By Cindy Tumiel
San Antonio Express-News

Web Posted : 04/18/2002 12:00 AM

Two days before San Antonio's annual exercise in excess, Mayor Ed Garza delivered a fitness message to the scores of portly partygoers getting ready for Fiesta.

"We encourage people to walk, walk, walk," Garza said Wednesday at the first meeting of his newly formed Mayor's Council on Physical Fitness. "If you're going to eat a gordita, you have to walk at least twice around La Villita."

The 32-member advisory council was appointed to help promote the Fit City campaign, a communitywide effort to get San Antonians to eat healthier and exercise more. Organizers' short-term goal is to shed the Alamo City's "fat city" image. But the long-term aim is to improve residents' health.

Research has found that 55 percent of San Antonians have a sedentary lifestyle and that 37 percent are overweight. The city 's rate of diabetes, a condition strongly linked to obesity, is twice the national average.

Daily exercise is a necessary component of any health improvement campaign, Garza and County Judge Nelson Wolff said at a news conference after the meeting.

"Perhaps more important than eating better is some form of exercise," Wolff said. "'I don't have time' is not a valid excuse."

Garza said his fitness advisory group will stress a new health message each month. The first relates to waist measurements. Garza stood in front of television cameras while his waist — 35 inches — was measured.

Dr. R.G. Troxler, a clinical professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center, said waist measurements are an indicator of diabetes risk.

Troxler said men's waists should measure less than 40 inches; women's waists should be less than 35.

ctumiel@express-news.net

04/18/2002