Fighting to be fit

Danette Goulet

Before 10-year-old Brittany Miller leaves elementary school, she will

have spent a year on a weight loss program.

The fifth-grader from Newport Beach has already shed an amazing 27

pounds from her still growing 4-foot, 10-inch frame.

In September, Brittany began a workout regimen and nutrition program

at Tuf Productions gym in Newport Beach, she said, because her mother was

worried about her weight.

For the first few years of her life Brittany looked like a twin to her

12-year-old sister Stephanie, who is still a “string bean,” said Liz

Harris, Brittany’s mother.

But at age 3, Brittany began gaining weight for no apparent reason.

She was gaining first five, then, 10, then 15 pounds a year.

“I started getting really concerned about health issues,” Harris said.

“She was 10 years old and 131 pounds. We were dealing with onset of

diabetes and heart problems.”

Harris took her daughter to specialists at the UCI medical center,

where doctors told her that if they did not actively attack Brittany’s

weight, she would have medical problems.

“Brittany was considered obese,” Harris said. “It’s hard to believe

looking at her now.”

GETTING TUF

Having heard about the teen program at her gym, Harris decided to try

sending Brittany there instead of putting her on medication.

And so a regime began for Brittany that includes a healthy diet,

working out with gym owner Jill Balkam a couple times a week, doing her

video at home one to two times a week and keeping a journal of the

process.

“I have her keep a journal because [weight loss] is an emotional thing

as well as a physical thing,” Balkam said.

After seven months, the young girl has lost weight.

“I’m happy about it because all my family members are proud of me for

doing it,” Brittany said. “I feel better. I feel skinnier.”

Fitness is not simply about being thin, the gym instructor said. It is

important for young girls to learn about how their bodies work and good

nutrition.

TEEN FITNESS

When Balkam was faced with the pressure to be as skinny as a super

model in school, she tried the crazy diets and starvation methods that

are so devastatingly harmful to so many girls.

“There’s a lot of information I wish I knew when I was a teen,” she

said. “Just information I wanted to give to them to help them always have

healthy habits.”

That is why she created the Teen Fitness program, which this spring

had a Boot Camp theme that has young Brittany and a gaggle of other young

girls running stairs and doing crunches.

After the group works out, they sit and talk.

It is the talks and the camaraderie they feel with Balkam and each

other that the girls said they like best.

“Jill is awesome -- she is so nice,” said Jessica Slater, 14, a boot

camp grunt from Newport Beach. “It’s so much fun to work out with friends

and just talking about stuff -- anything.”

HEALTHY TALKS

During these post-workout stretching session discussions, Balkam talks

to the girls about nutrition and healthy habits -- what is good for the

body and what is not.

She gives them “homework assignments” in between sessions, such as eat

breakfast everyday or drink at least five glasses of water a day.

They’ve learned about good fats versus fried food and why eating no

fat would actually make them gain weight.

“I think it’s neat because she leaves us with a lesson or a homework

assignment of something to do -- drink water, eat breakfast,” said Mary

Ellen Snelgrove, 14.

Balkam was hoping to create the close knit feel that she attained with

the group, with the idea that by being more of a big sister to the girls

then just another teacher, they would be more comfortable talking to her.

She is also willing to mold the program around what interests a group,

because the goal is to make taking care of their bodies fun.

“The teens we have, they want to do the same things as their moms --

kick boxing and yoga,” she said. “So this is getting them ready for good

habits going into their adult years.”

It is also about creating a healthy self-esteem -- clearly a

metamorphosis Brittany has undergone.

In journal entry she wrote demonstrates that.

“After I started working out with Jill I felt like I was somebody, not

just fat,” she wrote. “When I lost a couple of pounds my mom started to

cry. So did I. Finally my brother and sister stopped calling me names.”