Issue 9 - North Canton City Schools - sparcc

Weight-loss challenge continues
Two participants continue to drop pounds
Kaci Lapp
Staff Writer
While many teens struggle
with balancing homework
and extracurricular activities,
others face the daily struggle
of balancing a healthy diet and
exercise plan to lose weight
and maintain a fit lifestyle.
Seniors Ashley Fogle and Erik Long
have been working hard for the last two
and a half months to lose weight and
begin living healthier day-to-day.
So far, Fogle claims to have lost 15
pounds, and Long said that his doctor
reported his weight loss to be 28 pounds.
Both admit that living healthier hasn’t
been as easy as they originally thought
it would be.
“Calorie counting and exercise is a
lot to do, and sometimes I just don’t want to
do it,” Long said. “I often want something,
but can’t have it because it has way too
many calories. I love muffins, but a single
muffin is usually more than 400 calories!”
For Fogle, the most difficult part about
getting in shape has been her struggle with
her asthma.
“I’m hoping to lose five to 10 more
pounds, but I can’t push myself too much
because of my asthma,” she admits.
Fogle confessed that she has only been
dieting off and on because she has a habit
of giving in to temptation.
“I’ve found that when I restrict myself, I
crave things,” she said. “I give in here and
there, but I don’t eat any red meat, and I
restrict fish and chicken. I’ve been eating
more vegetables and grain to balance things
out.”
Kidshealth.org maintains Fogle’s
outlook that restricting certain foods is a
bad idea. According the website, banishing
foods really does make you want them
even more. They also suggest that teens not
go “fat-free.”
“You need to have some fat in your
diet to stay healthy, so giving up all fatty
foods all the time isn’t a good idea. The
key to long-term success is making healthy
choices most of the time,” states kidshealth.
org. “If you want a piece of cake at a party,
go for it! But munch on the carrots rather
than the chips to balance it out.”
Mrs. Kathy Wise, the dietician and
nutritionist who spoke with both Fogle and
Long before they decided to change their
eating and exercising habits also suggests
pairing proteins with carbohydrates so
“I give in here and
there, but I don’t
eat any red meat,
and I restrict fish
and chicken. I’ve
been eating more
vegetables and grain
to balance things
out.” -Ashley Fogle,12
that a person can benefit
from the quick energy
carbohydrates provide,
while also benefiting
from the long-lasting
energy that comes with
eating proteins. Fogle
has been taking this
piece of Wise’s advice to
heart, but she and Long
have also found that
they created effective
ways of staying healthy on their own.
“A lot of what [Mrs. Wise] told me, I
already knew. I know what foods are bad
for me, and I know it’s always a choice to
eat what I eat and exercise as little as I do,”
Fogle said.
“[But now] I’m eating healthy, small
meals throughout the day so it fills me up
better so I’m not starving at the end of the
day.”
Long has also developed his own routine,
apart from Wise’s, to lose the weight he
wanted to lose.
“[Mrs. Wise] encouraged me not to lose
weight and just to lose body fat, which I
didn’t agree with. I wanted to lose weight…
[and] I’ve lost 30 pounds so far on my own
plan,” he said. “I weighed 250 [pounds]
when we started…and I didn’t want to stay
at that weight and be muscular, I wanted to
be a much lower number and thin….I plan
to increase my workout so that I can reduce
my body fat.”
Fogle says that little by little her healthy
eating habits are helping her to transform
her lifestyle into a healthier one.
“It’s a really gradual process, but it will
become a lifestyle change if I stick with it,”
she said. “I just hope to live a
healthier lifestyle and have a
healthier body.”
Long refuses to call
his dieting and exercising
experience an “experiment”
or a “lifestyle change.”
Once Long reaches his
goal, he says he will stop
maintaining his current
regimen, but he also says he’s
“I often want
something, but can’t
have it because it
has way too many
calories. I love muffins,
but a single muffin is
usually more than 400
calories!”
-Erik Long,12
learned a lot from the past two and a half
months.
“I won’t continue to count all my
calories after I hit my mark, but I do think
that I will think more about what I eat,” he
admits. “A ‘Big Mac’ doesn’t sound that
great anymore when you discover that it is
half a day’s worth of calories.”
Kidshealth.org has a simple piece of
advice for anyone to remember when he or
she decides to start living a more healthful
life:
“Try to remember that losing weight
isn’t going to make you a better person
– and it won’t magically change your life,”
they confess. “It’s a good idea to maintain
a healthy weight because it’s just that:
healthy.”
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