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I never knew losing weight could be so much fun!

I was always an active child who grew up dancing ballet, tap and jazz, took Kung Fu, swam, biked, rode horseback in the park, roller skated, played softball and hiked all over the farmland surrounding our home in Pennsylvania. When I started teaching after college, I was just as active and involved signing on to coach middle school girls’ track, pep club, the speech and debate team and countless more too numerous to list. I took belly dancing and did aerobics and worked out at a local health club. I owned and rode my own horse for three years, swam, and sang and danced my way through countless community theater performances. To eliminate the travel and time issues of going to a health club or running outside in the rain, I set up my own workouts at home by jogging on my own small trampoline which I placed in front of the TV plus using my own weightlifting equipment in our basement. I went on the Zone diet plan and started walking several miles each evening. The limitations of the Zone bored me after two years though I did lose a lot of weight on it. I actually enjoyed my hall duty assignment at school because I could slip on my tennis shoes, take a quick look at the clock to judge the time, and walk those halls instead of sitting at a desk. When I started writing my novels, I was a size 8 dress, my cholesterol was fine, and my weight was 135. To do research on dancing for my novel WHEN WE DO MEET AGAIN, I took ballroom dance lessons at Fred Astaire Dance Studio (when it was by Chili’s restaurant) with Dustin Jones as my instructor. I totally enjoyed myself but realized that if I were to start my small press business, I needed to dedicate myself to my business.

Without realizing it, all that time sitting in my chair in front of my computer, coupled with the lack of exercise, fresh air and sunshine, and the horrid diet I was consuming was killing me...literally. 10 novels later I was 185 pounds, classified as “obese” for my height, my BMI was so far out there it was on another planet, and I had no energy to do anything about it. But it was not until my doctor decided to run a blood test on his overweight patient, and I saw that my cholesterol level was 485, (the LDL level of my blood work was unreadable because my triglyceride level was far too high) that I realized I was starving myself fat and insulting my true personality by sitting instead of “playing” ( a much better word for exercising). Writing was fun, cognitive as well as spiritually uplifting, and lots of work, but I had become a hermit who rarely saw anyone or did anything, and I was totally out of shape.

After the initial fear factor, I signed on with two different health clubs...twice, but that didn’t last more than a month as just going there was time consuming and similar to going on small vacations when you started doing the change of clothes and shower etc. I didn’t have four hours a day for this. I bought more equipment promising to work out at home and began looking at calories. But the real problem was that I now had so much weight on my body, I didn’t have the energy to do ANYTHING. I told myself that the answer to my problem was to change the word exercise to “play” and remember what fun I had as a child, and to find that “game” that I would do no matter what because I enjoyed it. I remembered Fred Astaire Dance Studio and gave them a call to see if Dustin was still there and would take me on as a student after being gone for so long. I started back to ballroom dancing, and things were going well until a new hurdle blocked my path to success.

When you are placing 185 pounds on little feet and ankles you are causing serious problems for your feet, legs, knees, and ankles. It doesn’t matter whether you are walking or dancing, you’re feet are going to take a beating. So now I had a new problem—must exercise or die—can’t. My foot doctor told me straight out as soon as he saw my problem that I would need almost a year of staying off that foot, and 2 inch heels were a thing of the past. It was either fix the problem or have surgery. I was able to compromise and do some dancing and some walking with a brace and insoles and could use my Gazelle and my reclining bike, but aerobic activity was definitely hampered.

Gradually I was able to get back to dancing at the time Fred Astaire started doing the Latin aerobic class. I changed my eating habits and started truly counting calories and using the Weight Watchers’ point system. I ate! All the time! I never ate so much food in my life. Every 2-3 hours I had something small but filling to eat. I cut out breads and all flour/fat based desserts. No more fast food, but once a week I went out to eat at a restaurants that served grilled chicken salads. I ate Weight Watchers’ entrees (it is their job to know how to cook for me) and ice cream, Special K cereal, protein drinks and snack bars, 100 calorie salty and sweet snacks if I needed them, 100 calorie Hershey chocolate candies to satisfy my chocolate fetish, Skinny Cow ice cream, oh, yeah, fruits. nuts, whole grains and vegetables daily. It was not as nutritional as it needed to be, but I had to start somewhere. I was never a big drinker, but I limited myself to a healthy 4 ounce glass of wine every once in awhile but counted the 2 points when I got home. I designed my own diet plan based on my calorie needs as well as my absolute must-haves. I kept my calories to 1500 and my WW points to 20. I “played” every day. I Gazelled and biked the days I didn’t dance. I had 1-2 lessons with Dustin each week, did Latin aerobics twice a week at the dance studio, went to 2 group classes at FA each week, and went to the practice parties on Friday nights. I now compete on the state level, have non-fictional friends, and can adapt to anxiety and stress better.

Since that initial starting date, when I went back to Fred Astaire Dance Studio, I have lost 46 pounds, 40 inches, gone from a 1 XL blouse to a medium, from a 18W dress to a 12, moved from a 14 pant size to an 8/10, my BMI is perfect, and, with the added help of medicine, my cholesterol level is 119 and none of my levels are “over the scale” anymore. I am no longer classified “obese” or “overweight” for my height; I am right where I’m supposed to be. My feet, ankles, and knees are very happy I lost the weight, too.

Vanity sometimes starts weight loss programs though no one likes to admit it. There was a small voice inside my head that told me that I would never see 130 on my bathroom scale again, but it lied, and I will! One look at myself in my 2007 competition ball gown told me the truth about what I had allowed happen to my body. But looking better is only a small part of the paycheck for losing weight. My energy level has improved so much that I look forward to chores I used to dread and am getting so much more done in my life.

Don’t let your lifestyle keep you from having a life! My advise is to start slowly, be patient, be diligent about counting the calories, start with 20 minutes of walking to get back in the flow and don’t be too hard on yourself. After one month you will get the energy level back and be able to do the fun activities you always loved to do. When that scale starts to prove the lost weight, you will have all the incentive you need to keep going.

There is a song in the musical Cabaret that sums up how I feel about Fred Astaire Dance Studio and how ballroom dancing has changed my life. The stanza goes like this:

“What good is sitting alone in your room,
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum.
Come to the Cabaret!”

If you love music, love to move to the beat, come join us at our “cabaret” some night because..

Dancing is an excellent physical as well as mental workout. It is a weight-bearing exercise that builds bones, increases upper and lower body strength, improves respiration, helps blood pressure, melts fat, increases energy levels, stamina and endurance, and the dance patterns you need to learn sharpen your mind better than Simon Says. Basically, it is a complete workout all by itself.

You have been given this wonderful body for life; you need to maintain it! If you think you can’t lose weight and the energy will never come back, you’re listening to a lie. Change the word “exercise” to “play”, and quit starving yourself fat. That line you tell yourself that says, “Well, I didn’t eat much today so I can eat whatever I want tonight” is a heart attack waiting to happen. Just browse through a calorie counter book and check out the calories on some of your favorites and a hamburger, fries and a chocolate milk shake will look worse than any horror flick you’ve ever seen. You can do this! We could talk all day about the immediate drop in weight and the hurdle of plateauing. It all happened to me.

Did I mention I don’t cook anymore and get to eat guilt-free food I love and tastes great? Since I am not very creative in the kitchen, I allowed Weight Watchers to do the portion sizes and nutritional aspects until I can do fresh meals on my own. You have to start somewhere and going “cold turkey” doesn’t work. YOU HAVE TO EAT TO LOSE FAT!! Take it nice and slow with both the diet and the “play”. Yes, the motto that you didn’t put it on over night, so you can’t take it off over night is very true. But the motto I used to sing to my track athletes— “No pain; no gain”—was wrong. “Use it and lose it” might be a better mantra.

I am not the only person who thinks Fred Astaire Dance Studio is the best. Come in any day or night and meet all of us. No matter what our day has been like, and no matter what area of our body hurts, the moment we step on the dance floor, it all goes away. As I said in the first sentence, losing weight has never been so much fun!

My blessings to you for health and happiness!
Love and Laughter in the Now and Hereafter,
Hollie Van Horne