyle changes:

• Get 7-9 hours of sleep every night
• Exercise for 150 minutes per week
• Use the plate method to eat balanced meals. The plate method divides a 9-inch dinner plate into three parts. Half of the plate should be filled with fruits and vegetables, a quarter of the plate should have protein, and a quarter of the plate should have slow carbs, such as a grain or starchy food.
• Manage stress by taking two 15 minute stress breaks per day

These are long-term goals, and it takes around 10 weeks to create a habit. Torres-Lopez said to stay motivated, people should break these goals into smaller, manageable goals.

She said pick one goal and set a time of day to work on that goal.

For example, start taking a 10-minute walk after lunch every day. After a week, add five minutes to that walk. Keep adding time to that walk until you reach the long-term goal of 150 minutes of physical activity per week.

Finding an accountability partner is also a great way to stay motivated, Torres-Lopez said. Fitness classes, a personal trainer or a friend to go running with are great options to fill this need.

People should also try to find activities that are fun for them to do, such as play basketball or go to group fitness classes.

“If you don’t like it, you’re not going to do it, and you’re not going to stick with it, so the main thing we always tell any client we ever have is what do you like to do?” she said.

Charise Stephens, executive director of the Georgia Wellness Fitness Festival held in Macon, said Middle Georgia has several resources that can help people stay motivated and reach their fitness goals for 2020.

“Fitness is the great equalizer. If you’re trying to get a better job, be a better parent, just be a better person, you have to have that foundation of fitness,” Stephens said.

Get outside

Middle Georgia has several parks and hiking and biking trails that people can use for free to get outside and enjoy nature, Stephens said.

“Macon specifically is called a city in a park, so it was designed with all these open spaces,” she said.

Here is a list of parks in Middle Georgia that offer a wide variety of amenities.

• Amerson River Park, Macon
• Tattnall Square Park, Macon
• Lake Tobesofkee, Macon
• Central City Park, Macon
• North Peach Park, Byron
• South Peach Park, Fort Valley
• Rozar Park, Perry

Macon also has several walking, hiking, running and biking trails people can use throughout the year.

• The Pig Trail
• North Macon Park
• Ocmulgee Heritage Trail
• Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park
• Arrowhead Park
• Bond Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
• L.H. Thomson Trail

Milledgeville has Bartram Forest, the Selma Erwin Nature Preserve and Oconee River Greenway. Each has a variety of trails.

Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge in Gray, Georgia, has five miles of walking trails, and Dauset Trails Nature Center has more than 20 miles of hiking and biking trails in addition to a trail on which you learn how to identify 31 different trees.

Sports and recreation

Macon-Bibb County offers several recreation centers that have basketball courts, exercise rooms and pools.

The exercise rooms at the facilities, such as South Bibb Recreation Center and Rosa Jackson Recreation Center, are free to use after signing a waiver.

Each recreation center offers a variety of group fitness classes and group sports that can be found on their website at www.maconbibb.us/recreation.

Stephens said people shouldn’t allow small things to become barriers for being healthy.

“For us to be the great community that we want to be, we’ve got to get our people healthier, and we got to get out of the box and help each other,” she said.

Owens said he has been on his fitness journey for six years, and he is still working to improve himself.

“It gets hard, but you know you just got to get through those dark times. Once you push through those, you can always continue the path that you were set on,” he said. “I think by me having a bunch of great run friends, it’ll always keep you motivated, and it keeps me motivated. “

Tips for staying motivated:

• Make manageable goals
• Have an accountability partner
• Get outdoors
• Use recreation centers
• Create a workout community

• Make sure you receive your doctor’s approval before starting a new exercise routine

Source: Charise Stephens, Georgia Wellness Fitness Festival

This story was originally published January 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM.