Kristal resolved to tip the scales toward healthier life choices, and her determination has paid off. Today she is 160 pounds lighter and is in training to compete in two triathlons and a mini-marathon.

The first step
Lagro knew she’d lost and gained 40 pounds repeatedly in weight-loss programs she had attempted in the past.
“When I was told to go to Graham Grain to get weighed, it was the spark that ignited my weight loss,” Lagro said. “Heavy people know they are heavy. It made sense why my knees hurt and why I was tired. I was chugging around a lot of weight.”

Realization set in when Lagro, a single parent of two sons, knew she needed to get fit and healthy so she could raise her boys, she said.

Not long after deciding once again to try nutrition and fitness to lose weight and get into shape, she used her tax refund check to buy a treadmill.

“The first two weeks are awful,” she said. “I came home after working a 12-hour shift and walked for an hour every night. I had a hard time making it at 3 miles per hour.”

Every week’s weigh-in was encouraging.

She continued the program, she says, despite her mental and physical exhaustion because she is obstinate.
“I’m stubborn,” Lagro said. “The weight was coming off. I sweat. My ankles hurt, my knees hurt. It was horrible. Now I run. Can you believe that I went from limping around the treadmill to running?”

Getting to the next level
Lagro decided after six weeks of working out on her own to join Curves for Women in Brazil, a fitness center for women near her home. The Curves program targets body fat loss and weight loss through a 30-minute workout program using special equipment. She joined Curves on Feb. 16, 2004, after losing 41 pounds on her own.

The Curves program is based on coming to the workout sessions at least three times a week, said Kathy Allen, owner of the Brazil facility.

“Kristal is fantastic,” Allen said. “She was very avid about doing at least three sessions a week.
“After she lost 136 pounds that we registered, which amounts to 65 total pounds of body fat, and a combined total of 95 inches from her bust, waist, hips, arms and thighs, we entered her in the Curves International Sweetheart contest in December 2004, Allen said. “In February 2005, she won as runner up. That’s how Looking Good Now magazine learned about her big weight loss and contacted her about doing a story for the magazine.”
Her story was among three featured in last month’s issue along with before and after photos.

Allen believes it was easier for Lagro to stick to the Curves program because it is strictly for women and only women are allowed to work out there, she said.

“She didn’t feel self-conscious because it’s an all-women’s club,” Allen said. “…Every woman who walks through that door has the same goal. Kristal was so determined to succeed. She was unyielding.”

Lagro went to Curves three days a week and stayed on her food program of eating healthy and keeping track of calories and portion sizes. Her calorie count ranged from 1,400 to 1,600 per day, she said.

During this period she also was working two nursing jobs, one on in the medical maximum care unit, 4-C, at Union Hospital and another at Holly Hills nursing home in Brazil.
Keeping accurate records of food intake was a must.

“I wrote down everything I ate,” she said. “What I ate in trends showed. Food records tell you why you didn’t lose anything one week. If I chose to eat a bag of chips there are consequences. You have to be accountable for what you eat. You have to be accountable for everything you do in life. The weight gain or loss is ultimately my responsibility.”

After losing about 100 pounds she reached a plateau where she didn’t lose a pound in weeks, although she stayed on her program.

“I was discouraged, but my co-workers and people at the hospital told me not to stop exercising and eating properly,” she said. “I stayed with my program and after about a month, I started losing weight again. I think it was my body readjusting to the fat loss.”

Life lessons
Finding a way to overcome is something Kristal had to learn early, at the age of 9, after her father died.
“You do the best you can with what you’ve got,” she said. “If you don’t like your situation, you change it. If you fail and you learn something, you didn’t fail. You simply learn a new approach. I directed my whole entire life. It took me until I was 32 years old to learn what worked for me. The coolest thing is I have a better understanding of my body. It is very empowering. It’s trial and error.”

Lagro didn’t face this difficult journey toward fitness alone. She is grateful to her Creator, her friends, her sons and most of all, her mom.

“My mother, Mickie Onken, is like a pillar, she is so phenomenal,” Lagro said. “She lives with us. She didn’t tell me how good I was doing every night. She would make sure the boys gave me time to finish my workout on the treadmill and when I was too tired to do it, she made lunch for me to take to the hospital the next day. She fixed what I was supposed to eat. She is my strength when I’m tired. She was my champion. I absolutely could not have done this without her. I’m so blessed. She is my best friend.”

It was difficult for Lagro’s mother to watch her daughter struggle with her weight-loss program.
“I think if that was me when I got tired, I’d just stop,” Onken said. “She did a lot of hard work to accomplish it. To lose that much weight it has to come from within yourself.”

When speaking of Kristal, her mom refers to her as “my amazing daughter who makes me proud.”
Kristal is the youngest of her three children, all of whom chose medical careers.
“Kristal and her sister, who lives in Minnesota, are both nurses and my son is a pharmacist here in Brazil,” she said.

Onken sees her daughter recording daily food intake.
“Kristal has a little black book and she keeps track of everything she eats,” she said. “She keeps herself in check. She even runs on her lunch hour. When most nurses would sit down and put up their feet because they are on them so much, she puts on her running shoes and runs.”

During a recent trip to the grocery with her daughter, Onken said she was surprised when a long-time friend of Kristal’s didn’t acknowledge Kristal when she greeted her.

“Then she saw me tagging behind Kristal and her face turned red and she spoke to us. She hadn’t seen Kristal since she lost all the weight and she didn’t recognize her. The only way she knew it was Kristal is because I was there. This good friend absolutely didn’t know her.”

Kristal’s support system extends from home to work.
Each January the Union Hospital Cardiac Cath Lab sponsors an eight-week weight-loss program.
“You get weighed and try to lose as much weight as you can during that period,” Lagro said. “Prizes are offered for losing the most weight at the end of the program. You don’t get a diet to follow or anything. It was just teams of five people trying to lose weight.”

This program is basically designed to keep you motivated, she said. “My friend and I joined together. Right about the end of hospital program I joined Curves.”

“It helps to go on a program with a friend or buddy,” Lagro said. “I was given a lot of encouragement from coworkers and Dr. Raj Jeevan. He told me everyone should know what I’ve done. I believe this was my last try at weight loss before seeking a surgical solution.”

Her efforts touched people in the medical field.
“The way she lost the weight and the determination and enthusiasm was really impressive,” said Dr. Raj Jeevan, MD. “She will be a great role model … This girl made up her mind and had fun doing it.”

 Staying fit
Three times a week Lagro goes to Union Hospital’s Center for Performance and Fitness on the fifth Floor of the hospital’s Professional Office Building to work out with her personal trainer, John Barrett.

She sought Barrett’s help in gaining muscle mass and tightening up her body after losing 160 pounds. Her muscular 5-foot, 10-inch frame easily supports her target weight of 195 pounds, Barrett said.

“Being healthy and wanting to be around to raise her kids is a good goal,” Barrett said. “The mini-marathon and triathlons give her additional goals to keep her on track. I know I train better when I know I have a goal in mind.”

Barrett said Lagro works out with free weights such as dumbbells that help train stabilizer muscles.
Part of her training requires she hold a 20-pound dumbbell in each hand when she does a walking stretch that strengthens her hamstrings and calf and thigh muscles.

“She is a pretty strong girl,” he said. “She has actually worked out with me and we’ve got her up to 510 pounds doing a leg press.”

Lagro also trains with the Wabash Valley Road Runners, part of the “Trained in Terre Haute” beginning runners working with Myra Bosworth in preparation for the Indianapolis 500 Festival 13.5-mile mini-marathon May 6. These runners undergo a 15-week training period.

“It is a good program that deals with nutrition, injury protection, and it’s a very positive influence for people who want to stay fit,” Bosworth said. “With the training the members also get a 15-week strength-training program at the Family Y. People from all walks of life and people of all sizes and shapes participate. It’s a good way to meet new friends.”

There are about 350 members in the Road Runners, Bosworth said.

An inspiration to others
Lagro has been able to pass along her success with exercise and proper nutrition to her oldest son, Michael, 14, who has dropped 40 pounds.

“He’s lost 40 pounds since June and he did it through exercise and choosing to eat healthier,” Lagro said. “We are healthier people because of this experience. I think it has made me a better parent.”

Lagro believes she had given up on herself before beginning this last weight loss and fitness commitment, a life-changing experience.

“It’s never over,” she said. “I can never go back to my old lifestyle. If you had told me a year ago I’d be running in a mini-marathon and doing two triathlons — one here in May and one in Michigan in July — I would have said no way. I’ll swim 800 meters, bike 40 kilometers and run 5 miles. I can’t afford to go back to the way I was. I want to be there for my sons. This is a life-altering change for all of us. I’ll always be doing something to keep fit.”

Looking at her old picture when she was morbidly overweight, the image doesn’t compute in her mind now.
“I know it’s me but it seems so long ago,” she said. “It is me but it’s not me, and it is not who I am today.”
Lagro offers a bit of advice to those, like herself, who have lost and gained weight time after time and then reverted back to a lifestyle that doesn’t sustain weight loss and healthy living.

She said it begins by starting to park further away from wherever you are going, “do housework to music, take the stairs not an elevator — just move — get up off the couch and move,” she said.
Her words of wisdom are “start small.”

Since becoming much more fit, she spends a lot less time in front of the television, she said.
“Just get up and move,” Lagro said. “Even if it is just 10 minutes or 20 minutes [of] exercise, play with the kids, get up and get moving. Today I’m selfish about my workout time. I’m better for it in the end.”

Set small, attainable goals so you have the feeling of success because it is empowering, she said.
“Then set new ones. Lose 1 pound, 2 pounds or the amount you set, and reward yourself when you meet a goal: buy a new shirt, a new pair of shoes. This is what I did to keep motivated.”

Lagro began feeling less tired with each pound she lost, she said, and her aches and pains diminished after a few weeks of working out.

She also cautions that there are well-meaning enablers all around.

“Mom baked cookies and I asked her not to bake cookies when I was home. I asked her to put the cookies she baked in a container and put those in a secret spot. She did this to help me,” Lagro said, admitting that she is a “cookie bear who loves to chow down on them.”

Determining portion size isn’t always easy, according to Lagro.

Her son didn’t understand the size of a portion of steak, she said. “I told him I have large hands and about 4 ounces of meat equal the size of the back of my hand from the knuckles to the wrist. It isn’t very large.”
Overweight people share many of the same things.

“We all have self-esteem issues,” Lagro said. “We are critical about the way we look, and how clothes fit, or we get to the point we don’t care. I think that is where I was, I didn’t care. I was too tired to care. Now I have tremendous energy. I’ve shrunk a lot, but I’ve grown a lot.”
Patricia Pastore can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or at pat.pastore@tribstar.com.