Reshaping her life

Tanya Sloan transformed her body - and her life

MIKE STOBBE

Staff Writer

This year started badly for Tanya Sloan. On Jan. 3, Sloan's boyfriend broke up with her, giving little explanation. She was devastated, and she reacted by focusing on her appearance. Outgoing, buxom and fond of exercise, Sloan said she was always considered attractive. But the 31-year-old banker also carried extra pounds on her arms and stomach she couldn't quite shed.

"I felt like I looked chunky," said Sloan. At the time, she said, her 5-feet-6-inch frame carried 155 pounds. She decided to enter a "dream body" contest sponsored by Oxygen women's fitness magazine, embracing a tough exercise and diet regimen to burn off fat and increase muscle tone. Not long after, she also decided to enter three triathlons and add six hours a week of biking, swimming and running to her contest regimen.

Two weeks ago, the magazine announced Sloan is one of three finalists in the national contest. The grand prize isn't cash or an automobile. Rather, it's an all-expense paid trip to Hollywood to spend time with a professional fitness trainer and have dinner with the fitness model of the winner's choice.

In other words, her reward for months of intense dieting and exercise would be ... more dieting and more exercise. In a letter to the magazine earlier this year, Sloan said she would savor such a prize, and described herself as emblematic of other women at her stage in life. "Much like Sex in the City's Carrie Bradshaw is the `every woman' of the single dating scene, I, Tanya Sloan, am the `every woman' of the single workout scene," she wrote. `You're out trying to attract someone'

Surprisingly, there isn't much published research on the demographics of Americans who exercise, said Teresa Moore, an assistant professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina.But like Sloan, most people who participate in intense, recreational exercise seem to get serious about it around the age of 30, she said. Some statistics:

• Triathlete magazine reports that nearly half of its readers are people in their 30s.
• Results from various marathons and triathlons show that the 30-to-34 age group is always one of the largest groups represented.
• The average age for women who finish 5-kilometer races -- the most common type of running event -- is 34, according to USA Track & Field's Road Running Information Center, a California-based organization.

"You start to think about maybe where you are (physically), and take measures to do something about that," said Moore, 49, who started weight training in her late 20s and became a professional body builder. Other factors may explain a surge in exercising around the age of 30, said Ryan Lamppa, a researcher for the Track & Field center.

Around that age, some people start thinking more seriously about life goals and accomplishments, and may focus on something like a marathon or triathlon, he said. But the leading factor behind the early 30s exercise boom may be the desire and need to keep looking good, particularly for people who are single, Moore said. " You're out trying to attract someone. It makes sense," she said.

The freshman 15
Sloan said she's enjoyed exercising since the end of high school, though she never has spent this much time and energy keeping fit. "I never thought of myself as athletic. But I think of myself as an athlete now," she said.

Born in Concord, Sloan was adopted when she was 6 weeks old. Her parents moved to Charlotte when she was 18 months and she grew up here, attending Olympic High School.

Her weight in high school? "Probably 130," she said, adding that she was considered popular and pretty and never gave it a second thought.

That changed when she was in college. She went to UNC Chapel Hill, and came home for Christmas break her first semester.

"My mother's friend said to me, `Wow, I see the Freshman 15's caught you!' And I remember going `What?' " she recalled.

For the first time, she began to think negatively about her body, she said. She started aerobics when she got back to college, and took jobs in health clubs and as a swimming pool lifeguard during the summers, she said. After college she worked as a waitress for about 18 months. Then she took a series of relatively sedentary jobs, including her current position as a software analyst for Wachovia.

She gained 1 to 2 pounds a year through her 20s, peaking at about 160 two years ago. She grew to envy her mother, Cynthia Davis, whom she described as a petite woman with an hourglass figure. "When mom's wearing a size 6 and you're wearing a 12, it kinda bums you out," she said.

Sloan continued to exercise and tried diets, but couldn't seem to get any lower than 150, she said. "I hated my waist (the most)," she said, adding that she would dress to conceal her stomach and the back of her arms.

Then came the breakup with the man she'd dated for seven months.

"It was pretty nasty," said Cara Balch, 33, a friend of Sloan's. "He walked out on the whole thing without an explanation. There was no opportunity for closure." Then Sloan read about the contest. Sizing up the competition

The contest is a promotion for a DVD fitness program created by Push Media, a company working with Oxygen magazine on the effort.

The three finalists each got a series of Push DVDs with instructions to use them to exercise at home. They followed the regimen for three months, and each reported impressive results, said Alicia Rewega, fitness editor for the 150,000-circulation magazine.

Kristy Seemiller, a 25-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, dropped from 191 pounds to 173 in the first month. Sabrina Sorell, a 22-year-old from Missouri, went from 145 to 132. Both finalists are younger than Sloan, both have had children, and have registered more dramatic initial weight loss.

"At 31, I'm the fittest of the three and the oldest, and no baby. Aren't I supposed to be the one that has a baby?" Sloan said.

Rewega said the judges will consider other factors besides weight loss, including adding muscle and keeping a positive attitude.

"We're not going to just choose the thinnest girl," she said. Sloan said she's already decided which fitness model she'd want to have dinner with if she wins the contest. She'd like to spend time with Monica Brant, a blond bikini model and fitness competition champion.

"She combines strength with femininity," Sloan explained. At her home in Charlotte's South End, Sloan placed photos of Brant on bathroom mirrors, the refrigerator and beside her bed for motivation.

She said she hopes to win the contest, but Sloan's already reaping rewards from her training. She changed her diet, shifting away from restaurant meals and toward controlled amounts of grains, fruits and other healthy foods.

In a spinning class at the Dowd YMCA, she met Mark Ward, a 38-year-old architect. They train together for triathlons, and have dated for nearly four months. Her job is going well, too. Two weeks ago, she was promoted to assistant vice president, meaning more prestige and vacation time.

Also two weeks ago, a freelance photographer took pictures of her for Oxygen magazine, and another photographer at the shoot asked her to model for him.

Then last week, two good-looking young men approached her at the Dowd YMCA and complimented her on her leaner physique.

"Mark better look out," Sloan joked later. "The boys are catching on."