YMCA Helps Ide Enjoy Retirement

After retiring from his long-time position as a county judge in 2015, Bob Ide wanted to enjoy his new freedom playing football with his young grandchildren and hunting and fishing.

“I’d like to go to Alaska and fish halibut or salmon,” he said. “I like to go out and shoot a bull elk.”

But, he realized after a trek in the wilderness on a deer hunting trip that he needed to stay healthy to enjoy his retirement.

“I’m not going to do any of that stuff if I can’t get out of my chair and walk across the room,” Bob said. “Plus, I’ve got to keep my energy up to annoy people.”

After starting an exercise routine on his own without seeing any results, Bob enlisted the help of YMCA personal trainer Stephanie Monthey in January 2016.

Stephanie, who is also a nutrition coach, educated Bob about healthy eating habits and introduced him to many new forms of exercise.

“She’s taught me all kinds of different ways to abuse different muscle groups in a way that’s going to keep them surprised,” Bob said.

Bob started eliminating nearly all processed foods, white flour and sugar from his plate and started tracking his food intake on the My Fitness Pal app. He now exercises most days of the week, including his two days a week with Stephanie’s guidance.

After a year of hard work, the results are impressive. Bob has lost more than 40 pounds, reduced his body fat percentage from 33 to 23 and eliminated need to take his blood-pressure lowering medication.

And at age 73, Bob is participating in classes such as Insanity and Axis at the YMCA.

“I get stiff and sore doing this at times, but a certain amount of stiffness and soreness is the result of any kind of physical activity,” Bob said. “I think you just have to keep going as best you can because you aren’t going to get any better doing nothing.”

Bob said the personal training has helped by giving him someone to be accountable to for his exercise and healthy eating and to keep exercise from getting boring.

“You rarely do the same thing two days in a row,” Bob said of his exercising training.

Stephanie said she is proud of Bob’s hard work, and her job as a trainer is to help Bob and all of her clients not only lose weight and live healthier but to maintain that lifestyle.

“I want to get people to the place where they don’t want to go back and fall into those bad habits,” Stephanie said. “This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

With his health in great condition, Bob has the energy for his favorite pastimes and also to continue to serve children and families in the community. He currently volunteers as president of the local YMCA branch advisory board. He sees the YMCA as a great community resource for to bring structure into kids’ lives and help parents learn skills.

“I just think the YMCA is a great asset for the community of Holdrege. We need to try to get involved in as many kids and families lives as we can in a positive way,” Bob said. “Our job is to do what we can, while we can, right now.”

Leave a Reply

Live Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *