New Year’s resolutions come true for 2

CINDY WOOD/independent feature writer

Tony Willingham of Van Wert is a quitter — and proud of it. Over the past year, he’s given up a two-pack-a-day habit, and he’s turned his back on junk food.

In the process, he lost 101 pounds and he looks, and feels, like a new man. Willingham had carried the nicotine monkey on his back for over 30 years and he woke up Feb. 1 of 2012 and realized it was time to give up the habit for good, and start concentrating on his health. “I knew I wanted to quit smoking and I knew I needed to lose weight,” he said, adding, “so I just did it.”

He got some assistance from nicotine patches, which significantly alleviated his cravings, taking him from two packs a day to two packs a week. “On Feb. 1, I looked in my pack and had three cigarettes left and I thought to myself…’heck with it,'” he said. After smoking those final three cigarettes, Willingham quit — for good — but he was concerned quitting smoking would also mean putting on more weight.

“There was absolutely no way I could gain any more weight,” he said, adding he was dangerously close to 300 pounds at the time. “I knew I had to do something to start losing weight. I guess something just clicked and I knew it was time. I was ready to quit and I was ready to get the weight off.”

To do that, he began walking — a lot. “It was a pretty mild winter, so I was able to walk outside quite a bit,” he said. As the weight began to come off, a couple friends advised Willingham to get involved with the Van Wert YMCA, something he admits didn’t thrill him at first. “You know the cliché, where everyone in the exercise room is probably in fit and in shape,” he said.

Regardless, Willingham got a membership and took the plunge. “I just had to get over the hump of walking in there for the first time. But everybody is in there for the same reason,” he said. “They just want to get their workout in and nobody is there to judge you. They just do what they have to do, and that’s what I wanted to do.”

These days, you can’t keep Willingham away from the Y, and he tries to get his workout in seven days a week, making sure to continue his daily cardio workout. In addition, he’s begun weight training to try and firm up loose skin he was left with after the weight loss.

“It’s hard to describe what I feel right now, but I know I feel great,” he said. “I have so much energy now, and I should have done it years ago. I’m always telling people my age or even someone younger to just get up and do it. Get off the couch and do it.”

Willingham’s lifestyle changes have not only provided physical benefits, but a financial windfall as well. At $10 per day, Willingham was spending roughly $300 monthly on his nicotine habit. Nowadays, that money is spent on activities for him and his two sons, Holden and Skylar. “The boys can definitely tell we’re doing more,” he said. “We’ve gone to a Cincinnati Reds game and went to see the TinCaps about five times over the summer,” he said, adding his clothes are less expensive now as well. “I’ve gone from XXL, then to XL, and now some mediums fit me,” he said, adding “I can even wear some of my son’s clothes now.”

A trip to Alabama over the summer set Willingham back just a bit, and he quickly gained three pounds, something he wasn’t proud of. “Boy, could I really tell a difference when I didn’t work out,” he said. “I got bloaty and when I got home, I got on the scales and had gained a few pounds. But I got right back into my workouts, and was able to drop what I had gained.”

Now hovering right around 175 pounds, Willingham is feeling great and looking forward to what 2013 will bring. “I just can’t get over how good I feel,” he said, adding, “I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing. It feels absolutely great.”

Renee Triplett of Van Wert knows that feeling all too well. After a severe asthma attack sent her to the hospital, she got serious about her health, and even more serious about losing weight. “I couldn’t barely breathe at all,” she said, “so that’s what definitely got me going and jumpstarted losing this weight.”

Carrying 100 pounds of excess weight had taken its toll and Triplett’s breathing was heavy and labored. Despite a difficult and slow start, she used determination and willpower to keep working out until the scale started moving. “It just felt like the weight wasn’t coming off,” she said. “But one day I weighed myself and I had dropped ten pounds. I knew then that it was working.”

Triplett also began noticing her shrinking body — and growing clothing. “All of a sudden, my clothes were way too big for me,” she said with a laugh. “Once I really got into it, I was losing three to five pounds every week.”

Getting a YMCA membership meant Triplett was now accountable, she said. “There was no way I was going to waste my money,” she said.

Temptations lie around every corner, but Triplett has held firm to her diet, and her resolution to get healthy. “My husband cooks phenomenally, but he uses a lot of butter and other fattening stuff,” she said, adding her diet now consists of lots of veggies and water. “I drink a lot of water, and I stay away from white breads and sugars. Sure, there are days I treat myself to what I call ‘real food’ and that’s okay, because I get right back at it the next day.”

Triplett also frequents the local fitness facility daily, taking one day off a week to rest her body. “I’m just doing maintenance now,” she said, adding “I also walk my dog twice a day so that helps as well. I’m proud of what I’ve done. It’s only an hour, and now the Y is open 24/7, so there are totally no excuses to not do it.”