Special P.E. class helps students drop weight
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer
Kamehameha Schools student Walter Aipa remembers life as a fat freshman, not fitting in, feeling inferior to others and edging close to 300 pounds.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
That's hard to believe coming from the friendly, confident and enthusiastic 6-foot-1 senior, now 30 pounds lighter. "I sing, I dance, I act," Aipa said. He plays flute and drums in the band, and belongs to five clubs: Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, art and physics.
Kawika Albarado, 17, a junior at Kamehameha Schools, lost 30 pounds after joining a specialized physical education class that includes nutrition counseling. "I used to eat a lot of junks and candies," he said. "Now, I control what I eat."
Aipa is one of more than 200 Kamehameha students who have benefited from a specialized physical education class called Health Promotion Education. It combines exercise with lessons on healthy nutrition and lifestyle.
Kamehameha is committed to physical education. Every student takes P.E. two to five times a week, and Headmaster Michael Chun takes part in an annual biathlon for 10th-graders.
Each year, about 25 students are enrolled in Health Promotion Education. It serves students who are classified obese and willing to change: girls with more than 30 percent body fat and boys with more than 25 percent. For comparison, the body fat average for healthy teens is 18 percent to 24 percent for girls and 12 percent to 17.5 percent for boys.
The success rate is steady. Since its creation in the late 1980s, PE teacher Theone Chock said 30 percent of her students have lost a significant amount of weight; 60 percent maintained a steady weight (a plus, considering they may have been gaining 20 pounds to 30 pounds a year); and 10 percent gained weight.
As a freshman from Wai'anae, Aipa was new to Kamehameha and intimidated by the older students. He was sent to HPE by a counselor.
"I never would have exercised on my own without this class," Aipa said. Now, he's 18, applying for colleges, busy and happy. Most days he walks, runs and works out in Ka'ahumanu Gym. He's not skinny; he is healthy.
Obesity rate growing
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
The national rate of obesity among young people is growing and may be even worse in Hawai'i. A study by professor Dennis Chai of the University of Hawai'i and a team of researchers found obesity rates among 1,437 Hawai'i students from 1992 to 1996 that were double the national average.
Kona Awana, 16, has dropped 30 pounds since last year but says he is not ready to return to regular PE classes because he would "slack off."
Chai sees a need for more P.E. in all schools to change the trend. "Just going out and sitting under a coconut tree is not going to do it," e said.
Kamehameha's commitment to P.E. grew out of its recognition of increasingly alarming health statistics for Native Hawaiians. Hawaiians were showing more diabetes, more heart disease, even higher rates of some cancers.
As early as the 1960s, the school began ramping up the P.E. program as a requirement for all students, kindergarten through 12th grade.
In the HPE program at Kamehameha, students meet four times a week with Chock for guided exercise sessions and once a week with her in a classroom. In the gym, they exercise together. Some use stair climbers, treadmills and other exercise equipment or attend aerobics, dance and other fitness classes. Chock believes students graduate knowing they can be comfortable in any gym they might enter in years to come.
In Chock's classroom, the messages are clear: "Eat less, move more." "Just do it." "Moderation, not deprivation." They talk about why people gain weight, stress eating, nutrition, and planning for special occasions centered on food.
Sophomore Kona Awana said he doesn't feel segregated by the class. It was too easy to feel alone in the crowd. "I would just get intimidated," he said.
Awana has dropped 30 pounds since last year. But he's not ready to return to regular P.E.. "I would just slack off," he said.
Instead, he'll stay on the treadmill and work on small positive changes. "I eat slower. I eat less," he said.
All high school students at Kamehameha are required to complete a 10-kilometer run, an accomplishment for some who had shunned most forms of exercise for most of their lives.
By taking part in a community-wide event such as the Straub Women's 10K, students see other people exercising who aren't worried about P.E. points. "They are learning about scheduling exercise into their busy lives," Chock said.
'In the fat class'
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Aipa faced some attitude in the beginning from fellow students: "Oh, you're in the fat class," His response evolved into: "No, it's for people who actually want to lose weight and care about their bodies."
Senior Walter Aipa, left, has dropped 30 pounds in a health class that combines exercise with lessons on healthy nutrition and lifestyle. Aipa works out with Constance Ufuti, center, 17, and Esrom Pascual, 15.
Kawika Albarado, a 17-year-old junior from Kailua, lost 30 pounds in HPE. But it took more than a year before something clicked and he got interested in being healthier.
"To be honest, at first, I hated this class," Albarado said. "I used to eat a lot of junks and candies. Now, I control what I eat. I cut out soda. I only drink water."
He said he looks better and feels better and now plans exercise into his daily schedule. "I have more energy. Before, just climbing the stairs, I'd be out of breath," he said. Both Aipa and Albarado have returned to regular P.E. but still work out at the smaller gym where Chock teaches.
Chock knows she's fortunate to have the resources of Kamehameha to run the program. But she sees opportunity for other schools, especially in working with younger students before the weight problem gets too established. Chock and Chai spoke this month at the annual conference of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.
Dr. Jeff Okamoto, developmental behavioral pediatrician at Kapi'olani Women's and Children's Medical Center, leads a task force on childhood obesity looking for ways to find solutions to the obesity problem.
Okamoto said the panel needs to reach toddlers and will try to provide healthier lifestyle information through doctors' office, daycare centers and preschools.
He said it's not enough to tell parents that their kids weigh too much. "We need to teach them," he said, and that can include practical hints such as a stoplight guide. Some foods should be avoided (red light); others used with caution (yellow light) and some can be enjoyed without limits (green light).
Require more P.E.
Chai thinks activity is the key. Even schools with less money than Kamehameha could make a difference by requiring more P.E.. Currently, he sees the state requiring public school students to take only one year of P.E. in middle school and one year in high school. Chai said some elementary schools have PE less than once a week.
By teaching children how to run, jump, throw and catch, they learn that activity is fun and they can feel confident in their abilities and move more, Chai said.
"Our kids are natural movers," Chai said. "You can't keep 'em still." But that begins to change by fourth or fifth grade if they don't learn the right skills. "If you feel like a klutz every time you start moving around, you're not going to move around."
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
