City Commissioner Peter Nehr has the waist to prove he's a New Year's role model. Nehr and others suggest unconventional approaches.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published January 1, 2004
This morning, thousands of people across Pinellas County woke up with new resolve to lose the love handles, surrender the cigarettes and make more money.
But come February, they'll wake up to another greasy meal, the same brand of smokes and an all-too-familiar job.
New Year's resolutions don't seem to stick, but three North Pinellas residents with experience in what it takes to change say it can be done.
"It takes dedication, no doubt about it," said Tarpon Springs City Commissioner Peter Nehr, who recently finished a 12-week weight-loss regimen and lost 35 pounds of body fat.
And it takes a plan.
For Nehr, it was a book and a strong will. Gary Ryan Blair suggests his books. A Palm Harbor entrepreneur, Blair sells goal-setting books on the Internet.
But Elizabeth Harford said books aren't necessary.
A hypnotist in Clearwater, Harford says for $150, she'll cure a smoking addiction. Plus, you get a CD.
Whatever the method, resolvers waking up this morning could use some advice about keeping New Year's resolutions.
"Tell everyone you know what you're doing," said Nehr, 51, who has been a city commissioner since 2002. "The more people you tell, the less likely you are going to give up."
Nehr took that advice to an extreme in October.
Unhappy with his weight and worried about a family history of fatal heart disease, Nehr started a program of diet and exercise recommended by a friend. To keep himself on task, Nehr e-mailed a photo of himself - topless - to nearly 300 people.
There he was, blank-faced, naked from the waist up.
In the picture, he weighed 186 pounds, and nearly one-third of that was fat.
"I was 60 pounds of pure lard," Nehr said. "No wonder I couldn't bend over and tie my shoes without gasping for breath."
So for 12 weeks, Nehr ate better and worked out.
He blocked off an appointment with himself every day on his calendar to run or stretch or lift weights. He slowly changed his lifestyle.
And, slowly, his waistline changed.
By the time his plan ended Sunday, he had trimmed 4 inches off his waist, cut his cholesterol by nearly two-thirds and reduced his body fat by more than half.
He lost 35 pounds of fat. In its place, he gained 21 pounds of muscle.
"I feel better than I felt when I was 25 years old," said Nehr, who said he plans to e-mail an "after" photo to those same 300 people.
Blair, 41, known on the Web as the Goals Guy, started New Year's Resolution Week in 1998 to help people set - and more importantly keep - New Year's resolutions. It's a business, selling motivational books, lecturing, providing goal-related guidance. For $30, you can talk to him for an hour on the phone.
His method is simple: Picture a triangle.
The top is the what. The bottom left is the why. And the bottom right is the how.
"You can't execute until you decide what you're trying to accomplish," said Blair, who said he has offices in New York, Colorado and Palm Harbor.
On his Web site, www.goalsguy.com Blair has resolution checklists and a contract to make the goals stick.
But Harford, the hypnotist, says you don't even need a contract. The power of suggestion requires little maintenance.
"They want to change, but in their minds they just didn't know how to," said 49-year-old Harford, who is also chairwoman of the local chapter of the National Guild of Hypnotists. "For some reason, it sticks when someone else tells you what you already know."
A session with Harford costs $150. Followups are $80. If you want to lose weight, she runs a package of three sessions for $320.
Harford has been a hypnotist for 10 years. Her father was also in the trade.
January, she says, is always one of her busiest times of the year.
