April 20, 2006

Old high school pals stage friendly competition to get in shape

Balancing two kids, a job and physical fitness isn’t easy

By Daniel DeBolt
Staff Writer

Nick and Tara Mucelli are on a mission.

It’s 6 a.m. and Nick is waiting for his wife to get home so he can go to the gym and work out for an hour before he starts his day as a general contractor. Tara is busy taking her turn at the gym, Crossfit, where weightlifting, gymnastics, rope climbing and the sort of cross training the military uses is the norm. Tara just had a baby and Nick just quit smoking. They have two kids and busy lives, but a newly fit Nick said he’s now able to charge through his day.

Five old high school buddies from Willow Glen High School recently decided to have a 12-week competition to decide who could attain the fittest body. Each of the men is married with two young children and works in demanding jobs and this has led to some less than healthy habits. Here the group poses for the before picture: Jeff Zontos, Nick Mucelli, Rick Hayashi, Rod Acord and Ted Omura.

Part of the blame for the Mucelli’s newfound motivation to get in shape can go to their friend Ted H. Omura.

Chiropractor and Almaden resident Omura had an idea. Living in Silicon Valley can make for a hectic life where there is little time to exercise, but Omura designed a friendly competition to get him and his friends back in shape. It includes a nice prize for the winner; a weekend trip to a beach resort (the Ritz Carlton at Half Moon Bay has been suggested) paid for by the four losers.

All the winner has to do is prove that they burned the biggest percentage of their body fat and improved their cardiovascular and muscular strength the most over the 12 week competition.

Ted got four of his friends to join in on the contest. Each has a wife and two kids, are in their mid 30’s and have busy schedules during the week. Rod Acord is a financial adviser, Rick Hayashi is a school counselor, and Jeff Zontos is in high tech sales.

Soon after the men started in early April the wives of the five Willow Glen High School alumni were starting their own competition—and two of them just had a baby!

“The girls said why don’t we do it, too?” said Tara Mucelli. She is going to be on the Zone Diet as well and hopes to get back to her pre-pregnancy weight.

They have 12 weeks to get in the best shape they can. Whoever improves the most, wins.

The competition has led at least four of the contestants to Crossfit gym in San Jose and Santa Cruz. There they go through a rigorous daily workout. Nick Mucelli admits it will be easier after he gets past the part where he is sore all time. He used to go to Crossfit regularly, but took a break from it for two years.

“It’s not your typical gym,” said Tara Mucelli.

Besides those doing Crossfit, the rest are doing their own thing, Tara said.

“Ted calls it a diet, I call it a challenge. Personally I think it’s a little short, 12 weeks. It’s good motivation. I really hope I’m back to where I was before I was pregnant.”

Omura goes to the gym after work. His kids wait for him a little longer now. He said it’s tempting to just go home after a 10-hour day at work and be lazy or take a nap. After his workout he says he is exhausted.

The guys weighed in on April 8.

“I think I will win” Nick Mucelli said. I told the other guys, that they were "crazy if you think you are going to win."
Nick was the second heaviest at 215 pounds. He is confident about his wife’s potential as well.

“She’s got baby weight to lose and I’ve got beer weight to lose so it should work out good. We’re pretty confident over here,” he said.

Omura isn’t about to lose either. As the lightest of the bunch, Omura said a heavier person will have to lose more weight than a lighter person to arrive at the same percentage. A 300-pound person would have to lose 30 pounds to lose 10 percent of his body fat while a 100-pound person would only have to lose 10 pounds. And a lighter person may have an advantage in the strength competition where you get points for how many times you can bench press your body weight. The third event is rowing to see how fast you can burn 250 calories.

“It isn’t about just losing weight,” Omura said. “You have to be strong and have good cardiovascular strength. Besides, who wants to look like a runway model?”

The women are doing it a bit differently, Tara said. They are going to include pull ups instead of bench pressing and body measurements on top of weight and body fat loss.

The winner of each category gets five points. Second place gets four points and so on. The points are added up from each category and whoever has the most points wins, because they improved the most.

The women have their own prize, a vacation to San Francisco for all of the women for a week. The four losers pay for the winner’s share of the trip, of course.

But in the end everyone wins, Omura said, because everyone will be healthy.