We all know the advantages
of exercise and good eating,
so why are we still hamburger-eating
couch potatoes? Here's how some
people changed their lives . . .
By Catherine Kekoa Enomoto
Star-Bulletin"Every time I go doctah, doctah tell me, 'You goin' die, you too heavy, you fat. You gotta go on a diet,' tha's all they tell me. "Or, 'You gotta eat a lotta vegetables.' I know that for a fact already. I no need go doctah to tell me that I have a problem."
Herbert Kealoha Hoe was recalling how "a very big person" explained his quandary. Hoe, 58, is founder of the 'Ai Pono (Eat Right) Hawaiian-wellness program. More than 400 people of all ethnicities have gone through the statewide program sponsored by Lili'uokalani Trust.
Hoe reflected that, "They don't feel like people care about them. The doctors are telling them something they already know, but they have no control of that."
Health, thy name is change.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
George Kusumoto's new passion for poi has helped get him off
insulin injections and lowered his cholesterol.
People know they're supposed to eat less fat and junk foods, and exercise more. Why? Because one-third of all Americans are overweight and a quarter are clinically obese -- defined as being 20 percent above ideal weight. And, because obese people have higher rates of heart disease and diabetes.So, we asked 10 people -- including nutritionists, a psychiatrist and a physical education teacher -- how one makes long-term, substantive lifestyle changes.
Enter Chanel Ka'eo, Kawehi Shiroma, Bill Kusumoto and Ruth Payne.
Ka'eo and Shiroma are high school seniors who exercise together and have lost a total of 105 pounds since December. Kusumoto, 64, traded in his insulin needles for poi. Payne is a Waikiki substitute teacher who dropped 10 dress sizes by substituting fad diets with homemade fresh vegetable soups.
Ka'eo was humiliated when she came in dead last in a three-mile run at Kamehameha Schools. The moment is seared into her memory: "They saw me come in. Some people were waiting and watching. I felt like they were just watching me."
The finish was her epiphany: "From then on I really, really did all the things you're supposed to do to lose weight, like increasing my exercise, eating less, eating fruits and vegetables, eliminating all my snacks and all the junk foods."
Within two weeks, her classmate Kawehi Shiroma noticed Ka'eo was trimming down.
"She was an incentive to get started," said Shiroma, who became Ka'eo's exercise partner on aerobic machines and free weights. "It helps to have a friend; after we started all of our friends started, too. It's like you support healthy habits. You plan how to do it. You encourage each other; that really helps as sort of a support group."
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Ruth Payne cooks up a pot of soup made with whole grains and
fresh vegetables to share with husband Art. Ruth Payne lost
40 pounds following Dr. Terry Shintani's diet approach.
Kusumoto, a diabetic, had been giving himself daily insulin shots for 13 years when he participated in Hoe's three-week Hawaiian wellness program last month. Thursday his doctor switched Kusumoto from injections to lower-dose oral insulin."Three meals a day, my diet was completely changed," Kusumoto recalled about the 'Ai Pono regimen. "I ate only what they fed us, which was sweet potatoes, taro, poi and things like that."
On the diet, Kusumoto's cholesterol dropped 80 points to 169; blood glucose from 150 to 100 (normal is 70 to 120); blood pressure from 160/90, to 124/70.
Kusumoto now shops for poi at 6:30 three or four mornings a week.
Payne said she switched to Dr. Terry Shintani's pain-free "whole food" diet after years of yo-yo dieting on products like Slim Fast and programs like Nutri System. She also has climbed Diamond Head more than 1,700 times and kept her 40-pound weight loss off for 2-1/2 years.
"On other diets I was constantly hungry. I had a growling in my stomach and it was just uncomfortable, like it was a bad thing I wanted to get through." But the Shintani diet, she said, "is a way of life and it can go on forever."
Shintani recommends fresh produce, brown rice and other grains, and legumes. Payne loves putting these foods in soups from Shintani's "Eat More, Weigh Less Cookbook."
So, what did experts say about making such lifestyle changes?
Physical education teacher Theone Chock starts with having students list 50 to 100 things good about themselves.
"Then they say, 'Hey, I'm a good person. I'm worth making even better,' " said Chock, one of Kamehameha Schools' eight certified instructors of SHAPEDOWN, a nationally recognized weight management program.
Community organizer Hoe urged organizing reunions and other gatherings around wellness. "Two weeks ago my extended 'ohana went on a camp out and it was based on nutrition -- realizing we're here to have a good time, but sticking with healthy living. It's not just to grind."
By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Chanel Ka'eo, left, and Kawehi Shiroma work out at the
gym on the Kamehameha Schools campus. Between them,
they've lost 105 pounds.
On their visit to Molokai, Hoe said, the group enjoyed a three-mile walk, camped, visited taro patches, swam and ate fresh-caught fish, vegetables and poi.Psychiatrist Michael Imura counsels educating family members so they can offer encouragement, join in exercising, and keep fatty junk foods ou t of the house.
Health care administrator Mildred Ramsey repeats: repetition. She said, "The three key words are repetition, reinforcement and support if you want someone to change their dietary habits. The message has to be repeated and it has to be a practical way that's not too difficult to do," said Ramsey, gerontology administrator for Child and Family Service.
Dr. Shintani's shtick is whole food.
"Focus on whole food, that is, whole brown rice, potatoes, taro, poi -- which is pretty much a whole food; it's just smashed up but all the nutrients are there. When you do that, you've got all the elements to keep you healthy, things like fiber, bulk, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. I mean, nature is very wonderful -- the way nature packages it all," said Shintani, creator of the recent "governor's diet" and director of preventive medicine at Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. "Focus on eating foods in their natural form, they fill the stomach up more."
University of Hawaii food science and human nutrition instructor Alan Titchenal is a man for all seasonal stir-fries and chowders. As a Ph.D. in nutrition, Titchenal is a "doctah" who doesn't just say, "You gotta eat a lotta vegetables." He asks those he counsels which veggies and fruits they like best and which they can afford.
"I essentially try to persuade them to add some favorites into their diet; then it's a gradual process."
He said he would toss seasonal pak choy and broccoli into a soup pot along with taro, tofu, shredded carrot, corn and seasonings, such as garlic, onion or chile peppers.
The bottom line is that lifestyle changes have to be you and they have to be fun.
Said Shiroma: "I think the most important thing about changing is you're enjoying your new lifestyle, making it fun . . . If not, then you're just going to end up stopping what what you're doing.
"I love doing something good for myself," she smiled.
GOOD EATS
Herbert Hoe's 'Ai Pono nutrition and wellness program features 21 daily menus, such as:
Breakfast: Half papaya, sweet potato, taro/'ulu (breadfruit) and skim milk.
