Five Seasons Northbrook 'Be a Loser' Update: Goal-Setting, Accountability Propel Northbrook Woman to Improved Fitness

During the first quarter of 2015, the woman chosen to represent a Northbrook club in its “Be a Loser” contest has grown reacquainted with some old hold-overs from the 1990s.

No, that’s not some cold way of referring to people in Teresa Marie Kasper’s life. We’re talking about clothing, like a skirt that she bought but never wore because her weight was on the way to soaring close to 250 pounds.

“I remember buying some of this clothing in the late ‘90s,” she said. “At that time, I had to buy a new skirt, in a larger size at that time, for work and I begrudgingly bought it. But it has been years since I could fit into it and it was cool to get back into it the other day.”

Teresa lost nearly 40 pounds during the first three months of 2015.

“It’s simultaneously being happy to have achieved so much and being disheartened that I still weigh over 200 pounds,” said the 54-year-old. “It’s a long journey. I have to give myself permission to celebrate.”

Vital to Teresa’s progress has been her diligence in getting to Five Seasons Family Sports Club in Northbrook on a regular basis.

The first two months of the year, she was working out at the facility at 1300 Techny Road five or six times a week; in the past month, since she began a new full-time job, she has maintained a four times-a-week pace while supplementing with workouts at home.

She focuses most of her workout regimen between Friday and Monday, and makes a point of walking whenever possible, such as using stairs at her work and wherever life takes her.

Having a clear plan has been “incredibly helpful,” said Teresa, from setting a time to work out at the club or home to knowing in detail and in advance when and what she will be eating.

Another vital element in her progress has been an app that counts calories and tracks nutrition data—and is tied in to a community of others, including a few of her Five Seasons trainers.

“Everybody can see my exercise and my food activity so that’s a great level of accountability,” she said. “There’s no hiding from that.”

Teresa, who is married and has a 21-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter, said that she has received great encouragement from those in her life, especially women at a new job she began in early March. The position, which has sent to her to three foreign countries already, has tested Teresa’s ability to fit fitness in her schedule. So far, though, so good.

Teresa has a wardrobe from sizes 6 through 24, and in early March she organized it all. Gradually, she is moving into smaller-size options. One moment of triumph came when she wore pants that had been hanging in her closet for years—without her ever having worn them before.

So far, she has lost about three pounds per week. It’s a pace that she knows she won’t be able to maintain. She figures that to reach her goal by the end of the year, she will need to lose two pounds per week. Accomplishing her goal in that timeframe, she knows, may not happen, but she is determined that this will not be a temporary effort but a transformation that extends to the rest of her life.

“I am stronger. I have much better balance,” she said. “I don’t have joint pains like before. I wore elbow braces and a wrist brace before. I’m no longer wearing those. I continue to be so blessed with this.”

The “Be a Loser” program is under way at all six Five Seasons sites in the Midwest. Its mission is to help individuals lose a significant amount of weight through consistent exercise, dietary changes and increased knowledge in the ways of nutrition and fitness.

Those individual winners have also been a source of mutual encouragement via email updates to one another. And on Sunday, April 19th, Teresa will be joined by fellow “Be a Loser” contestant Nader Najjar as they participate in The Morton Arboretum’s fifth annual Arbor Day 10K Run in Lisle.

The “Be a Loser” prize, with a total value of $12,000, includes a one-year family membership to the club, two one-hour training sessions per week, an activity tracker, nutrition counseling, Five Seasons fitness gear and a weekly goal-setting workshop.

Five Seasons Northbrook is one of six Five Seasons clubs throughout the Midwest—the others are in Burr Ridge, Ill., Indianapolis, Indiana; Dayton, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Crestview Hills, Kentucky.

Five Seasons is at 1300 Techny Road and is online at http://fiveseasonssportsclub.com/northbrook/ and can be reached at 847-897-5030. In addition, Teresa has dubbed her fitness journey “Teresa’s New Leaf” and is chronicling it at http://teresasnewleaf.blogspot.com/

PHOTOS:

In this photo from March 10th, Teresa takes a break from a workout involving boxing-inspired exercises--just one of many athletic endeavors that she previously never imagined accomplishing. (Photo from “Teresa’s New Leaf” blog)

In this January photo, Teresa is flanked by Five Seasons Northbrook Fitness Director Patrick Kamara (right) and trainer Michael Matthews.