by Elaine Durbach
NJJN Bureau Chief/Central

February 28, 2008

Still puffing from a circuit of squats, push-ups, and balancing exercises, a group of exercisers explained why some of them have tossed out their scales.

“This isn’t about losing weight,” Leah Greenblum said. “It’s about a whole lifestyle change, about getting fitter and more energetic and stronger.”

Those shared goals have brought together this group, all Elizabeth residents and all Orthodox, for a 10-month program at the YM-YWHA of Union County. Whatever shyness or discomfort some of them felt at first with this unusual coming together of men and women, they say it dissolved with the shared focus on helping one another get healthier.

They are part of a larger group of 15 members who signed on last September for a program led by Aaron Ketner. He is the director of membership and information systems at the Y, and runs the program as a volunteer in his free time. He works with the Y’s director of health and recreation, Larry Markowitz, and consults with camp director Jani Jonas on nutrition as well as fitness experts Jonathan Fass (his own trainer) and Daniel Stone.

Ketner was emphatic that all that huffing and puffing was not a workout. “If you think of it as work — and a job you’re not getting paid for — you’re not going to want to continue,” he said, his own enthusiasm and energy infusing every word. “I prefer to call it ‘play time.’ If you think of it as having fun — and it really is — it’s much easier to stick with it.”

Inspired by the NBC television program, The Biggest Loser, now in its fifth season, Ketner started his first program in the fall of 2006, and plans to launch a third one this coming September. It has been his way of sharing the joy he found in his own transformation.

His turnaround began a couple of years after his father had died from heart disease in 1999. “I felt responsible, that I’d enabled him to not get into a healthier lifestyle,” he said. He weighed 250 pounds himself and was completely inactive. “When a doctor said I had to take care of myself because I now had this family history, I got scared,” he said.

Ketner and his mother, Malka, his most enthusiastic supporter, cleared all the junk food out of their home, and he started working out in the Y gym before work each day. Then he saw his first Biggest Loser show and fell in love with it. He still watches every week and urges all his clients to do the same.

What moves him most is the dedication the trainers have toward the “losers.” It’s an attitude that his own clients say they get in abundance from him. They describe him as their biggest booster, always ready to cheer them on.

Ketner lost 75 pounds in about 18 months, and has kept it off. More important, he says, he gained more energy than he’d ever had before. And there was another wonderful benefit: “My mom is also eating better, and she’s become much more active. I didn’t do it for my dad, but I’m so grateful that we have been able to do this together,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it without her.”

Now he is finishing a degree in accounting and business, while working full time, leading the group, and trying to fit in some time for socializing. He hopes to get certified as a trainer next year, and dreams of starting his own gym one day.

Chatting on that recent Sunday, after their “play time,” as they do every week, Ketner’s trainees described how they have changed. They discussed their BMI changes, what food “triggers” to avoid, and how to handle situations such as parties, or when Chinese food is brought in for lunch at work.

Leading the discussion was Chanly Sprei, whom Ketner regards as one of his stars. Inspired by the change she saw in him, she urged him to start the program back in 2006, and joined up herself. Since then, she has lost 85 pounds. Perhaps even more impressive, she has managed to sustain her determination through the past few months when that decline has slowed down.

“I was always a runner,” she said. “I weighed 140 until I was 20.” Then she got married and became more sedentary, struggled with all sorts of medical problems, gave birth to twins (now age nine), and almost doubled her weight. Now she is strong and energetic again, though not as slim as she’d like to be.

“I’ve had to readjust my goals,” said Sprei, who, like the other women in the group, had her hair covered as a married Orthodox woman. “I’ve thrown out my scale. The point is that my clothes fit, and I feel great.” She, like the others, exercises — either at the Y or at home — almost every day, and plans to do so for the rest of her life.

Greenblum, who has six children, has come down two dress sizes since September. “I had a C-section with my last baby, and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t look after my children,” she said. “The doctor said the only way I’d get my strength back was if I started exercising.” Now she can run and play with her kids, and she relishes the change. They are also eating better, and enjoying it. “The kids at school want to trade with them for their carrot and celery sticks, but they won’t give them up,” she said.

David and Syndi Romanoff joined together, he to slim down for his health, she to encourage him, lose a bit herself, and become fitter. She has lost around 10 pounds; he has lost about 35. Doing it together has made all the difference, they said.

“As a couple, they are so wonderfully supportive of each other,” Ketner said. “Syndi didn’t need to lose much, but she’s gotten very strong. David’s done amazingly well. He’s really inspirational.”

Discussing a name for their group, Lee Niren put forward “Champions.” “We’re already winners,” he said. Niren, who needed to use his inhaler that Sunday, used to be a couch potato, he said; now he exercises whenever he can, and he hasn’t used an elevator in months.

Don’t fret if you go off track, Sprei advised her teammates that morning; just start over. “Your day can start at any time,” she said. “A new day can start now.”

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