CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Karen Harp gets ready to walk her dog as her daughter, Satya Sette, 11, and neighbor Nikki Taylor, 10, skate past. Harp began making a practice of walking for exercise after an HMSA Health Pass screening advised her to try to lose weight.

Slim-down begins with routine health checkup

HMSA's free annual screening led one employee to shed several dress sizes

The 51-year-old woman is 25 pounds lighter because of a free offer and recommendation from the Hawaii Medical Service Association.

Karen Harp's journey to a healthier lifestyle and smaller sizes began with HealthPass screenings provided by HMSA at Chaminade University about 16 weeks ago.

Harp, assistant to the dean of students, took advantage of it.

"My health was actually fine," she said. "My bad cholesterol was low and my good cholesterol was high and blood pressure low.

"Everything was fine except I was about 20 pounds overweight. We all realize that looking in the mirror. It's a matter of doing the right things about it."

"I'm a shorty," added the 5-foot-2-inch woman, "so any extra pounds showed."

HMSA offered Harp 12 weeks of free Weight Watchers meetings and encouraged her to lose 10 percent of her body fat to promote better health and prevent chronic diseases.

The offer was made to anyone who was five pounds or more over their body mass index weight, she said.

She filled out an extensive questionnaire, called Succeed, about her family health history and level of exercise, diet and stress reduction.

"It was a little bit daunting, but valuable in that they evaluated your motivation level, whether or not you're getting enough exercise and whether you have enough stress management skills," she said.

Harp said she had just started low-impact exercises, mostly stretching and counter-resistance, through a video.

She said she wouldn't have gone to Weight Watchers on her own but she decided to take HMSA's offer and attack her excess weight.

She weighed 152 when she started going to the meetings, and set a goal to get down to 137 pounds. Now she weighs 127.

She dropped several sizes, fitting into size 8 jeans and dresses, "which I can't even believe myself," she said.

Harp said her 11-year-old daughter, Satya, "doesn't like the fact that I don't really have a lot of good snacks at home anymore. We only have pretty healthy natural snacks, but she has been encouraging."

Weight Watchers doesn't restrict any food, but works on a point system for better choices, she said. "You just learn to budget yourself within points allowable.

"It's all about portion control, not just resisting something, because it gets the better of you in the end."

Harp said the program "was so much better than I expected. There is a lot of inspiration. They give acknowledgment to people who have lost another five or 10 pounds. We have a gentleman who has lost 100 pounds. Just seeing him is an inspiration."

Harp said she walks stairs a lot at work because her office is on the third floor, and sometimes she walks at night or rides her bike. But her main exercise is with the video.

Since she attained her goal at Weight Watchers, she was given lifetime status and can attend meetings free. "I just have to weigh in once a month, and can't weigh more than two pounds over (her original goal)."

She said she has more energy and "absolutely feels better." She has given away a bunch of larger-size clothes she never wants to fit again.