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A weighty matter
Healthy Lifestyle Award recipient says change is amazing!
By Janice Youngwith
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
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| Westmont resident Dave Mellish shares results of his dramatic lifestyle change. |
It may be true that the only constant in life is change, but for Dave Mellish, a 36-year-old Westmont resident, it's been a year of astronomical change.
The long-time west suburban father of one was honored by the American Heart Association and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare at the Chicago Metro Start! Heart Walk event last September as one of four 2007 Lifestyle Change winners.
The award is presented in recognition of the many positive steps individuals have taken to improve their quality of life and health and proves that no change is too small and every accomplishment significant, Mellish explains.
"Like so many, I slowly put on weight over the years," admits the former Wayne State football star. "Throughout my college years, I trained hard and never thought much about food. When my football playing days ended, I decided to take two weeks off from training. That grew to two months and eventually two years."
The 275-pound former collegiate offensive lineman says his weight skyrocketed, and in less than three years he was tipping the scales at 365 pounds.
"My work first as a high school teaching assistant and later a mortgage loan officer meant a more sedentary lifestyle," he says. "I eventually found myself behind a desk, doing lots of wining and dining of clients. My sleep habits changed dramatically and I became an insomniac."
The final turning point
His impending 2005 marriage to wife, Alicia, meant trimming 20 pounds before the wedding day, but that loss was short-lived.
"The following summer I gained more than 40 pounds as we attended ball games and celebrated the White Sox World Series championship," he recalls. "It wasn't until my wife and I started talking about babies and families that I did the math and realized there simply aren't many 62-year-old dads weighing 365 pounds. It was a big wake up call and time to make some changes."
Mellish says he enrolled in a special lifestyle program at the nearby Mbc Fitness and found himself in sync with the program's positive non-dieting focus.
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Start! Eating Right Guidelines
Becoming physically active is a great way to start heart-healthy living, but you also need nutritious foods, according to the American Heart Association. They recommend the following top five ways to Start! making heart-healthy choices.
1. Use as many calories as you take in. Start by knowing how many calories you should be eating and drinking to maintain weight. Don’t take in more calories than you can burn each day.
2. Eat a variety of nutritious foods from all food groups. Nutrient-rich foods have vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients but also are lower in calories.
3. Use the heart-check mark as your guide. Look for the American Heart Association’s heart-check mark on food packaging to quickly and reliably find foods that fit your eating plan. Save time. Before heading to the store, use their free grocery list builder to create a shopping list of heart-healthy products.
4. Learn to buy healthy foods when you shop. Use the American Heart Association’s Supermarket Smarts guide to learn to shop heart healthy. Online each month, find profiles of supermarket aisles.
5. Cook heart healthy. New tasty low-fat recipes are profiled monthly online.
For information, visit the Start! Eating Right section at www.AmericanHeart.org.
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Tried many diet programs
"Like most people trying to lose weight, I'd tried many diet programs and simply couldn't lose," he explains. "There was a sense of procrastinating and vowing to start afresh each Monday morning. When I finally decided to lose weight, the thought of failing yet another diet and never being thin again came over me. I guess the final turning point was when the doctor asked if I wanted to live to see 60."
The big question, he says, was "How?" He couldn't recall the last time he'd worked out, guessing it must have been 10 years previously.
"I found Mbc Fitness in Westmont last January and for the first time in my life, I was not only losing weight but actually developing muscles," he states. "Their program wasn't about losing weight or body building, but rather lifestyle change."
Mellish says his ability to focus instead on nutrition and all he needed to eat helped target patterns. "I soon discovered I wasn't eating enough of the right things," he reports. "Instead I learned I had to eat to lose weight — lots of fruits, vegetables and foods without labels."
A simple food checklist and making good choices made the difference for Mellish, now the father of a one-year-old daughter, Lauren.
"There wasn't room for fast foods, fried foods and unhealthy choices," he recalls. "The first thing I did was throw a party to announce my intentions to lose weight. I enrolled in the class, hired a personal trainer twice a week and vowed to begin an aggressive cardiovascular workout regimen."
Lost 135 pounds in a year
Mellish says he traded his burritos for veggies, Greek-style yogurt and water, losing 135 pounds in one year and maintaining that weight loss. He says the first time he felt an elbow bone or saw arm muscles, he was shocked.
"I'd been fat for over 10 years," he says. "But Mbc co-owner Andrea Metcalf, an NBC news contributor, believed in me and knew I could do it. Believing in a person makes all the difference."
Mellish says his comprehensive weight loss program included nutritional counseling, exercise, motivating information and coaching that helped him balance his health and daily life to lose weight.
The first week I lost eight pounds and thought, wow, eight pounds each week!" he says.
"When I only lost two pounds the following week, I decided I'd better start working out."
Mellish's determination was on target, according to American Heart Association experts who say the keys to successful weight loss aren't rocket science but rather a commitment to change habits for the long haul.
They estimate that 66 percent of American adults over age 20 are overweight or obese, eating more calories than they burn.
Children, too, they say are getting heavier and being placed at risk for conditions which normally don't develop until adulthood such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Now tipping the scales at 215 pounds, Mellish has completed two full marathons — one in Chicago and an Arizona race this past January. "It takes discipline, time, knowledge and focus to optimize health," Mellish concludes. "But it doesn't have to be difficult. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish."
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