Members battle the bulge – Yahoo! News

June 4, 2009

The federal deficit isn’t the only bulge members of Congress are battling this year.

Health experts say the economic downturn has wreaked havoc on Americans’ diets, as people cancel gym memberships, dine at fast-food restaurants and, in some cases, take on additional work hours as companies shrink their work forces.

Members of Congress haven’t been immune. Inundated by Wall Street woes, a recession and looming legislative fights over health care and global warming, members say they’re facing one of the most intense legislative sessions in recent memory — and many are also trying to stave off the weight gain that can come with the pressure.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) recently lamented his own weight during a painfully slow bailout hearing on Capitol Hill last month.

“I wish I didn’t have the five-minute rule. And I wish we didn’t have so many members. And I wish I could lose weight without dieting,” Frank said.

Members say endless lunchtime meetings, heavy travel schedules and late-night hours have caused traffic to pick up both in the Senate gym and at the cafeteria salad bar.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) hops on the treadmill for 30 minutes every night in the Senate gym, takes a brief bike ride and is adding some upper-body weights when he can squeeze them in. His busy days rarely leave him an opening before 8 p.m.

“A good diet is tough because with all the stress and long hours and the travel, you need all the energy you can get,” he said.

Sen. Jim Risch’s wife gave him a red pedometer that the Idaho Republican keeps in his suit jacket to count his steps around the Capitol.

“When I’m home on the ranch, I walk a lot, and luckily, on Capitol Hill, everything is also very spread out,” Risch said. “I wind up in meetings in every building between here and Hart during the day, which has kept me moving.”

He’s also being pickier about his choices in the Senate cafeteria, avoiding two of his favorites: steak and apple pie.

Almost all of the lawmakers POLITICO interviewed said their biggest temptation is the cafeteria pie. Apple is the problem for DeMint and Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii). Blueberry is the temptation for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who often hits the gym at 7 a.m.

Even oilman T. Boone Pickens, a fixture in the Capitol, says he’s trying to lose 10 Hill-induced pounds. After nearly a year of traveling between Washington and Texas to lobby his renewable energy plan to policymakers, Pickens said he’s had to lay off the sweets and pump up the cardio.

His routine: At 6:30 in the morning, the 80-year-old is on the treadmill at an 8-degree incline, walking at an impressive 15-minute mile pace.

“The problem is when you’re up here, you’re eating everything,” he said. “I’ve had to give up my cookies. I’m bad on sweets.”

After being sidelined with a torn ACL from a skiing accident, Sen. LisaMurkowski (R-Alaska) says she’s getting an entirely new kind of workout by hobbling down the long hallways of Congress on crutches.

“I am building arm muscles,” she said. “But I’ll be glad when this workout is done.”

Stress-related weight issues have gotten so bad for some members that they’re coming to Washington dietitian Katherine Tallmadge, who treats a number of lawmakers, White House staffers and top K Street honchos.

Tallmadge says the politicians she’s treating are battling unpredictable congressional schedules, long hours and stress eating, putting them at risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and poor work performance.

She’s been urging clients to keep frozen meals in their office refrigerators, including one client who is the head of a major congressional committee.

“He has upped his cardio, done better planning, he’s eating a bigger breakfast and is having more fruit for snacks. He says he feels great,” Tallmadge said.

She is also handing out pedometers to all of her Hill clients, urging them to walk between the Capitol and congressional office buildings rather than taking the tram. Patients take 10,000 steps a day to maintain their weight — more to lose.

“The good thing about Capitol Hill is that people are constantly moving from one building to the next, and if they constantly avoid taking the tram, they won’t necessarily have to go to the gym,” Tallmadge said.

While women are her most frequent stress eaters, she says her male clients are overeating at night.

But her most unhealthy clients aren’t politicians; they’re lobbyists. Tallmadge says many former Hill employees gain weight after taking jobs on K Street, where the workday often means more restaurant meals, less walking and often, a parking space in the office building.

The most in-shape people on the Hill: the reporters. Tallmadge says one of her journalist clients has clocked in an average of 17,000 steps a day while scrambling for interviews.

The shape and size of lawmakers has long been a favorite pastime joke for comedians. Frank was recently called a “big fat toad” by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.

And political pundits speculated in 2007 that former Vice President Al Gore wouldn’t run for office because he wasn’t losing any weight.

Others have their own theories about how lawmakers stay in shape. Providence, R.I., talk show host and former “Survivor” contestant Helen Glover became a YouTube sensation with her fitness video “Nancy Pelosi’s Sweating with the Socialists.”

The clip features the Nancy Pelosi workout — instructing viewers to leap to their feet and clap wildly over and over — a parody of the speaker’s zealous clapping behind President Barack Obama during his State of the Union address.

“She reminded me so much of an exhausting aerobics class,” said Glover. “The exuberance and enthusiasm was both annoying and amazing. If that’s what keeps her running, the poor woman is going to disappear.”

In some cases, the hectic year so far has promoted weight loss.

Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) says he’s lost 40 pounds in the 90-plus days since Obama’s Inauguration. His wake-up call came when he experimented by carrying around three 16-pound bowling balls to measure how much extra weight he was carrying.

His suits have already been taken in once, and he’s headed toward a second fitting after losing 6 inches off his waist.

He says the demands on his time require that his day be tightly scheduled — but also allow him to schedule a mandatory one-hour gym session each day.

“I just love food,” said Hare, who admits he used to take full advantage of the Longworth cafeteria dessert line.

“When I used to get pizza, I thought you were supposed to eat the whole thing.

“Now when I go to Longworth in the morning, I’ll have coffee and fruit. And when I see people coming out with trays, I just don’t look at them,” he said, laughing.

Correction: An earlier version of the story misidentified the senator whose wife gave him a pedometer. It is Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho.

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