When Sophia Ayala Gettys makes a decision, she goes big. She married her childhood sweetheart, Eric Gettys, in Las Vegas at what she cheerfully describes as “one of those tacky chapels.”
One of her attempts at weight loss involved auditioning for the part of The Chubby, the fat girl in a commercial for The Anti-Gym, a punitive fitness program that has since closed its Denver branches.
She got the job, but the gym director dismissed her suggestion of giving her a membership instead of money. (“You’re worth more to me fat,” he said.)
Her next attempt involved auditioning for “The Biggest Loser” reality show. (She was disheartened when no callback came.)
When she caught herself admonishing her toddler to finish eating “all her chicken nuggets,” Gettys, appalled at herself, thought: “What kind of mother am I? Yelling at my daughter to finish her French fries?” She auditioned for “Worst Cooks in America.”
This time, she made the cut. (She auditioned with a fast-food takeout dinner as an example of a typical meal.) She lasted half the season before being eliminated.
After the show, when she put herself on a healthier diet, she congratulated herself for starting to lose weight. Then, after a family vacation, she saw some recent photographs of herself on Facebook and was stunned to realize how large she had been.
“I knew that I was going to be big when I shot the show, but when I saw myself there, I was out of my mind,” she said.
“I knew I was big, but I didn’t realize I’d gotten that large.”
Gettys, 29, has struggled much of her life to control her weight. She is 5 feet 3, and at her most svelte was a size 8, weighing 125 pounds. That was in junior high, when she played in a competitive soccer league.
By the time she was on “Worst Cooks,” she weighed “somewhere in the 270s,” but she didn’t know for sure because she didn’t want to step on a scale.
At first, she considered gastric bypass or lap-band surgery, but the risk of life-threatening complications dissuaded her.
On a whim last September, she Googled personal trainers in the Denver area and was arrested by the website of a candid, upbeat Australian named Jamie Atlas. She immediately e-mailed him with her story.
“When Jamie heard about the ‘worth more to me fat’ comment, he was in it for the long haul!” Gettys said. She loved his positive attitude.
“It was a cool e-mail,” said Atlas, who is preternaturally tall (6 feet 5), with shoulders nearly as broad as his Australian accent.
Don’t run yet; walk
He took her on right away.
“She’s an all-or-nothing kind of gal,” Atlas said. “From Day One, she grabbed the ball and ran with it.”
Atlas had to caution Gettys to walk at first. Literally.
“She was not ready to run at that point,” he said. “Just like a car with bad wheel alignment that’s not ready to drive, she was carrying too much weight, and her body wasn’t ready to run.”
Instead, he designed a program that incorporated resistance straps, hand-held weights and walking an increasingly longer distance each week.
Their first workout sessions, four a week, were one-on-one. Then Atlas persuaded Gettys, then down to about 250 pounds, to join one of his boot-camp classes.
The experience nearly made her give up. Surrounded by sleek, muscled bodies, she felt so hopelessly big that, halfway through, she walked out of the class in tears. Atlas ran after her. He talked her into coming back.
In the first three weeks, between workouts and a 1,200- to-1,400 calorie daily nutrition plan, she lost 15 pounds.
She’d lost 50 pounds by the time the first “Worst Cooks” episode aired in January.
“It was easier watching myself on the show then, knowing I’d lost that weight,” she said.
Her physical regimen now includes jogging and running. Atlas allows her to do push-ups now, after initially forbidding them, citing his wheel- alignment analogy.
“I feel like a normal person now!” said Gettys, who tends to speak in exclamation points and capital letters.
“Last night, I went out and bought new sweats because the old ones were too flappy! Can you believe it? And now, when we go out, my 4-year- old daughter gets tired before I do. I have more energy than a 4-year-old!”
Her short-term goal: Running the 10K Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day. The New York City Marathon on Nov. 7 has become an intermediate goal. Her sights are fixed on hiking Peru’s grueling 43-kilometer Inca Trail to Machu Pichu. After that, who knows?
“I know, no matter what, that I’ll never be a size 2,” Gettys says.
“But now I’m not looking for a number on my pants size or on the scale. Once I accepted that I’m not going to be this stick figure you see in magazines, then you can look in the mirror and go, ‘Wow! That’s me!’
“I feel good about where I am right now, and I’m looking forward to where I’m going to be. I can’t wait to meet myself next year!”
Starting May 9, follow Sophia Ayala Gettys’ progress on her blog at blog.
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
Key strategies for making big changes in fitness
Ready to tackle a weight-loss and revamped-nutrition program? Think about these things first, advises personal trainer Jamie Atlas.
Be patient.
“Give your body time to adapt to the new demands. If you start training too hard, your risk of injury goes up,” Atlas says. “Don’t expect to see results for at least two to three weeks.”
Weigh yourself only once every couple of weeks, not daily.
Atlas tells clients to ask themselves: “How is your eating? How well are you challenging (but not overwhelming) the body in the gym? What routines do you have in place if you are having a stressful week? What plans do you have to stop others (friends, social events, office lunches) from derailing your efforts?”
Don’t focus on the number of pounds you want to lose.
“If you are looking to make a positive change in your body, what matters most is not how much weight you have to lose but what systems are in place to make sure that you lose the pounds,” Atlas says.
Watch for, and stop, the self-sabotage that accompanies change.
“Create a game plan for dealing with the different situations that have stopped your progress in the past,” Atlas advises. “Then you can give yourself the greatest chance of success.”
Should you invest in a personal trainer?
Not necessarily, says Atlas.
“Some people find a personal trainer to be useful for motivating them to make a positive change, both inside and outside the gym,” he says.
“But others can sometimes become dependent upon that trainer — and sometimes even blame the trainer for their poor results after not following their own trainer’s advice outside of sessions.”
Claire Martin
Preparing for a road race
To prepare Sophia Ayala Gettys for the Bolder Boulder, her first road race, trainer Jamie Atlas incorporated these running-specific exercises into her workout.
The step-up
What it works: Thighs, glutes, balance, single-leg strength
Why and how it helps: “When we run, we do it one leg at a time,” Atlas says. “Our exercise program should prepare us for that. We also need to have a powerful rump to push our bodies forward and up hills. Many runners will prepare themselves for a flat-world run, but if you prepare to run on a flat surface, you fail to prepare the body for the inevitable hill that seems to feature in any decent run. The step-up not only improves your one-legged strength; you also improve your body’s ability to take on the hills with a well-prepared backside.”
Technique tips: Facing a step, keep the chest high as you step up. Keep both toes pointed to the front. For extra credit (and more legwork), cross your arms in front of your body as you step.
Lunge with twist
What it works: Legs and core
How it helps: “The lunge has been around for many years, and is widely hated,” Atlas says. “I find that clients who hate lunges actually love this version.” By adding a twist over the front leg while stepping forward into a lunge, you activate the core to stabilize the spine. If you look at a snapshot of a runner in motion, you see that when the left leg is forward, the right arm is forward. The spine rotates with every stride.
Technique tips: Best performed with a slight rotation to start, then gradually increase to a 90-degree rotation. Keep both toes pointed to the front, and make sure you maintain good posture to protect the back.
One-leg opposite dumbbell reach
What it works: The “runner’s line” — backside, core, upper back
How it helps: To improve at running, work the left arm with the right leg, replicating the muscular integration that happens as the body strides.
Starting position: Stand with one leg 4-6 inches in front of the other in a comfortable stance, and hold a dumbbell in your opposite hand. Bend your knees slightly and be tall in posture as your starting position.
Movement: With your weight predominantly on the front leg, tilt from the hips and drop the weight forward as if reaching out to touch the ground in front of your front toe with the opposite hand holding the dumbbell.
Technique tips: Keep your back straight and breathe out as you reach forward. As you rise, return to a tall standing position, keeping your knees bent at 20 degrees throughout the entire set. Once you have completed 10-15 repetitions, change legs and repeat for two to three sets.
Source: Jamie Atlas, Bonza Bodies
