In this article, four nurses share their stories of why they made fitness a priority and how they stay motivated. They don’t consider themselves fitness experts, but their experiences have inspired others to take steps toward a healthier lifestyle.

When Sonja Fuqua, PhD, RNC, makes presentations to groups about the importance of a healthy lifestyle, she tells the story of her own remarkable journey to fitness. She brings along a poster to illustrate major points of her presentation. Two pictures on the poster, labeled “Before” and “After,” effectively capture the attention of the audience. 

Sonja Fuqua, after she lost more than 100 pounds. Click on picture at top of article to access photo gallery.

When she was in first grade, Fuqua weighed almost 100 pounds. By age 12, her weight had climbed to nearly 200. “I maxed out at 263 ¾ pounds,” she recalls. Her body mass index (BMI) as a young adult was 41, in the obese range. Over a period of several years, she lost more than 100 pounds by making significant changes in her lifestyle. Now, at age 50, her BMI of 23.5 falls in the normal range.

“The first thing people always ask me is, ‘How long did it take?’ I did not do it in one sitting. It was a process,” Fuqua says.

Over the years, she tried many different diets, ranging from Weight Watchers to low-carbohydrate to the cabbage soup diet. She liked the structure of Weight Watchers and lost about 45 pounds on that program. The most weight she lost at one time was 75 pounds on a low-carb diet. Once she stopped following a particular diet, though, she regained most of the weight. Finally, she realized she needed to get off the “yo-yo plan” of dieting.

“Modified eating and exercise are key,” Fuqua says. “I recognized that it’s really just making a lifestyle change and not about being on a specific diet.”

She confesses that she finds it difficult to control portion size and avoid sweets. When she is dining out, she allows herself a little more leeway than when she prepares meals at home. But, if she gains a few pounds, she goes into what she calls “panic mode” and begins “damage control,” as she carefully watches what she eats and increases her exercise to get back on track.

Workouts have been an integral part of Fuqua’s fitness plan. She exercises about four days a week for one to 1 ½ hours. She likes variety in her workouts. If the weather is nice, she might take a three-mile walk. Her cross-training routine at the gym includes aerobics, water aerobics and weightlifting. Arriving at the gym around 5:30 a.m. works best for her.

“I like to get it done in the mornings so that nothing in my routine, daily lifestyle can get in the way,” Fuqua says. “I tell my friends, ‘When the clock goes off, just get up and move, because if you think about it, you can find every reason not to climb out of bed at that time of the morning.’”

She finds that if she misses her workouts for several days, she starts feeling guilty and can actually get sore from not exercising. “I’m not a crazy workout person, and I’m not a bodybuilder,” she says. “I just exercise in moderation for the health benefits.”

One of Fuqua’s biggest motivations for staying fit is trying to avoid or postpone health problems that run in her family. Her mother had diabetes, as do her two brothers. Her father’s side of the family has a history of heart disease and stroke.

Fuqua worked for the Jackson Heart Study, a research program that examines cardiovascular disease in African-American communities in Mississippi. Study data revealed that two-thirds of the more than 5,000 participants had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Fuqua designed and implemented a pilot program that promoted and provided education for making positive lifestyle changes to reduce these risks. She retired last year from her full-time position, but continues to work part time for the heart study and on other projects. 

Practicing what he preaches

Audwin Fletcher’s weight has dropped from 398 to 240 pounds.

Like Fuqua, nursing professor Audwin Fletcher, PhD, APRN, FNP, BC, promotes making lifestyle changes to achieve physical fitness. Fifteen years ago, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He began exercising primarily to help control his blood sugar, but he later intensified his efforts.

“Over the next several years, I became more involved because of the natural high that occurred after having worked out,” he says.

Fletcher’s pilot research study on childhood obesity at the University of Mississippi Medical Center included strategies for teaching both proper nutrition and exercise. His desire to set an example for others provided additional motivation for him to get fit.

“As time passed and I began my research trajectory, I became more interested in practicing what I preached,” he says. “I asked myself, how can I hold my patients to the gridiron of being nutritionally, physically and medically compliant, when I’m not?”

From his top weight of 398 pounds, he has dropped to 240 pounds, with a BMI of 28. He’s still working toward achieving an optimal weight.

Fletcher objects to the word diet. He has lost weight not by following a certain diet, but by gradually altering his eating pattern. Essentially, he says, this means he has made a conscious change to his lifestyle.

About nine years ago, he decided to limit his intake of carbohydrates and fats. As a first step, he followed this modified eating pattern one day a week for six weeks. If he slipped up, he had to restart the six-week period. Once he accomplished that goal, he set his sights on eating healthy food two days a week for six weeks. After 1½ years, he had progressed to eating healthy every day of the week. Once a month, he treats himself to fried catfish, his favorite meal.

“It has truly been a roller-coaster ride,” Fletcher says. “Although I lost the bulk of the weight over a two-year period, I am still toning and building muscle mass.”

What keeps Fletcher on the path to fitness? “My motivation is life,” he says. He cites National Institutes of Health (2007) research that links obesity to hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer and even depression.

Celebrating recovery
Vicki Hess, 50, RN, MS, a professional speaker, author and consultant, didn’t need to make major changes to her lifestyle. She worked out regularly, limited her sugar intake and ate a balanced diet of organic foods. A health condition, however, changed the focus of her commitment to fitness. Following a hysterectomy for a suspicious cyst in February 2008, she was diagnosed with Stage I ovarian cancer.

“I was lucky; it hadn’t spread,” Hess says.

Vicki Hess​

The road to recovery wasn’t easy. Chemotherapy sapped her energy. She required two additional operations because of a surgical error during the hysterectomy. During her long recovery, she saw an article in her church newsletter by a woman she knew, who described her exciting experience with triathlon competition.

“If Betsy can do it, I can,” Hess told herself. She signed up to participate in the August 2009 Iron Girl triathlon, when she would celebrate her one-year anniversary of being treatment-free and cancer-free.

By the time she received medical clearance in October 2008 to resume exercising, she had been away from the gym for nearly seven months. She slowly began training for the triathlon, a sprint-distance event that included a 0.6-mile swim, 17-mile bike ride and 5K run.

“What I loved about training was, I did things I wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t been competing,” Hess says. “It really pushed me out of my comfort zone.” She practiced swimming in a lake, since the triathlon swim was in open water. She also took long bike rides by herself every week. In addition to the physical benefits, she found that during the long rides, she often came up with good ideas related to work, such as material for her newsletters or blog posts on her Web site.

Hess received support from many sources during her training and on the day of the event. Her husband, wearing a “My Wife Is an Iron Girl” T-shirt, cheered her on, as did her sons and friends. Her 70-member team, sporting bright yellow triathlon suits, shouted “Go Team Fight” to encourage each other along the way. (View a video of Hess’s journey from cancer patient to triathlon participant.) She was one of the top fundraisers for her team, securing $4,677 in donations for the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults.

Hess encourages others to consider participating in a triathlon.

“I can’t tell you how many people, when they hear I’ve done the triathlon, say, ‘Oh, I could never do that.’ That’s not true. Everybody works at a different pace. It’s not about beating anybody; it’s about finishing. That’s what we were all shooting for.”

Motivating herself and her students
When Grace Moodt, 50, started running in 1983, her motivation was simple: Her jeans were getting tight. Moodt, now an assistant professor at Austin Peay State University School of Nursing in Clarksville, Tennessee, achieved her goal of fitting into her jeans. As years went by, however, she found that her running program wasn’t as effective as it had been, and her knees were beginning to bother her.

Grace Moodt competes in about three triathlons a year.

Watching her daughter compete in a triathlon sparked her interest in the sport. For the last three years, she has competed in about three events a year. Like Hess, she participates in triathlon sprints, which involve shorter distances.

Moodt finds that a major motivation for her to exercise is, simply, how great it makes her feel. Strenuous exercise can produce a “runner’s high” that is thought to be related to endorphins. The release of endorphins occurs during long, continuous workouts, when the level of intensity is between moderate and high and breathing is difficult (Wikipedia, 2010).

Moodt is familiar with this response. Recently, after two 10-hour days supervising students in clinicals, she was exhausted and thought about relaxing at home, rather than working out. She talked herself into taking her dogs for a walk. As soon as she put her sneakers on, she decided to do a short jog instead.

“I ended up doing the training that I should have been doing,” Moodt says. “And I felt great when I was done. It’s that feeling that pushes me to go ahead and do the exercise. All those endorphins that move into your body make soreness and weariness go away,” Moodt says. “I think I’m addicted to endorphins.”

Moodt also emphasizes the important role of proper nutrition. What she eats affects her performance, whether she’s running, biking or swimming. She tells her students that it’s essential for them to understand nutrition, so they can teach their patients.

“Whether it’s renal failure or congestive heart failure, patients need to know what they can and can’t have. The more information you give your patients,” she tells her students, “the better the possibility they will work with you and adopt some of this as part of their lifestyle.”

Moodt is currently training for the 24 April half marathon (13.1 miles) in Nashville, Tennessee. After hearing about the event, several students expressed interest and asked about her training schedule.

“I don’t ever suggest that anybody take up running,” she says. “But there are so many other things—bicycling, hiking, walking your dog. There are wonderful fitness facilities. I just suggest that everybody should try to get out and do something at least three days a week.”

Fitness: Challenges and rewards
Nurses face a number of challenges in their effort to become and stay fit. Most nurses have a Type E personality, says fitness expert Gary Scholar. They do everything for everyone but themselves. The author of Fit Nurse: Your Total Plan for Getting Fit and Living Well (2010) also cites long working hours, inconsistent eating and job stress as other factors that can hamper the efforts of nurses trying to implement a healthier lifestyle. Scholar says he wrote the book to empower nurses to rise above the challenges and place self-care high on their list of priorities.

The rewards of a healthy lifestyle are significant.

Participating in the triathlon gave Hess a big lift following her recovery from cancer surgery. She encourages other nurses to make time to take care of themselves. “Pick a goal and just do it,” she says. “It was a huge, huge accomplishment for me.”

“I’m not trying to make fitness gurus out of everybody,” Fuqua says. “I preach making a lifestyle change. It needs to just be part of your lifestyle to eat healthy and take care of your body. Nobody else can do that for you.” RNL

Jane Palmer is assistant editor of Reflections on Nursing Leadership.

References:
National Institutes of Health. (2007). African Americans and overweight youth. (NIH Publication No. 04-4955). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Scholar, G. (2010). Fit nurse: Your total plan for getting fit and living well. Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.

Wikipedia. Endorphin. (2010). Retrieved 12 March 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorphin