8/25/04

Parks & Recreation Personal Trainer Service Visits Mayor
Mayor Takes His Own Healthy Life Challenge

Along with the weight machines and treadmills, aerobics classes and group sports offered at the Hunt Community Center, a unique program for residents gives personalized, one-on-one attention to participants – the Personal Trainer/Fitness Consultant program. After a fitness test, Personal Trainer Jackie Miller works with participants one-on-one or in small groups to design the best personalized workout and nutrition program, and to help participants stay motivated. Recently, Holly Springs Mayor Dick Sears tried out the service. After 12 weeks with Miller, working one day a week with her and exercising several times a week without her, the mayor’s results are in!

Sears said he lost nearly 15 pounds and that his body fat percentage is down to 16.3%. His total cholesterol is down by 26%, with a 56% drop in LDL cholesterol and a 16% drop in Triglycerides.

“I was personally a little surprised and very pleased to see the change in some of my numbers,” Sears said. “I would be the first person to recommend Jackie to anyone who is interested in improving their quality of life.”

Miller contacted the mayor early in the year when Sears was awarding Healthy Life Challenge prizes to Holly Springs residents he saw exercising. Organized through the Town Parks and Recreation Department, weekly Healthy Life Challenge prizes were awarded by the mayor from January through March, 2004.

“With the mayor having just finished his healthy life challenge, I thought the idea of him actually taking on the challenge himself, practicing what he’s saying, would be a good opportunity for him,” Miller said.

She added that she focused on educating the mayor on how to have a healthier lifestyle by eating properly and exercising. Miller engaged Sears in a variety of exercises at the community center, from walking on the treadmills to working out on the resistance machines and lifting free weights. She even taught him some moves on the exercise balls.

“I’ve been doing pretty good,” Sears said about sticking to his workout schedule, even on days when he wasn’t training with Miller. “I guess in summary how you do with a program such as this has a great deal to do with your sense of commitment.”

Miller’s fitness sessions are available to the public and can be paid for in fitness coupons, sold by the Town Parks and Recreation Department at the Hunt Community Center. Booklets of 20 coupons are sold for $50. A fitness session with Miller is 15 coupons per person or 25 coupons for two people. Small group rates vary. Coupons can also be used to participate in other Town exercise classes at the community center.

Miller said that she works with her clients to improve cardiovascular health, strength, and core muscles by developing personalized workouts. Her end goal, she said, is not to overwhelm participants with exercises but to make a gradual change in their daily habits.

“People can learn that they don’t have to do anything extreme to have a healthy lifestyle,” she said.

Miller has been working in the health and fitness industry since 1996 and has years of experience as a personal trainer at YMCAs, homes and private clubs. She is the owner of Brit-Fit Personal Training, a service that works with individuals and groups to enhance quality of life through fitness training.

“This is what I do for my life,” Miller said. “I live and breathe health and fitness.”

Miller said that she enjoys working with people and seeing her customers meet their fitness goals. She said that most people who sign up for personal trainer sessions want accountability, direction or education.

“A lot of people want to be told what they can do, not what they can’t do. A lot of people don’t realize what they can do. A lot of people have more ability than what they think they have. It’s their mind that holds them back,” she said.

For more information about Miller of the Personal Trainer program, contact the Hunt Community Center at (919) 557-9600.

Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us