Who could ever imagine that Maggie Heineman, svelte leader of 35-mile bike rides, could ever have been over 200 lbs. and suffering from sleep apnea, snoring, edema, swollen ankles and having difficulty getting out of a sofa. "I was a 'keyboard potato' and not at all athletc, leading a very sedentary life,” she said recently, reflecting on a life change she could never have predicted. She feels she has gotten younger in the last eight years and says the catalyst for this transformation has been fitness and more fitness.

Her odyssey into a life of exercise began in 2001 when working in the pool with residents who are unable to walk on land. "Ihadn't had that kind of personal interaction before and it gave me a great psychic benefit, she commented. "I still yo-yoed between overweight and obese even though I was doing both water aerobics and the land exercise class." Still over 200 pounds a couple of years later, Maggie began to use her water class friends as a support group. “After announcing that by every holiday I was going to lose five pounds I then had to. The group strongly supported my effort.” Meantime, she started leading rides for the Outdoor Club of South Jersey. Realizing that she could not keep up with even the slowest groups unless she reduced her weight provided strong and continuing motivation. She began to faithfully write down what she ate. She went beyond morning land and water exercise classes into a more challenging program, designed by the Fitness Department, which included cardio, strength training, abs exercises, and stretching.

Maggie said the lifestyle she now practices reflects the 6 components of wellness. The first three, the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects, are satisfied through the Fitness Department as a volunteer and a participant. Doing the layout for Medford Leas Life and her work as webmaster for MLRA.ORG satisfies the last three components -- intellectual, vocational and creativity. During the long and cold winter she concentrates on more indoor fitness work so that in the summer she is able to do longer and hillier bike rides thanks to Rick Trandahl, who has prepared her for these strenuous and endurance-testing efforts.

“I'm still improving. At 73 I'm a better cyclist than I was at 72,” Maggie claimed. As an offshoot of her athleticism, she has raised a substantial sum of money over the years by biking for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. This June she’s aiming to cycle a “century” – 100 miles in one day. That will be a staggering achievement for a woman who “never met a calorie I didn't like.”

Check out Maggie's rides at http://drides.home.comcast.net/~drides/