Davis couple to begin transparent fitness program

So you discarded your new year’s resolution about losing some pounds this year?

And now you’ve got a Super Bowl party planned today — ribs, chicken and guacamole dip probably are sitting on your kitchen counter right this minute.

Go ahead. Have fun watching San Francisco try to win its sixth championship. Today is not a day to feel guilty about your physical condition.

But tomorrow … Tomorrow is a perfect opportunity to rethink that weak Jan. 1 promise you made yourself about getting in shape.

Of course, it’s not easy. However, local couple Trish and Rich Riffle, along with the folks at the new Get Fit Davis center, are about to publicly share their path to better health.

Rich, the general manager of El Macero Country Club, and Trish, a para educator at Montgomery Elementary School, understand it is time to get back in shape.

Get Fit Davis center owner Nick Walejeski thought it might be an interesting exercise to show folks how a mental change of habit could lead to a physical transformation and, in turn, a healthier, happier lifestyle.

Walejeski runs some fitness programs for El Macero and Riffle was impressed.

When Walejeski purchased the former Peak Performance health club late last year, Get Fit Davis was born. Together with fiancée Katie Ehsan, Walejeski has been working hard to develop what he calls “a community wellness center.”

In working with the Riffles, Walejeski will provide a very public look into how the couple’s six-month personal-training program is changing their lives.

Walejeski will work with Rich, while Trish teams up with personal trainer David Butterworth.

During the process, the Riffles’ progress will be followed in Get Fit Davis advertising and online at www.GetFitDavis.com. The Riffles will write blogs in which they’ll share their challenges and emotions. Butterworth and Walejeski will weigh in with tips and comments.

“What we’re doing is to show positive change and how that can happen the right way: the controlled, steady pace with moderation,” explains Walejeski, a five-year Davis resident. “Not the gimmick, fad-diet way where you do a program for six weeks, lose (pounds), walk away and gain the weight back.”

Currently 6-foot-3, 335 pounds, Rich Riffle isn’t happy that he’s let his weight go.

“My eating habits are out of whack,” Riffle told The Enterprise. “I’m eating late when I get home. The more I progressed in my career, the more I sit at a desk … and I haven’t stayed active.

“You don’t get this way overnight.”

Riffle, 44, played high school football in Washington, Ill. He weighed in at 225 as a teen. In college, he says he got up to 260 and has grown from there. Now he wants to lose 100 pounds.

“I know that won’t happen in six months, but I’d love eventually to be somewhere in the 220s,” he said.

Trish, 46, weighs 185. She used to swim competitively and thought about taking up swimming again last year. She admits she isn’t in shape for the kind of swimming she wants to do, adding, “It’s time. I want to be able to do things with my kids. Get back to being me.”

Trish Riffle hopes to lose at least 20 pounds between now and July. She wants to get back involved in those driveway basketball games with her sons Noah, 14, and Ted, a junior at Davis High.

So, is there a plus in mom and dad Riffle going for it simultaneously?

“Most definitely,” says the mother of three (elementary school-age daughter Shelby seems as excited as Trish). “Rich and I are constantly together. We can work out together. (In) down time with each other … it will be wonderful to support each other.”

In creating Get Fit Davis, Walejeski and Eshan say their facility’s evolution will make it a family wellness center.

“We want this one-stop shopping for total body/mind fitness,” says Walejeski, a San Diego native. “A wellness program approach that (includes) nutritional, personal training, positive thinking, cardio homework. … We are a lot more than just a place to work out.”

Walejeski, Eshan and the Riffles hope this transparent training inspires others to get off the couch and find a way to get their weight in check, renewing mental health while enhancing their lifestyles.

So, at your Super Bowl shindig, enjoy that last rib, root heartily for the hometown Niners but tomorrow you’re going to start getting in shape. Right?

Notes: Butterworth, a 2000 graduate of Davis High, believes “Getting fit is not just a number on the scale. It’s about quality of life. The more people I work with, the more I realize that before you get in shape from the neck down, you have to get in shape from the neck up. It’s largely a shift in self-belief and attitude.” … Get Fit Davis has 20 staff members and agreements with 40 independent contractors. With free child care, towel service and 55 group fitness classes offered to members at no additional charge, traditional gym programs underpin the new facility. … Eshan doubles as a marriage and family therapist intern with a downtown office. 

— Reach Bruce Gallaudet at bgallaudet@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8047.