Six weeks after beginning their family fitness makeover, Julie and Steve Erck and their adolescent sons, Dan and Aaron, are beginning to see payoffs from the sweat equity they’ve been investing.
“I feel so much better,” Julie Erck said.
“I used to slouch so much. I feel now like I walk without slouching. And when I started out, I could barely do 13 crunches. Now I’m up to 25 at a time!”
Since April, she and Aaron, 11, each have lost 4 pounds. Her husband has dropped 10 pounds. Dan, 14, has lost 7 pounds, “And we didn’t think he had that to lose!” Julie Erck said.
The Erck family was chosen by The Denver Post for a fitness makeover after they wrote about their lack of exercise and a healthful diet. The Post got them a membership at the Apex Center in Arvada and is also providing personal-training sessions and nutrition counseling. We will be following their progress through the summer months.
After several weeks of workouts, Julie Erck’s clothes are getting so loose that her sister- in-law recently insisted on taking her shopping for new jeans. She’s also noticed that her energy level is higher, and the once-chronic pain in her wrist is gone.
“You really do get in touch with your body when you work out regularly,” she observed.
She’s noticed that Aaron seems less prone to asthma attacks than he was before the family began working out. Dan, initially skeptical about the family makeover plan, embraces workouts. Both boys love the Apex Center’s popular climbing wall.
During the week, Steve Erck puts in a couple of half-hour sessions on an elliptical cross- training machine at his company’s workout room, in addition to the twice-weekly workouts at the Apex Center.
“I was doing 20-minute workouts when I was starting, and now I try to do 30, and sometimes 35, on the cross-trainer,” he said.
As summer approaches, the Ercks’ next challenge is sticking to their fitness and nutrition changes. Julie and the boys will soon go away for nearly two weeks, visiting relatives in Rapid City, S.D.
“I hate to miss that much lifting, so I’m planning to go to the YMCA in Rapid,” Julie said. She plans to take the boys swimming and hiking, as well.
Claire Martin: 303-954 1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
