NILOU JONES: To Surprise Her Soldier, Part IX

By Jane Norris

Published: March 18, 2006

“To have and to hold’’ has a sweeter ring when you actually have your sweetheart’s hand to hold. When it’s also a helping hand, there’s not much more you need.
Nilou Jones lost 66 pounds in her quest to change her life during the first 10 months that her husband, U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Charles Jones, was serving in Iraq.
Now that her husband has seen her new figure, improved energy levels and solid groundwork for a healthy future for their family, she knows she has a new ally in her efforts to keep losing weight - and keep it off.
Having him home was wonderful enough, but finding him enthusiastic about her efforts was calorie-free icing on the cake. Now she’s confident that her solo mission will turn into a team effort.
Sitting on the couch in their Charlottesville home, the Joneses held hands and described the fun of their two-week break together with sons Cyrus, 3½, and Arman, 1½.
Charlie Jones arrived March 11 for a welcome dose of family time. He shipped back out to Iraq on March 27 and is expected to come back for good sometime in May.
“If nothing else, this was a test run of what it’ll be like when he gets home [for good] - permanent life changes with him in the picture,’’ Nilou Jones said.
“She’s fit now, she’s been going to the gym, she’s got her routine,’’ Charlie Jones said. “I can just slide right into the routine.’’
That new routine involves daily exercise, and plenty of people would have panted while trying to keep up with the Joneses during Charlie Jones’s visit. They went to Gold’s Gym together to work out and have fun, except for a few days when a flu bug intervened.
For Charlie Jones, being back with his family was joyful in itself, but learning how hard his wife has been working at a healthier new lifestyle - and seeing the results for himself - was a thrill.
“I was ecstatic,’’ Charlie Jones said. “It’s one of her greatest accomplishments. She has always had it in her. It’s great to see her accomplish something she has always wanted to do.
“There’s a spring in her step, she’s a lot more energetic and there’s a twinkle in her eye. I truly see it in your eyes - the fact that you’re happy,’’ he said, turning to his wife and giving her hand another squeeze.
“I’m happy to see that she’s got that look again.’’
For 10 months, Nilou Jones has been disciplined about heading to the gym for Body Combat classes, spinning and strength training, reading her nutritional labels at the supermarket and listening to her body’s hunger and satiety cues. The happy homecoming gave her a chance to see how her new choices might hold up in a post-deployment household.
“It has been hard these two weeks not to think of it as a vacation with my husband,’’ Nilou Jones said. “I haven’t been as strict with my diet as I might have been.’’
The couple went out to dinner frequently during his visit home.
“You want to go out,’’ Nilou Jones said, smiling at her husband. “You want to spend time with him.’’
“I want to show you off,’’ he replied with a smile of his own.
But instead of throwing caution to the wind, Nilou Jones stuck to the principles she’s been learning through her own research and her work with personal trainer Jen Cote and nutritionist Kate Bruno.
Restaurants don’t have to be battlefields. Sharing meals with your loved ones, especially in a celebratory setting, should be a time for nourishing body and soul. Nilou Jones simply put the sound nutritional knowledge she has gained to work - especially her confidence in making sound selections when the servers asked for her orders.
In her approach, portion control and moderation work hand in hand. An occasional French fry won’t unravel months of hard work, especially if she eats sensibly throughout the day and keeps portions reasonable.
She joked that her husband quickly got on board: He tended to order salads most of the time.
“I’m a meat person,’’ Charlie Jones said. “If it has meat in it, I’ll be OK.’’
One potential pitfall ended up being easy to avoid. One of Nilou Jones’s success strategies has been to keep tempting foods out of the house. But what if his homecoming meant a bulging fridge? Had her husband been dreaming about fast food and decadent snacks?
“Food-wise, I don’t think I missed anything but her mother’s cooking - and her cooking, too,’’ Charlie Jones said, smiling at his wife. He added that he admired her ability to pass over the children’s goodies in the kitchen cabinets.
“Obviously, I see a lot less junk food in the house. The kids eat crackers or chips, but she doesn’t eat them.’’
Charlie Jones took delight in putting 10 months of transformation in context. He complimented his wife’s toned new physique while the couple lingered over past photos and commented on the changes over time.
Nilou Jones also has been savoring the fun of trying on favorite outfits that had migrated to the back of her closet as they’d grown too snug.
“I was pulling old clothes out of my closet,’’ Nilou Jones said. “I was calling my cousin up and saying, ‘I fit into the dress I wore at your wedding.’ ’’
The day he returned home, she even got to hear the tantalizing fantasy words many women dream of hearing from their husbands: “Girlfriend, we’ve got to go shopping.’’
“Now he’s like, ‘This is fun going clothes shopping with you,’ ’’ she said with a laugh.
The Daily Progress’ readers have been keeping up with Nilou Jones’s quest, and her success has been inspiring readers around town to launch their own lifestyle improvement programs, seeking the balance of nutrition and exercise that works in their lives.
They’ve introduced themselves at the gym and at the grocery store, telling her that she gave them the real-life example they needed to push themselves away from the table, hop on the treadmill and run away from all those excuses that kept them from their goals in the past.
Now, her can-do attitude is rubbing off on her husband, too.
“I’ve got a few things I can change myself,’’ Charlie Jones said. “Now I’ve got to look my best.’’
He also said that he’s inspired to try again to quit smoking, “now that I’ve seen her progress.
“I tried chewing gum instead, and I ended up spending more on gum than I did on cigarettes,’’ he said. But it looks as if he’s taking her gradual, thoughtful approach to heart.
“I guess I’ve still got my Mountain Dew habit,’’ he said.