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Maple Ridge's Green Fighter sets fitness goals

The Maple Ride contestant in the Kin’s Green Fighter contest is out to improve her overall health in 13 weeks.
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Paige Charon at a Zumba class.

Paige Charron apparently has no problem poking fun at herself, and her self-effacing humour got lots of ammunition from a recent health appraisal.

The Maple Ride contestant in the Kin’s Green Fighter contest is out to improve her overall health in 13 weeks. She is one of 13 chosen from some 240 applicants in the Lower Mainland.

Charron is also a former cancan dancer who knew she had let her fitness slide in her 40s.

As part of a contestant support package valued at more than $2,000, she was given a free body scan by Body Comp Imaging in Vancouver

Charron said she should be in the range of 25 to 38 per cent body fat, and she came in at 40.3 per cent.

Honest to a fault, the analyst told Charron she has about a quarter cup of extra fat on the back of her left arm, as compared with the right.

“So that’s super flattering.”

When they measured her cardiovascular fitness, she realized that her get-fit decision comes in the nick of time.

“I was really terrible on the treadmill,” she said. “I’m not obese, but I’m not fit. After only nine minutes I was all red faced.”

They also did physical testing.

“They measured my flexibility, how high I could jump ... it was hilarious,” she said.

After a half day of testing, Charron could only be truly happy with her bone density. Her leg strength was equally solid.

“You let yourself go slowly, and this was a reality check.”

Her diet will get a makeover thanks to $25 worth of free produce from Kin’s Market every week. She is paying attention to her caloric intake. She noted that two glasses of wine were costing her about 330 calories.

“I was pretty choked at that.”

Charron is cutting her beer, wine, and carbohydrate intake, while moving toward more fruit, vegetables and protein.

“It’s something I’ve never done before,” she noted. “I love fat – last year I made a chocolate bacon cake.”

She gets a free gym membership and personal training consultation, and has also done her own research on myfitnesspal.com to find routines that will work for her.

She will take advantage of the free gym and swimming, but also joined the Pitt Meadows Paddling Club and is enthusiastically falling into the Zumba trend. The former member of the Golden Spike cancan group of Port Moody loves the Latin dancing, and that’s motivational.

“I really need to do stuff I enjoy.”

The goal is to get exercise five days per week and eat right, and the measuring stick will be a second body scan after 13 weeks. The big prize is a cruise to a sunny destination.

• More on the contest at kinsgreenfighters.com.