I am very proud of our governor right now. As many of you know, I am the chairman of his council on fitness, and I have felt very privileged to be involved with the paradigm shift going on in my state right now. The ripple effects of the governor's leadership will reach far into future generations, not only because of the example he has set, but because of the policies he has implemented. Here is the full story...
Governor's healthy state
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
LITTLE ROCK — Successful politician Mike Huckabee is used to winning elections. But these days, he's proudest about what he has lost.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee runs a 5K in Little Rock. He has lost 105 pounds since June, 2003 and is now pushing for public health reforms.
Since June 2003, the 48-year-old Arkansas governor has undergone a jaw-dropping metamorphosis: He's trimmed 105 pounds off his 5-foot, 11-inch frame. As a tale of personal transformation, that would be remarkable enough. But Huckabee isn't satisfied with his individual accomplishment. He's trying to turn it into a public health crusade.
Last month, Huckabee unveiled the "Healthy Arkansas" initiative and said he intends to make it a top priority of his final two years as governor. His goal: to turn around a state that perennially ranks as one of the unhealthiest in the country by getting his citizens to exercise more, watch their weight and quit smoking. According to figures compiled by the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 8% of Arkansans suffer from diabetes; nearly 22% are considered obese and 26% smoke.
Alarmed by a growing weight problem among children, Arkansas this year became the first to require schools to measure students' body mass index, a formula that determines overweight, and send data home to parents. Huckabee signed the measure into law while in the midst of his own diet.
The governor, a Republican, sees it as a way to get control of his state health care costs, which he says are being pushed up by higher-than-average rates of obesity, diabetes and tobacco use. "We are getting killed," he says.
Becoming a role model
Until recently, Huckabee didn't feel he was in a position to make an issue of the way citizens' poor choices was driving up the state's health bills. "How could I get up there and say, 'People, we've got to do better,' when I was the poster child for everything that was wrong?" he says. "I've always believed leaders don't ask others to do what they're unwilling to do."
Now, a leaner, fitter Huckabee is pushing the state health bureaucracy to come up with innovative ways to encourage healthy lifestyles. One idea he's floating: letting state employees who don't use up all their sick days take them as vacation.
Arkansas has begun offering nutrition counseling and smoking cessation aids, including the nicotine patch, to Medicaid recipients and state employees. In the governor's office, workers are offered "walking breaks" instead of smoking breaks. "We'd rather you be a healthy employee instead of giving you time to go out and kill yourself," Huckabee says. He hopes the practice will spread throughout state government and, eventually, to the private sector.
Huckabee says he was scared skinny: A year ago, he was diagnosed with diabetes, a disease he watched both of his parents suffer with. So he knew the complications he'd be facing: vision problems, the possibility of losing a toe or even a foot, a potential early death.
"I thought, 'Man, this is so stupid,' " Huckabee recalls. "I did this to myself."
Having yo-yoed up and down the scale for years, Huckabee says he was "desperate." At the recommendation of a friend, he enrolled in a weight-loss program run by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The results have been gratifying: At his last physical, his doctors pronounced him free of any signs of diabetes.
The UAMS program, which puts patients on a liquid diet of nutrition supplements before reintroducing them to healthy eating, was expensive, Huckabee acknowledges, but he thinks the money he's saving by not needing diabetes medication makes it worth it. It costs at least $500 to enroll in the 15-week program, plus about $60 a week for dietary supplements. Program director Philip Kern blames "piddling reimbursements" from private and federal insurance programs. "Unfortunately, we have to make it a cash program, which puts it out of reach for poor people," he says.
Rewards for poor health
Kern, an endocrinologist who also works for the Little Rock Veteran's Administration, says insurance companies willingly reimburse patients who treat diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol with drugs, but not those who opt for a weight loss program — even though diet changes and exercise can produce dramatic results. Huckabee shares Kern's frustration. The governor is using his clout to push for changes at his state's insurance department.
"The health care system is really designed to reward you for being unhealthy," Huckabee says. "If you are a healthy person and work hard to be healthy, there are no benefits." He's hoping to come up with financial and other incentives to change that.
A Baptist minister as well as a politician, Huckabee sees a spiritual aspect to his makeover. "From a faith perspective, I knew I was not being a good steward of my body," he says.
Unable to complete the one-third of a mile lap around the grounds of the Arkansas governor's mansion without getting winded a year ago, Huckabee now gets up at 4:30 every morning to exercise. He warms up by walking a mile or so with his black Labrador, Jet, and then runs for two or three miles. He tops that off by riding a recumbent bicycle for 30 minutes while he reads the newspaper. Three times a week, he lifts weights.
Over the July 4 weekend, Huckabee completed his first-ever footrace: a 5K that he finished in under 29 minutes.
He's eating lean meats, lots of fruit and salads. Eliminating highly processed foods, like potato chips and white bread, has ended some of his most dangerous cravings, Huckabee says: "I actually would prefer to have an apple than a Snickers bar. I never thought I'd get there."
Although he's not the least bit shy about announcing how much weight he's lost, Huckabee doesn't want to give his before and after weight. He says that not focusing on the scale has been a key to his success. Unlike every time he's dieted before, he says, "I don't have a weight goal. I have a health and fitness goal. If you get healthy and fit, the weight will take care of itself."
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