Shape up Cape! Fit to Print team takes on chamber challenge

Our New Year's resolutions to eat better have long been broken. The exercise equipment we meant to use has been gathering dust. Our gym membership lapsed before we even got up the nerve to head for a workout.

Whatever your excuses for not exercising, it's time to toss them aside.

The Chamber of Commerce is attempting to Shape Up Cape, its name for a program to get people to develop healthier, more fit lifestyles. It starts Saturday with an event from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Osage Community Centre and runs through Sept. 28.

Here's how the program works:

Participating businesses form teams of up to 15 people. Each person must keep a log of their daily activity and point value. The logs will be sent to the chamber each Monday. Each team member can earn up to 20 points per day for physical activity. (See list for point values.) The team with the best daily average wins the competition.

Teams of co-workers from 25 businesses have accepted the challenge, including 10 people from the Southeast Missourian. The newsroom formed the Fit to Print team, and, during the next few months, you'll get to track our progress and meet some of our challengers, including St. Andrew Lutheran Church and the Cape Girardeau Public Library staff. We've set a goal of 70 points per person per week.

So, let's introduce ourselves:

Sam Blackwell

Past 50, you realize your body is much like that classic Corvette you covet -- much more maintenance is required. Last year, a personal trainer showed me how to torture myself with weights, treadmills and smaller meal portions. In three months, I was in good shape but was repulsed by the sight of weights, treadmills and boiled chicken. I like barbecue.

My new attitude is to do things I like doing, but walking 18 holes of golf twice a week and yoga classes aren't offsetting the barbecue. For Shape Up Cape, I'm adding an extra three trips weekly on the elliptical glider at the gym. Call it taking the Corvette out for a spin.

Andrea Buchanan

Years ago I tried to combine fitness with a be-kind-to-animals theme by converting to a semi-vegetarian diet. Unfortunately, that didn't rule out Doritos and cookies or require substantial movement on my part. So I'm taking another whack at it by hitting my new Gazelle exercise machine (it looked like the most fun), walking my dog, running (only if the leash breaks) and playing golf.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of my transformation into a totally buff babe. I'll be 35 at the end of this year, so you could definitely put me into the "late bloomer" category.

Spencer Cramer

I already go to the gym and do yoga, but, at 31, I thought it high time to inject some consistency into my practice and expand what I can do at HealthSouth and on my yoga mat. Nothing like strangers watching to motivate you.

By September, I hope to treadmill my way into cardiovascular fitness and wheel-pose my way into yogic strength and harmony. That way, no matter what happens, I can say to the hot dog vendor, "Make me one with everything."

Heidi Hall

In the photo above, I am being held into my skirt by a 3-year-old girdle that I outgrew two years ago. The rear seam finally split in protest that morning, and the thigh panels kept rolling up. That's why I look so uncomfortable.

Something has to change. At 32, my metabolism has slowed to a crawl, and my knees are begging for mercy. The only way to fix the problem is with at least 30 minutes of exercise per day, including walking, stationary bicycling and weightlifting.

The best part about working out with a team is there's always someone to call 911.

Jamie Hall

I like the name "Shape Up Cape" much more than my own proposal -- "Jamie's Futile Pursuit of a Flat Stomach, Year No. 31" -- even though both lead to the same quest: Can I, a desk-bound 30-something male, achieve the flat, TV-info-mercial-quality stomach of my dreams while maintaining some level of sanity? I'll go ahead and confess right now that I'm a sucker for pizza and the occasional adult drink, and I've honestly never met a doughnut I didn't like. Now I'll find out whether a regimen of running three days a week and weight-lifting three days a week will produce results.

Let the madness begin.

Gabe Hartwig

When my AS-SEEN-ON-TV electric-shock ab belt failed to produce the results I wanted, I knew there was just one remaining alternative if I ever hoped to rid my waistline of unwanted pounds: exercise.

To that end, I've been jogging three days each week, and I plan to make more frequent appearances at the Rec Center. Even at 21, my life is pretty hectic, so it's easy to say there's no time for exercise. But Shape Up Cape likely will provide the encouragement -- and accountability -- I need.

Laura Johnston

I've been out of college for too long now to still be carrying around those "freshman 15." Getting in shape before my 30th birthday next March seems like a good goal -- and I've got plenty of time to work at it.

I usually do well on a diet for about a week, and the same goes for exercising. The ab-roller in my bedroom gets more use as a clothing rack than it does as exercise equipment. So I like the idea of having some accountability with my co-worker teammates in the Shape Up Cape contest. I've chosen walking and some strength-training exercises as my fitness routine.

Heather Kronmueller

My high school physics teacher once told me: When lying in water, muscular people sink and "fluffy" people float. Back then I sank.

Now, well, not so much. I recently turned 23, and, despite the fact that I have a treadmill in my living room and a collection of workout tapes by my VCR, the most exercise I get each day comes from walking up the three flights of stairs to my apartment. My goal for Shape Up Cape is to attain 20 points every day by walking and kickboxing so in the end I can dive into Parker Pool, swim to the surface and -- if all goes well -- sink back to the bottom!

Bob Miller

I have already lost 40-plus pounds and have reached my target weight of 175 pounds after ballooning to 220 during my pre-divorce, couch-potato, super-size-that days.

But I'm not satisfied. My love handles will just not go away.

Though they're slowly disappearing, I've still much work to do, so here's my goal: Lose those stubborn love handles by increasing my cardiovascular exercise.

Joe Sullivan

When the Fit to Print team showed up at the university Rec Center for a group photo, I immediately realized why I have never joined a fitness club. Everywhere I looked were men and women with well-defined muscles, slim waists and stares that said: "How did you get that gut through the turnstile?" Fitness centers are for the fit, not the fat.

The fat must find other ways to be active that will -- I hope -- keep them from falling over dead without notice. So we look for fun events like the chamber's Shape Up Cape, which is a wonderful way for us -- whose muscles aren't even recognizable and whose waists are held in place by tight belts -- to do something good for ourselves.

By the way, I think I owe it to those good folks at the fitness center to point out they are on the same path toward death as I am. I wonder which of us will get there first.