Vol. 5, No. 9, September 2008
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FIT CLUB
Call it the Michael Phelps effect, the Shawn Johnson phenomenon, or plain old Olympic fever. The recent Beijing games were a stirring reminder of the human power to achieve, and the ability of our bodies to perform at top levels.
Though this year's Olympic winners are inspiring, you can also find inspiration from these casino workers, who reaped big health benefits from exercise, healthful eating, and a little Olympian resolve.
Winning Attitude:
Allyssa Hubbard
In January 7, Allyssa Hubbard made a decision that would change her life. The Showboat cage cashier walked into the casino’s on-site gym and signed up for the employee fitness challenge.
“I’ve been looking in the mirror, and I no longer like what I see,” she told the trainer. “I’ve noticed I’m getting lazy. I weigh 365 pounds, and I just want to be healthier.”
She had once lost more than 80 pounds drinking diet shakes, but this time Allyssa decided to forego the fads. Working out and modifying her diet, she didn’t expect a big loss—“maybe 10, 15 pounds tops.”
Allyssa was pleasantly surprised. She lost nine pounds the first week, and five more the second. In March, 50 pounds lighter, she won the challenge. By mid-August—about eight months later—she had lost 101 pounds. The effect on co-workers has been dramatic.
“I can’t go to the cafeteria to fill my water bottle without somebody stopping to say, ‘Allyssa, what did you lose this week?’” she says. “It touches me. This whole building did this with me.”
The whole building may have been cheering her on, but Allyssa did the heavy lifting: hitting the gym every day for 20 minutes on the treadmill, 25 minutes on the stationary bike, and strength training.
When it came to her diet, she said goodbye to fast food (“I loved Wawa, and I had Primo Pizza on speed dial”), opting for healthy alternatives: oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, salad or yogurt for lunch, grilled salmon and vegetables for dinner. She constantly drank water. Dessert was sugar-free pudding (her favorite: Jello French Supreme Banana).
With her $200 grand prize, Allyssa bought the basics of a new wardrobe, then donated all her fat clothes to a thrift store.
At first, the fear of regaining made her anxious about going to dinner or enjoying the holidays with her family. Allyssa’s now starting to enjoy food without letting it rule or intimidate her.
“I had to learn to be comfortable about food,” she says. “Food has no power—only the power I give it.”
Pivotal Moment: “Winning the fitness challenge. Then there was no stopping me.”
Favorite Excuse: “I’d say, ‘Mom, you know it’s your fault I love to eat.’ I was used to food being good.”
Words to Live By: “I don’t get too confident. I’m just a cookie away from failure.”
Lean and Serene:
Carolyn Gregson
Everyone knows the pattern: You overeat when you’re depressed, and get more depressed when you gain weight.
Carolyn Gregson, a dual rate dealer at Caesars, broke the cycle earlier this year when she lost 33 pounds (and regained her natural optimism). It all happened in less than five months.
“I was going through a lot of personal stuff and wasn’t happy,” Carolyn says. “I joined the gym not just to lose weight, but because I knew working out would help with the stress.”
At Tilton Fitness near her Galloway home, she worked out three to five days a week, with an emphasis on cardio. As for diet, she jokes, “I ate enough chicken to cluck, and enough salad for my nose to twitch.”
The results were swift and gratifying. Carolyn went from a size 14-16 to a size 6-8. “I was actually able to get into a suit I wore the first day I dual-rated—that was 10 years ago,” she says. “My energy is great and I feel so much healthier.”
Carolyn hopes to shed another 10 or 15 pounds by her 25th high school reunion. As for her new found energy, she’ll need it: she’s just been accepted into a two-year nursing program at ACCC, and will continue to work as she studies.
The Value of Affirmation: “Everybody at work says, ‘Wow, Carolyn, you look great.’ It keeps you going.”
Her Secret: “I would lose and regain the same 20 pounds, over and over. Working out is what did it for me this time.”
Managing Plateaus: “I drink tons of water, stay away from alcohol and don’t eat late at night. That usually breaks a plateau.”
Doctor’s Orders:
Diane Valentine-Bey
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My doctor’s been asking me to lose weight for 12 years,” says Diane Valentine-Bey, a CTR supervisor at Trump Plaza. “My cholesterol was up, my diabetes was up, and my clothes were too snug, but I just couldn’t get it together. Then the fitness challenge started here at Trump Plaza. For some reason, this time I was ready.”
Trump’s Fit to Win Challenge kicked off in March. Teams from each property were assessed for weight and body fat, then racked up points through activity and attendance at AtlantiCare fitness classes.
“I went to the workshops and classes, and to my surprise, I found it all very interesting,” says Diane. “It also reinforced my desire to stick with the program.”
She cut out high-fat and high-calorie foods, and noted everything she ate in a food journal, which helped her eliminate mindless eating. Then she stepped up her activity level, walking, then speed walking, then jogging. The next time she saw her doctor, Diane had trimmed down so much he thought she was on a fad diet.
“It’s not a fad and it’s not a diet,” Diane told him. “It’s a lifestyle change.”
The doctor was more impressed when he checked her cholesterol. “The levels were down,” Diane says. “And though I’m still on medication for diabetes, if I continue on this route, in October I’ll come off it.”
To date, Diane has lost 20 pounds, and says, “I’m not done yet. I turned 50 this year, and this is a whole new chapter in my life.”
What Keeps Her Going: “I have to take care of me so I can take care of my family.”
Recognizing the Results: “For some reason, I can’t see my weight loss, but when I went to a family reunion, everybody was commenting.”
Sharing the Inspiration: “I told my team members, ‘The benefit we get is 100 times greater than the company prize. We win our health.’”
Point Guard:
Pattie Johnson
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I used to have gray hair and old lady clothes,” says Pattie Johnson, a 27-year veteran of Tropicana’s accounting department. “Now my hair is blonde and I have clothes that fit.” And those size 16 pants—the ones with the stretch waistbands—are long gone.
It’s hard to believe, but Pattie—slim as a reed, with the energy of a gazelle—once weighed more than 200 pounds.
She attributes her physique not to Olympic will power but to sheer persistence. Weight Watchers first helped her trim down, but over time the pounds began to creep back. Though she hates exercising, Pattie began to walk an hour a day, rain or shine.
“I do a half an hour at lunchtime, and another half hour after work,” she says. “I go out in the winter, when it’s freezing. I go out in the nighttime, when it’s dark. Everybody thinks I’m nuts.” She also bought a Gazelle Glider, and unlike so many of us who invest in workout machines, she doesn’t use it as a coat rack.
Pattie’s unrelenting commitment has paid off. Working out and following the Weight Watchers points system—she even carries a calculator to figure the point values of foods—she now weighs 132 pounds.
Metabolic Changes: “Nowadays, it takes me three months to gain two pounds.”
Staying Honest: “I go to a Weight Watchers meeting once a month to weigh in.”
Fill ’Er Up: “Along with pasta, chicken and vegetables, I have a bowl of soup and a salad. It makes a difference.”
Nick of Time:
Day and Paul Rogers
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If not for my husband working out, he would have died.”
So says Borgata cocktail server Day Rogers, who joined a gym with her husband to help him lose weight.
Knee surgery had put Paul on the disabled list, and after a few idle months, Day suggested they join the gym together. It was there that Paul first experienced chest pain, which he first attributed to indigestion. But the pain persisted. Tests showed he had a 99 percent arterial blockage. Undetected, it could have resulted in a heart attack.
“It was a sobering moment,” says Paul, a onetime casino employee whose father died at 39 of coronary disease. But the insertion of a stent has him back on the job, back in the gym, and 45 pounds lighter.
Day is grateful for the unexpected intervention, and grateful to her company for its emphasis on health maintenance.
“Borgata reimburses every penny of my health club membership,” she says. “That’s nothing but a benefit for me.”
Fitting Advice: “Metabolism slows down 2 to 3 percent every decade,” says Paul. “You have to offset that with more weight training to maintain muscle mass—cardio alone will not do it.”
Fringe Benefits of Healthy Living: “Most people think we’re in our mid-20s and 30s,” says Day. “But I’m 38, Paul is 48 and we have a 21-year-old son.”
Diet Tips: “I’ve cut out all cheeses and white flour, and it’s brought my weight down naturally,” says Paul.
A New Life:
Norman Saunders
Norman Saunders, a baggage attendant at Showboat, is better known as Big D, and for years the nickname suited him to a T. At over six-feet-two and 360 pounds, he was always the biggest guy in the room. Though his size didn’t interfere with his job, it wasn’t good for his health. But Norman was never motivated to change until he got up one morning and found he couldn’t breathe. It was the wakeup call he’d been waiting for.
“I knew then that I had to get healthy,” Norman says. “I wanted to live.”
He joined the gym at Showboat and made fitness a daily fact of life. At first, he was incapable of much exercise. But with the help and encouragement of the fitness staff (“They were marvelous to me,” he says), Norman was soon working out regularly. He started on the treadmill and stationary bike, then began walking for up to an hour at a time on the Boardwalk.
The result? “The weight just dropped off,” he says. “In three months, I went from 363 to 296, and now I feel fantastic.”
Tradeoffs: “I’m so proud of myself. But now my uniform’s too big.”
Moderation: “I quit the fried chicken and potato chips and started eating kashi cereal, baked chicken, and more vegetables and fruit.”
Motivation: “I say, ‘Believe in yourself and have a will to live.’”
Gold Rush
Mid-week during the post-summer lull, there’s not usually a lot happening on the beaches of Atlantic City. But on Tuesday, September 16, don’t be surprised to see hundreds of people on the sand in front of Bally’s and Caesars, racing bell carts, tossing eggs, lobbing volleyballs and playing tug-of-war.
It’s the second annual Four Property Challenge (better known as the Casino Olympics), showcasing the athletic prowess and competitive steel of employees from Bally’s, Caesars, Showboat and Harrah’s.
Showboat GM Jay Snowden brought the games to Atlantic City last year (a past version included workers from every casino).
“It’s a great culture-builder and a great event,” says the onetime Harvard Crimson quarterback. “Anybody who wants to get in there can give it their best shot.”
Obviously, this is not an employee holiday, but the casinos try to accommodate anyone who wants to participate, says Deb Karver, Harrah’s Entertainment employee relations manager.
“Everything slows down this time of year, so we ask the department heads to be flexible with people’s schedules,” she says. A shuttle is available from Harrah’s and Showboat for anyone who wants to compete or watch.
Though some people play for the fun of it, others go for the glory, and practice with coaches to prepare for the big games. Last year’s overall winner was Harrah’s, which did “a lot of gloating” when it took home the trophy, Karver says. “We’re trying to play off that competition.”
About 500 people were Olympians-for-a-day in 2007; a bigger turnout is expected for the 2008 games, says Snowden. “The fact that our second year is on the heels of the actual Olympics can only help,” he says.
Karver agrees. “There was a great buzz after last year’s event,” she says. “We definitely hope for bigger and better this year.”
The Four Property Challenge starts at 8 a.m. and lasts all day. Rain date is Wednesday, September 17.
