Routine, meal changes: keys to fitness success Published Feb. 11, 2008 By Senior Airman Ann Wilkins Jefferson 910th Airlift Wing Public Affairs YOUNGSTOWN AIR RESERVE STATION, Ohio -- "Luck of the draw" in rodeo lingo means "the best animal to give a cowboy a better score." Yet when Tech. Sgt. Jerry Killian was preparing for the bi-annual Air Mobility Rodeo 2007 last summer, he couldn't rely on luck to improve his fit-tofight score, a factor in the 910th's place. "My job is one aspect I'm confident in doing, but fitness was another thing. I'm a former Marine; I know what it means to be fit. But getting to be age 40 and with kids (ages 10 and 6) at home, it was harder to work out. I didn't want my fit-to-fight score to be the weak link for our team." So Sergeant Killian decided to start a new fitness plan. He said for the first half of Fit-to-Fight scoring, "I could ace the pushups and sit-ups. But the other half of it is for the fast, skinny guys. The only way to achieve (a better score) was to trim my waist and get my run time down." He did just that, knocking off one whole minute from the clock and shaving four inches from his mid-section. Initially the sergeant weighed 237 pounds with a goal of reaching 200, which he did, even dropping below it for a bit after Rodeo, he said. By late September, he had maintained a 33-pound weight loss. His secrets to his success? Sergeant Killian said, "My secret was to start slow and build on how far I would run. I kept focused on my goal and would not give up. I kept motivated to improve my health for my children and family." As an Air Reserve Technician at the base, Sergeant Killian is able to utilize the fitness center daily, taking advantage of the three hours a week ARTs are granted to workout, a benefit he strongly recommends to others. He usually runs about three miles on the treadmill and recommends interval workouts to burn fat fastest, meaning alternating a one minute sprint and one minute walk for 30 minutes (or whatever you can work up to.) Since he also lifts weights to build muscle mass, he pays less attention to body weight since muscle weighs more than fat. Changes that the sergeant made in his eating habits included cutting out a lot of soda pop: "I used to drink six to seven cans of Dr. Pepper a day at work, then go home and kill a two-liter of it." Now he drinks flavored fitness water. Cutting out all that sugar resulted in a quick 10-pound weight loss almost instantly. He also eats smaller meal portions and more vegetables. As a result of his new fitness routine, Sergeant Killian wears a smaller uniform size, breaths better, has more endurance and a higher metabolism. He said, "Now it's second nature. I have more energy and selfconfidence in the way that I feel and look."