HOLDREGE, Neb. — Jeff Morgan learned through experience that it takes a community to become healthy.Read more stories about Nebraskans getting healthy and inspiring others.
In late January, Jeff, chief executive officer of the YMCA of the Prairie in Holdrege and Lexington, hit his goal of losing 100 pounds, but it was an effort of more than two years with support from family, friends and other Y members.
His effort started in September 2009 when his wife, Rachel, was pregnant with their third child. Jeff had been working at the Y since April 2004 and had been CEO since September 2007.
Even though he worked in an environment where health is the focus every day, he had reached a weight where he hated seeing how he looked as he walked by the numerous windows and mirrors at work.
Then, a family member's diagnosis delivered another reality check.
"Basically, I had found out a couple of months before that one of my family members was diagnosed with diabetes," Jeff said. "I was 281 pounds, and I knew that I was heading down that road as well. I just didn't feel good."
He decided to start with the things he could easily control. He gave up soft drinks and drank only water and orange juice. He enjoyed playing racquetball, so he played up to eight times a week. He planned to stop eating all sweets.
"The funny thing is, I started this out only on my own. I didn't tell Rachel I was doing this, I didn't tell anybody here (at the Y)," he said. "I was scared."
After two months he had lost 10 to 15 pounds, and he decided to tell a few people.
"I had made it a couple of months without sweets, and I wasn't dying," he said. "Along this process, I kept making small changes. That was different from anything else I had tried before."
He started taking his lunch to work. He changed what he ate for breakfast. Within the first year, he lost 50 pounds.
Then Jeff hit a wall. He went nine months without losing a pound. He wasn't gaining weight, but he wasn't losing any either.
"I realized that I needed to do something different," he said. "This had taken me as far as it was going to take me. If I was happy with where I was, this was where I was going to be, but I wasn't. Then, Janita came around."
Janita Pavelka is one of several Y group exercise instructors who organized a boot camp class. Jeff was the first person to sign up for that first boot camp session in May 2011.
"I was scared, but I realized I had to do something different," he said. "I had gained enough confidence that I felt like this was something that I could do. The first day, I almost puked. I was completely out of shape still."
Then, the second day of boot camp, he was so tired and sore he almost didn't go. But Jeff felt pressure to go since he was the leader at the Y.
"That was the hardest day I'd ever had in boot camp. But after that, it didn't become easy, it just became normal," he said.
During that process, he stumbled into the health-seeker lifestyle. He found several groups that would continue to push him.
"I accomplished some amazing things through the support of the people at boot camp, the staff, Rachel," he said.
In January 2011, he couldn't run a lap around the track at the Y; by the end of boot camp, he ran a 5K. He completed the Omaha Zoo Run. Now he runs seven to eight miles a day and is signed up to run the half-marathon in Lincoln in May.
Jeff has lost 100 pounds and leads the Tuesday-Thursday morning boot camp class. Rachel has lost 36 pounds and is working toward certification to teach Zumba, a dance-type workout class.
They have changed the way they eat, tracking their food through the MyFitnessPal app.
"It's changed our family," Jeff said. "We don't eat out, especially greasy fast food."
Jeff and Rachel have made it a priority to work out.
Looking back at when he was 100 pounds heavier, Jeff now evaluates his weight loss process with much more knowledge.
"Fifty percent of it was me," he said. "I had to make the decision to make this happen. But 50 percent is from accountability, from other people. You do have to make a big step on your own, but definitely doing it on your own, it's not a good method."
His weight loss success was beneficial to his job as leader of the Y, too.
"It's really helped me understand the job and do my job more effectively," Jeff said. "Now I have a lot more confidence walking in here."
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