Practicing what they preach

• By DEBRA LEMOINE
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 3, 2009 - Page: 1D

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Barbara Cerniauskas, Katherine Lastor and Michelle Begnaud advise people how to achieve a healthy weight as dietitians at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

So what do they do to stay slim themselves?

They exercise regularly.

And, Pennington makes it convenient for them to do so.

At least three times a week, the three women head across Pennington’s campus for an hourlong workout at the fitness center used by employees and study participants.

Cerniauskas and Begnaud have been exercising together at work for three years. Lastor made it a threesome a year ago.

“We work on a lot of weight-loss studies, so we try to practice what we preach,” Begnaud said.

Being able to exercise at work and having partners make them more likely to exercise, Cerniauskas said.

“We help each other often,” Cerniauskas said. “We encourage our participants to support people and work out with them.”

As a leading research center on obesity, nutrition and exercise, Pennington should provide its employees with the tools they need to live a healthy lifestyle, said Dr. Timothy Church, whose research focus at Pennington is exercise as a preventative health measure.

“It’s kind of hypocritical to tell people to be healthier and be more active and not provide our employees a way to be more healthy,” Church said.

When Church arrived at Pennington four years ago, there were occasional programs aimed at healthier lifestyles but nothing coordinated. The first change he sought was opening the fitness center used by study participants to employees as well.

“The commitment (from management) was there but nobody asked,” Church said.