By Mary Ann Bragg
mbragg@capecodonline.com
February 10, 2012
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PROVINCETOWN — Dan McKeon likes to watch the “judge shows” as he walks for 20 minutes on the treadmill at Mussel Beach Health Club.
“‘Judge Judy,’ ‘People’s Court,’ one of those,” said McKeon, a Provincetown Fitness Challenge participant, as he pressed a few buttons on the machine Thursday and the tread beneath his feet began to move.
He was dressed in his black fitness challenge T-shirt and gray sweatpants, and was starting his warm-up for the day.
It is one-quarter — about three weeks — into the 12-week, townwide, eat-better and exercise-more challenge that began Jan. 16.
McKeon, 57, is one of three people being followed by the Times, and they all report decent progress at this three-week mark check-in — despite a head cold, unexpected travel and late-night habits.
McKeon, a photographer and thrift shop volunteer, has lost five pounds overall, down to 212. He’s lost 1½ inches around his waist, and he’s increased the number of sit-ups he can do in a minute by 11, from 24 to 35.
Kathleen Fitzgerald, 53, an innkeeper, has lost 3½ pounds since the challenge began, down to 145½ pounds. She has also lost half-an-inch around her waist, and increased the number of sit-ups she can do in one minute by six, from 44 to 50. But a head cold has set her exercise routine back a little.
“Last week, four out of the six days, I bailed on the workout,” Fitzgerald said.
Austin Knight, 54, a town selectman and a builder, has lost seven pounds in the last three weeks, and close to 3 inches around his waist. Knight has increased the number of sit-ups he can do in a minute by seven, from 30 to 37.
“Today was a tough day,” Knight said on Wednesday by phone from Connecticut. “I had breakfast here, and had a light lunch. It’s hard when I’m driving everywhere. But I feel a difference already. I feel light.”
The 100 participants in the self-guided fitness challenge have settled into their routines, challenge founder and personal trainer Denise Gaylord said Wednesday.
Each participant has agreed to increase their exercise, modify their food consumption and keep a daily journal of their progress based on principles of the 1999 book “Body for Life” by Bill Phillips.
Gaylord ran a five-person fitness challenge last winter in Provincetown, and then expanded on that experience to offer help this winter to anyone in town who wanted to participate.
Participants paid $259 each, with discounts for groups and teens. They have free access on specifics days of the week at local gyms and fitness centers. The challenge ends April 7.
“People are mixing and matching all over the place,” Gaylord said of the combination of exercise classes and opportunities, group runs and several local restaurant and food store discounts and specials being offered.
Back on the treadmill at Mussel Beach, McKeon joked that he’d managed to eat the required six meals a day on Wednesday, despite his habit of staying up late at night and getting up late.
“I’m not always that hungry,” he said. He’s eating protein bars, chicken and turkey, multigrain bread and veggie burgers.
He said he’d discovered, too, that on Sunday, the official day of rest and relaxation for all the participants, that he preferred not to gorge.
“I’m not going to pig out, just because we can,” he said.