Having a fitness partner helps keep you motivated and accountable, but co-workers Roger Sherman and Cathie Grieg take their commitment to health beyond the walls of the Athletic Club at Denver Place, where they work out each weekday morning.
They also prepare low-fat breakfasts and lunches for each other, trading off duties each week. In the 16 months they’ve been at their exercise and eating program, each has lost weight and sizes, but they say the benefits of their program are equally measured in an increase in stamina and a reduction in stress at their jobs with CRL Associates Inc., a Denver public affairs and lobbying company. Sherman, 41, is the company’s chief operating officer and Grieg, 60, is executive assistant to Maria Garcia Berry, CRL’s chief executive officer. Ten-hour days are common for them, as is working nights and weekends, so getting regular exercise and eating well are important.
“It’s healthier and less expensive than trying to do it on your own,” says Grieg, who on a recent Monday made egg-white omelettes for breakfast and shrimp salad for lunch. “When you’re single you end up with a lot of stuff that goes dead in your fridge.” And if you eat fast-food or restaurant lunches, you get a lot of supersized, overpriced meals, she says.
Being answerable to another person helps you stick to a program, they say.
“I’m the first to admit that if we didn’t have this setup, I wouldn’t be doing anything,” Sherman says. “I’ve joined health clubs in the past and paid every month and never gone. With this, even if I don’t feel like going to the gym, I do because I have a responsibility.”
Sherman says he’s not as creative with the meal prep as Grieg is, but he’ll make smoothies for breakfast and salads or wraps for lunch. They also provide each other with snacks – typically, fruit or popcorn.
Sherman is convinced he would have put on pounds had it not been for their regimen. “We go to so many receptions and dinners; the calories really add up,” he says.
When Grieg and Sherman, both single, started their exercise and meal plan they were teased, but some co-workers are watching their diets too. “At first, people would joke and ask me what my wife made me for lunch, but now they know we’re committed,” Sherman says. One co-worker who had a candy bowl on her desk took it away.
“People have been very encouraging,” Sherman says. “This is an office where the people look out for one another.”
– Suzanne S. Brown
