Local woman launches effort to help Naperville get fit

You have to walk before you can run, the saying goes.

Naperville resident Carla Linder-Mayer understands what that means in a very personal way.

Today the mother of three adult children exudes fitness. She exercises daily, eats healthy and tackles life with energy and enthusiasm.

It wasn't always that way.

Linder-Mayer remembers how she used to wake up every morning wondering if she had clothes in the closet that fit and worried whether chairs would hold her. She was concerned whether people who met her for the first time could see past her weight to who she was.

"My weight was at the forefront of every single thing I did," she said.

Linder-Mayer wanted to participate in public fitness events such as 5K runs, but felt intimidated. That's why the inaugural event for her Get Fit Naperville initiative will be a one-mile walk on Father's Day during the city's Naper Days celebration.

"It's really focused on deconditioned people," she said. "My vision for this is to really be a starting place for people."

Linder-Mayer launched Get Fit Naperville after being inspired by her own weight loss. Growing up in Naperville, she had struggled with her weight since she was a child. As an adult, she twice lost 100 pounds or more, but gained it back.

The third time when she lost 125 pounds about two years ago, she determined to keep it off.

"I wanted to make sure I didn't do what I had done in the past," she said. "I really wanted to make it a lifestyle change."

Linder-Mayer's research convinced her she was not alone. About 65 percent of Americans are overweight and about 35 percent of those are obese, she said. She went to Naperville Mayor George Pradel and got his support for promoting fitness in a communitywide effort.

Get Fit Naperville

The Get Fit Naperville committee started meeting nine months ago. Linder-Mayer said the group includes about 10 organizations, including the Naperville Park District and the Heritage Family YMCA.

Committee member Judy Ellertson, executive director of the Fry Family branch of Heritage YMCA, said Linder-Mayer's community effort fit well with a national Activate America initiative the local Y got involved with 21/2 years ago to address the nation's growing health crisis.

"When I heard about Get Fit Naperville, it made perfect sense for the YMCA to be on board. This health crisis is larger than any one agency. In working together, we will have a larger impact on the community," she said.

Linder-Mayer has launched a Web site, getfitnaperville.com, to list fitness events and classes, and to give encouragement to others. Individuals will be able to record their weight loss privately, but the pounds will be added to a communitywide total, she said.

The Naperville resident has met with restaurants that have agreed to offer Get Fit Naperville menu options marked with a sticker. Two summer walks are planned that will begin and end at a restaurant, and information will be offered on how to eat out and still maintain weight goals.

Linder-Meyer is leading a Walk-to-Run program associated with Dick Pond Athletics, and a personal trainer is working to start neighborhood-based walking groups.

"It's a way to meet your neighbor, get in a little activity," Linder-Mayer said. "Our hope is we'll have some competition between neighborhoods."

She envisions holding town meetings where speakers address wellness-related topics.

Lifestyle change

Linder-Mayer said she only wishes she had started her own fitness journey earlier. She recalled being too tired to set firm boundaries with her children.

"I think I would have enjoyed my time with my kids a lot more," she said.

Although many fitness events are geared toward children, Linder-Mayer said it's doubtful youngsters can be successful if parents aren't setting an example.

Her own most recent weight loss came after gastric bypass surgery, but Linder-Mayer said it's a mistake to think surgery is an easy way out.

"I work every bit as hard now. I exercise two hours a day. I watch everything that goes in my mouth," she said. "I could regain my weight back just as I have done in the past."

Linder-Mayer said she and her husband, Mark Mayer, get out to run at 4 a.m. before he goes to work. They bike on weekends. She works out at a Burr Ridge health club where she is employed part-time as a corporate fitness instructor.

She consumes five small meals a day instead of waiting until midafternoon to eat like she once did. Never a vegetable lover, Linder-Mayer said she now savors them with seasonings.

"Your taste buds do change," she said. "I think more about what my body needs to function instead of making every meal an event."

At her heaviest, the 5-foot 10-inch woman weighed 293 pounds. She now stays in the mid-160s, she said.

"I still have 10 pounds I'd love to get off, but if I end up staying where I am, I'm OK," she said. "It's not so much the numbers on the scale as each day doing things a little better than the day before."

Like an alcoholic or drug addict, a person struggling with weight loss has to come to the point of wanting to change and being unwilling to go back, Linder-Mayer said.

But even the most determined person can weaken without support along the way. Sometimes the people whom we want most to support us are hardest to get on board, Linder-Mayer said.

"I found people to support me, not necessarily expected it," she said.

One of those people was Naperville resident Marge Lyse, a co-worker at the health club where Linder-Mayer is employed. Lyse has maintained a 175-pound weight loss since 2004 and joined the Get Fit Naperville committee.

"We've been there. We know the support they need," she said.

Lyse credits Linder-Meyer's organizing skills and ideas with launching Get Fit Naperville and said she hopes the effort catches on in other communities.

"She has this great instinct of knowing how to get people motivated," Lyse said.

Fitness and exercise can be habit-forming, just like her overeating once was, Linder-Mayer said.

"My day doesn't feel complete any more if I don't," she said.

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If you goWhat: 1-mile Get Fit Naperville inaugural walk

When: 11 a.m. Sunday, June 21

Where: Naper Settlement, 523 S. Webster St., Naperville

Cost: No charge for walk; admission to Naper Days

Details: Registration requested, not required

Info: carla@getfitnaperville.com or (630) 926-1201