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Theresa Lou Bowick knows all about diet and exercise.
Now fit and trim, Bowick was once 5-foot-7 and 236 pounds. She eventually lost 75 pounds and kept it off with the help of Weight Watchers, but it was an unusual experience that inspired her to pay it forward and help others get healthy.
Bowick, a registered nurse, was out running one day in her neighborhood near Conkey Avenue in Rochester, New York, when a young boy asked her, “Hey, lady, are you on probation?”
The boy thought Bowick was running from the police. After the run, she was speaking with neighbors when a man walked up and said that rather than being on the run that Bowick must be a cop running through the community, “because nobody exercises in this neighborhood!”
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That one encounter persuaded Bowick to develop a fitness group that would help residents get and stay active. She founded the Conkey Cruisers Bicycling-to-Better-Health Voyage with the help of neighbors, local businesses, bicycle experts, community leaders and city officials. The group now has more than 100 members.
As luck would have it, as the Cruisers group was forming, a $2.7 million project to promote hiking and biking in Northeast Rochester was being completed and a stretch of the trail ran along Conkey Avenue.
Bowick also authored “Collard Green Curves – A Fat Girl’s Journey from Childhood Obesity to Healthy Living.” She has a weekly radio nursing talk show, Health Beats on WDKX-FM, is president of Chi Eta Phi Sorority Inc., a professional nursing organization, and has won a number of awards, including a community leadership award from the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition.
Proceeds from Bowick’s book, which is available at Authorhouse.com and Amazon.com, are used to fund the Conkey Cruisers.
In an interview with Family Circle magazine, Bowick said she was inspired to start losing weight by her teenage daughter, who also had a weight problem.
“At my daughter Jacynta’s sweet 16 party, it struck me that she wasn’t enjoying her teen years like she really should be because of her weight,” Bowick said. “Plus, I realized that as her mother, I’d never been a healthy role model. So, I decided I’d try to inspire her by getting into better shape myself.”
Bowick said getting physically fit also encouraged her to get fit in other ways.
“Being in control of my weight also showed me that I can take action in other areas of my life,” Bowick said in the interview. “I’d never forgiven myself for getting pregnant and dropping out of college before earning my degree. So when I’d proven I could lose the pounds and keep them off, I thought, ‘Now’s the time. I’m going to get that bachelor’s degree.’ Not only did I earn my BS in nursing, but I also received the highest honors at my school for a graduating senior.”
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