“Now I’m just trying to maintain,” she said.
David Anderson, 46, ate hearty at a New Year’s Eve party last year, then started a low-carbohydrate diet on Jan. 1 with a goal of losing 75 pounds. He said he has lost 88 pounds and weighed 202 on Saturday morning, and he said he would like to lose 100 pounds, total.
“I just try to do the best I can to be sure I don’t gain it back,” he said.
Both father and daughter are also sticking to their diets. David Anderson said he hasn’t cheated even once on his pledge to eliminate bread and other carbs, though he said he does miss the trimmings of a good steak dinner, and Whitney said she has given up one of her favorite treats for life.
“The thing I miss the most is definitely Cherry Coke, but I don’t want to have a pop ever again,” she said.
Whitney Anderson started slimming down in May 2009. “I just decided that I didn’t want to be overweight any more. I’d done it my whole life, and it was time for a change,” she said.
She has been working with personal trainer Ann Mosley — “she kicks my butt” — and taking an exercise class, and she participated in a weight loss “boot camp.”
“I’ve seen teachers and friends from high school that I haven’t seen in a while, and they don’t recognize me. A lot of people will mistake me for my sister,” she said.
She said she had lost about 55 pounds when she started running, and her first race was a 5-kilometer cross country race last August in Danville.
“I thought I was going to die. I cried a little and sweated a lot,” Whitney Anderson said. “I ran it in 52 minutes, and when I was finished, I was so proud to be done.”
David Anderson’s first race was last September, though he only walked. He has watched countless races involving son John, an accomplished cross country runner at Boyle County High School and Lindsey Wilson College, and said he always thought he would like to run with him.
“I’ve always wanted to, ever since John started back in ’98, ’99. I’ve always wanted to get out there and run a race with my son, but I was just never in shape and too big to do it,” David Anderson said.
He said Whitney talked him into entering a 10-kilometer race in May, which was a stretch since he wasn’t doing any running on his own.
“I don’t go out five days a week and run two or three miles a day. I’ve run four times this year — four races,” he said. “I just hang on and run as far as I can for as long as I can, and then I’ll walk until I catch breath and then take off again. It seems like every (race), I’m running a little bit farther.”
He won his first age-division award — a second-place trophy — at a race last weekend in Lancaster and took home the first-place medal for his division from Saturday’s race, and his daughter said she couldn’t be prouder.
“The thing I’m more proud of than my weight loss itself is that I’ve helped my dad with his weight loss,” Whitney Anderson said.
Run for Independence 5K
Saturday
At Stanford
(3.1 miles)
1. Ryan New, 28 18:17
2. Dalton Leet, 17 18:50
3. Daniel Morgan, 23 19:17
4. Paul Gilvin, 30 20:00
5. Sam Welch, 44 20:24
6. Bill Rayens, 53 20:46
7. f-Amy Carwile, 33 20:58
8. Nick Bastin, 30 22:09
9. Nathan Landreth, 19 22:15
10. Jeremy Blanton, 29 22:45
11. Austin Morris, 13 22:56
12. Bill Gooch, 36 22:58
13. Andrew Demrow, 25 22:59
14. Kenny Smith, 30 23:09
15. Mark Morgan, 58 23:27
16. Jonathan Hardwick, 15 23:28
17. Ramon Gamarra, 61 23:35
18. Laura Jeprema, 23 24:01
19. Katrina Hampton, 32 24:07
20. Jason Todd, 39 24:20
21. Jerry Martin, 32 26:19
22. Josh Gooch, 14 26:20
23. Jonathan Moore, 19 26:24
24. Twila Montgomery, 28 26:33
25. Genna Petrey, 15 27:06
26. Brandon Meek, 35 27:26
27. Kim Hulett, 45 27:55
28. Pam Kincaid, 58 27:59
29. Jeremy Ellis, 32 28:08
30. Amy Liddle, 35 28:28
