Mike and Shelley Malyk train with Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ player, Jamie Stoddard, and personal trainer, Jennifer Onyskie.

Mike and his wife Shelley are avid Bomber fans who would love the opportunity to improve their fitness and lower their cholesterol levels. With two sons who need to realize that they are not immortal and have an even bleaker genetic history than their parents, the couple hopes to entice them to become more active by showing their drive to improve their fitness and health levels.

First Experiences…

“The Miracle isn’t that I finished.  The Miracle is that I had the courage to start” John “the Penguin” Bingham.

 

We wanted to start with our favorite quote from this self-declared back of the pack runner. This statement encourages us to just get started, one small step at a time. We don’t have to be great; we just have to do it!  We did and our small steps and resulting successes have added up to the point where we had the courage to really test ourselves with Making the Connection.  We encourage you to take your first small steps by checking out the links and resources on this website.  We know they will work for you too – just have the courage to start!

 

There is nothing like having everyone around you watching you work your plan.  We have co-workers, friends and family checking on us, working out with us and participating in their own efforts to improve their heart health along with us.  This has been exciting and inspiring to see others respond with their own plans as we describe our own. Some have even spoken with their friends/family to get them motivated too! Now, top that off with some great teaching from our trainer, Jennifer Onyskie, and time spent doing a weight workout in the Blue Bomber training room with Jamie Stoddard! That is serious motivation! Thanks Jennifer and Jamie!

 

We’ve only been at it 3 weeks but there have been many lessons for us already. We gained a new respect for the commitment professional athletes have to their training.  Jamie took us through the receiver “warm-up” on the first day and we were crippled for 2 days after that! We called that a workout but the Bomber receivers would go on to play a hard-hitting football game after that.  When we were hunting down the 3,5,10 pound free weights in the Bomber training room, we came across free weights we could never lift off the rack without help! Yikes! 

Jennifer introduced us to the exercise ball (amongst other things) and our core muscles haven’t been the same since!  It’s been awhile since we had been doing much strength training but we are already feeling stronger and going through our daily activities with better balance and gracefulness.  She has also given us hope that we can get off the very frustrating plateau we’ve been on for some time simply through changing things up with our physical activity every 6-8 weeks. After only a couple weeks, Mike ran a 55 minute 10K – his fastest ever! 

 

Above all, we’ve discovered that finding ways to keep the plan fresh and exciting really pushes us to do more than we normally would.  That will be our challenge to come.  

 

Round 2

 

“Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.”  Robert Collier

 

After experiencing the brutal effects of our first workout with Jamie Stoddard, we added a new goal to our list for the Making the Connection program.  We wanted to not just survive the next workout but able to do simple things the next day like go up curbs, sit without grabbing supports and walk faster than grass grows.  Well, we did it!  Not only did Jamie take us through a repeat of the first workout on Tuesday, he added some really fun agility footwork drills.  We even added running the stadium stairs a bit on our own too.  And today, we feel strong and flexible and are not embarrassing ourselves! We found out first hand that our day in and day out efforts really made a difference! And the steps really are small.  We only do the weight training every other day for 20 minutes total now besides the cardio workouts we had already created a habit of doing.  Thanks for the great workouts Jennifer!

 

Bet you could take an hour a week to add to your physical activity too! 

 

At the beginning of the program, we invited all our friends, family and co-workers to join us on our journey to improve our heart health and to report in as it wrapped up this week.  And what a report it was! We were awestruck by how many eager participants joined with us, returning to or ramping up their plans for a healthier diet, regular exercise and controlling stress.  We had 67 people doing 116 separate actions to adopt a healthier lifestyle.  Both our sons have more activity in their lives now with their jobs or getting to and from college. Shelley’s Dad (who has been active forever and who is living proof that a good diet and lots of exercise can get you through serious medical conditions) has even upped his physical activity in spite of a bum leg at the moment.  One family had a sister diagnosed with heart disease and have virtually completely revamped their lives.  They are really inspiring!

 

We had an amazing 3 weeks with a diet that left us feeling so full of energy.  The dietician let us know we didn’t even need the multivitamin more than every other day anymore. Just a few small tweaks to consider and we have the diet piece figured out.  Does that feel good!

 

We are going to be able to continue our own efforts with better success with so many people around us working their plan alongside us. Shelley has a checkup scheduled for Dec where we’ll see how these continued efforts affect cholesterol levels and maybe provide some answers for how bad the genetic risk really is for her.

 

So – on to another week of one small effort, day in and day out! Why don’t you join us too!

 

One last!

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right” Henry Ford

 

This week was the real test.  We were past the weigh in and could we or couldn’t we keep it going??  The news is good!  We continue to do very well with cardio, weight training and nutrition plans. We can get through the weight program without reading instructions so it only takes us 20 minutes each time now.  

 

All the effort we put in getting friends/family/co-workers going is really paying off now.  We are still getting reports in about what more people are doing with their own heart health and the total is up now to 71 people participating!  One has even completely quit smoking – a huge accomplishment! We are really thrilled with all this eagerness!  So you can only imagine how many eyes are on us now – making sure we get out for a lunchtime walk or are checking out what we are having for lunch or snacks. Mike’s workplace is even considering his proposal for a wellness program! 

 

We having begun re-reading labels again – particularly on those items with which we made changes years ago.  For example, read the label on your peanut butter.  When we did, we found the low fat peanut butter we’ve been using for a very long time had hydrogenated vegetable oil in it– a definite no-no for us.  So we’ve switched brands to one that only has peanuts in it.

 

We were reminded in a huge way with this contest that taking care of ourselves could actually be fun!  We already knew that it was important to keeping looking for a physical activity that we truly enjoy.  We had already been successful with this from before.  For Shelley, the rollerblading is such fun that sometimes the stretching gets forgotten afterwards.  That wasn’t work – that was just having a good time!  And doing some “fartlek” walks this month with co-workers has been a barrel of laughs.  Mike gets a whole lot of socializing done with his group runs and he can count on a lot of friends to keep him moving.  We hope you keep looking for what you really like to do.  If it gets stale, look for something else.  Being physically active does not have to be a drag. We had a blast with Making the Connection with all the activity, learning, fame (lots of people on the bus and at the Bomber games recognized us from the paper) and surrounding ourselves with people with similar goals.