YMCA fitness director raises the stakes

LYNN – A local version of “The Biggest Loser” is about to heat up when YMCA Fitness Director Sharon Dobbyn turns a new round of her Waist Away program into a competition.”We’re going to have teams and prizes,” she said. “I can’t say what they are but there will be prizes.”Waist Away is an eight-week program aimed at helping people eat better and work out more. It includes food journaling, weekly workout sessions and access to a nutritionist and all YMCA exercise classes for the duration of the program. And this time it includes a little friendly competition.Keith Olbash thinks the fact it’s a competition will force him to work harder. Olbash has survived three cycles of Waist Away and lost a total of 70 pounds. In a program that decidedly includes more women than men, he is a standout.”I was ready to do it,” said the 29-year-old Lynner.He has stuck with it because he likes the people and because the more he loses the more it pushes him to do more.”It’s a great feeling,” he said. “The harder I pushed myself the more weight I lost.”Keeping track of what he eats in a food journal is the biggest drag, he said, but switching up his eating habits to better reflect a healthy diet wasn’t so hard.”I sneak over to my mom’s house once in a while for a good meal,” he admitted.While the program is only eight weeks long, Dobbyn said she sets people on a path to getting healthy, and Mark Quealy feels like he is living proof that it works.Quealy was the biggest loser in the January cycle, dropping just a little over 25 pounds.”When I started the Waist Away program I was lethargic and very much out of shape,” he wrote in a note to Dobbyn and nutritionist Jennifer Perry. “Though I have a long road ahead of me I feel that you are providing me with tools and motivation I need to reach my goal and stay on a path to a healthful life.”Quealy said he hopes to start playing organized hockey again, and, thanks to the program, he is almost there.Nancy Tobin echoed Quealy’s sentiments. Tobin lost 15 pounds and, like Quealy, said she came because she knew she was out of shape and needed help.”I’d been going to Planet Fitness and it wasn’t working,” she said. “I just didn’t know what I was doing.”She said she appreciates the fact that if she struggled, Dobbyn and trainer Kelly Morley would walk her through how to do an exercise and offer an alternative for the ones she was not yet strong enough to conquer.And she did get stronger. Tobin said at the start of the program she could do 30 crunches in one minute.”I did crunches because I couldn’t do full sit-ups,” she said. “Now I can do full-sit ups. It’s those small things that are huge and it didn’t kill me.”Tobin said she can’t wait until the next program starts Saturday. She hopes to experience the same, if not more, success. Olbash also hopes to build on his success.”This next time I will watch what I eat more and stick to the diet,” he said. “I will definitely listen to the dietitian more ? it’s a competition this time.”Dobbyn said the competition includes categories such as highest percentage of team weight loss, best average team attendance, most complete food logs and most workouts at the Y during the eight-week program. It also includes teams working to achieve a team goal.The newest round of Waist Away will start Saturday at 8 a.m. Participants will be weighed in and measured and divided into teams. Dobbyn said not to worry if you don’t have a team coming in.”We’ll put you on a team and it will be good support for the new person because the ones who have done it before will help you,” she said. “And there will be prizes.”The cost for the program, which also meets Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m., is $100 for YMCA members and $200 for the public at large.For more information or to sign up, head to the YMCA at 20 Neptune Boulevard or call 781-581-3105. To contact Dobbyn, add extension 244 or reach her at [email protected].