Tonia Bendickson

“I was a dancer and a figure skater when I was young,” says WBTV News Anchor, Tonia Bendickson. “And I really thank my parents for getting me involved in physical activity at an early age. It became a habit that’s kept me sane my entire life.”

And what a habit it’s become! Let’s see if I can cover it all…

Tonia has run four marathons, climbed several mountain peaks including Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, and several in South America, and regularly climbs indoors at Inner Peaks. She hikes, runs, walks, does yoga, cycles (both mountain and road) and, oh yeah, she makes healthy eating habits a priority. She and her husband whip up meals consisting mostly of vegetables, fruits and grains. They are huge fans of Great Harvest.

With all those accomplishments and a mindful approach to day-to-day health, you have to wonder what stands out in her memory.

“Mt. Rainier was my toughest, coolest, most memorable physical challenge,” she says.  “We were living in Houston at the time, and training in that heat was miserable.  But so worth it.” 

Anything else?

“I’ve run the Marine Corps Marathon twice.  Amazing experience. Once in 2001 just a month after September 11th.  We all ran in silence and cried at mile five when we came around the corner to see the gaping hole in the Pentagon,” adds Tonia. “Once we were past it - we started chanting, ‘USA, USA, USA.’  It was a moving, uniting, moment.  I wore my shirt with a US flag on the front, and ‘United We Run’ on the back.”

And Tonia is far from finished. Her goals are just as impressive as her accomplishments.

 “I’d like to break 4:00 in the marathon.  I ran just over that in my last one.  I’d like to train for triathlons, and eventually for an Ironman,” says Tonia. And as if that weren’t enough,  “I’d like to climb Mt. McKinley in Alaska with my husband.  It’s his dream - and we’ve climbed many mountains together.  Kilimanjaro, too.”

And while health and fitness has always been a part of her life, being a recognizable media personality has driven Tonia to want to set a good example for working women and young women. She feels the pressure to achieve some sort of balance or perfection paints a fairly unrealistic picture on how to live.
  
“I think balance is a crock.  I don’t mean to sound crass.  But I think that balance is one of those ‘pie in the sky’ concepts that we can never really achieve.  It sounds nice, but it’s not real,” she says.  “There aren’t enough hours in the day for working women to do everything they want to do.  The best you can do is prioritize, make your lists, and do the best you can.  And always put love first.”

Tonia continued by adding, “Love is the only thing that really matters.  Love God, love yourself, your husband, your children, love your friends and family, your community.  Everything else is secondary to love... including perfectly clean houses and perfectly pressed clothes.” 

Some might assume given her high profile position that “image” is also a priority. But Tonia far and away prefers a lifestyle of a touch of tinted moisturizer and her hiking boots to the stereotypical TV look.

“My news director in Spokane, Washington once pushed $50 across his desk and said, ‘Get a haircut.’  My news director in Houston, Texas once said, ‘Can you do something to, you know, glam it up?’”, she adds.  “And our consultant for WBTV recently told me how happy she was that I’m working harder to wear a little more makeup and pay a little more attention to my on air ‘look’.” 

And while she is admittedly much more interested in the work and the people and the experience than in the way she looks when she does it, Tonia has come to appreciate how important her image is to other people, viewers, sponsors and the network. And it is by being so present that she can best trumpet the causes she believes so strongly in - fighting cancer, hunger, poverty, heart disease, and domestic violence.

With the holidays approaching, we asked Tonia, and all our media folks, how they manage a busy and visible career, family, and fitness during such a hectic time.

“My 14 year old daughter, Ciara said to me last week – ‘Mom, I don’t want to sit around a table and stuff my face this Thanksgiving  - I want to help people, I want to serve people’.  It was a moment I’ll never forget,” says Tonia.  

“My husband and I have been struggling with how to instill a sense of community and service and giving into our children, and since they don’t live with us full-time, we resolved to do our best to set good examples, and get them involved where and how we can,” adds Tonia.  “We’ve talked about it, we’ve modeled it - and it seems to finally be sinking in.”

Sounds like a pretty great way to enjoy the season, doesn’t it?

Mark Packer – the “Packman”

Like many people hitting that milestone 40th birthday, Mark Packer, aka the “Packman”, took a close look at his 6’3”, 275 pound frame and overall health, and made a decision to do something about it.

While his job as a syndicated sports radio talk show host exposes him to sports every day, he found himself playing the role of observer and commentator rather than participant. So he began working with trainer Mitchell Smith, a well known trainer working through the Mecklenburg County Park and Rec facilities. Smith, as Mark says, “put him through the rigors, meeting 3-4 days a week. His efforts produced slow but certain results as he watched nearly 80 pounds burn away.

And while Packer was enjoying the fruits of his labor and the growing success of his show, he began experiencing pain in his joints, particularly his feet and ankles. At the tail end of last year, he was diagnosed with gout.

One of the treatments for gout involves taking the steroid prednisone. Side effects include increased appetite, a stalled metabolism, and weight gain. For Mark, that meant 40 pounds in just a few months and a much more difficult time being able to manage it. To help, he began working with a wellness doctor and took a naturalistic approach, which helped him decrease his weight and begin feeling better little by little.

For those of you unfamiliar with Mark Packer, simply put, he’s a pretty busy guy. Not only does he have his daily syndicated talk radio show, Primetime with the Packman, he also hosts a Tuesday night show, Primetime in the ACC, and provides some television football commentary on the 10 pm news. In the fall, he is also busy with his Southern Fried Football Tour, touring great college football games in the South. (Check out www.packsmack.com and www.southernfriedfootball.com.)

And it doesn’t end there. In addition to his work, Mark is “dad” to two little girls, Emerson – age 8 – and G.G. – age 9. He credits his wife, Amie, for his success both professional and personally.

“She knows exactly when to reign me in,” says Mark. “And she knows exactly when to let me run full throttle.”

Of course, being around sports all the time, some would think Mark would have sought his own health and well being sooner. But he says his fitness pursuits and management of his illness was related more to being in a “talk show” position than being around sports.

“Being able to tell my story on the air ended up being a pretty big deal,” he says. “I felt like I was able to educate and influence people. And by talking about gout on the air, I was able to get tons of support and information from listeners.”

The biggest thing Mark wants readers to know is that you simply need to get started with some kind of exercise and fitness routine. Just make reasonable goals and let staying active become your routine rather than work.

“It blows you away how much better you feel,” he says. “It’s really easy to get lazy, to snack on the tons of treats on the table. But if you get consistently active, you can actually enjoy the holiday season without the backlash that hits in January.”

Tom Sorenson

“In some ways, I make my living watching other people, football and basketball players and boxers, perform. And I enjoy spectator sports immensely,” says Tom Sorenson, sports columnist for the Charlotte Observer. “But I’d almost always rather play than watch. I need to run and lift and sweat for a variety of reasons, among them, freedom.”

Freedom from deadlines, from sources, from computers, and from some of the confines of day-to-day life. Sound familiar?

For Tom, working out used to be something he had to try to force into his schedule. But over time, it has gradually become as integral a part of what he does as eating, working or driving. Making fitness part of his routine, however, doesn’t mean he no longer sets goals.

“I set different goals at different times. I wanted to commit to a marathon, see what it was like to immerse myself in that culture. So I ran one, poorly, and then ran another,” he said. “I wanted to break four hours and I did.”

Shortly after that – in the course of writing a story about the Ultimate Fighting Championship - he met a martial arts instructor named Michael Brown. Tom ended up studying with him for more than three years.

Tom’s goal now is to keep pushing and to keep things fresh by periodically adding something new and dispensing with the old. And with a wife, two children and two dogs at home, Tom also realizes that doing things he loves – and keeping them fresh and in perspective – is also modeling some important lessons for his children.

“I realize I’m fortunate to write a column for The Observer. I try to inculcate in my kids the idea that they need to put themselves in position to like what they do,” says Tom. “On those occasions I don’t like what I do, the fault usually is mine.”
  
In the midst of a fast-paced news world and the constant motion of professional sports, Tom believes strongly that he was not meant to just watch and report, but to participate. And part of participating means knowing when to relax and simply enjoy. Reading, watching movies and diving into the latest Sopranos episode top his list.

And with the holidays coming up?

“As busy as the holidays are, I like to use them as a catalyst to pause and step back,” says Tom. “In other words, avoid getting caught up in the speed of it. Find my own pace. Appreciate what I have. And try to help those that might not have it.”