健康计划身体力行：麦当劳女高管减肥成功

    33年前简•费尔茨加入麦当劳的时候还只是负责炸薯条，当她快要55岁那年，她已成为这个快餐连锁集团的美国总裁。她说，“有天醒来后我对自己说，‘天啊！我怎么变得这么胖了？’”

    与她掌管的14,000家麦当劳连锁店的上百万顾客一样，费尔茨也是在不知不觉间长胖的——“每次10磅：10磅，10磅，10磅，然后突然间，我看了看自己，不禁惊呼，天哪，我重了90磅。我怎么长这么胖了？”

    诚然，麦当劳一直是评论家们公认的美国肥胖问题的罪魁祸首，但是费尔茨坚持认为她本人发福的根源不是食物，而是缺乏锻炼。“我不怎么运动，”她承认，“整天除了上班，就是回家睡觉”。

    费尔茨在财富（Fortune）最具影响力女性名单中位列第25名，并不怎么引人注目：她在印第安纳州的小城镇文森尼斯长大，来自于一个有8个孩子的家庭，排行老七。小时候她一直很纤瘦，并梦想着长大了当一名修女，后来又憧憬着当一名律师。但她随后结识了她丈夫，早早地结了婚，生了个女儿。23岁那年，在开车去参加建筑公司秘书招聘面试的路上，她上麦当劳喝了一杯可乐，碰巧看见了“招聘”的牌子。其实，那是费尔茨第一次在麦当劳用餐。由于囊中羞涩，她和曾是空军的丈夫从未在餐馆吃过饭。

    由于一时心血来潮，她接受了麦当劳的工作，时薪2.65美元。上班第一天晚上回到家，她大哭一场——“糟透了”。后来公司把她从煎炸部调到了前台做客服。“不要因为某件事或某个人而放弃，”她说。由于在工作上恪尽职守，在领导风格上平易近人，励精图治，她在公司一路平步青云。

    一直以来，由于在工作上太卖力，她很难抽出时间去大学深造或保养身体。直到有一天，在约见了一位营养师之后，她才下决心向肥胖开战。“一开始，我主要是在健身房的跑步机上练习”，她说，只要有走道的地方，就能健身，“我并没有请教练。”

    她开始加大饮水量，不喝汽水，即便是无糖汽水。费尔茨每天仍然都在麦当劳用餐，只是和过去相比，吃的种类不同，份量也更少。早餐是麦当劳的燕麦粥或鸡蛋麦氏松饼或水果和酸奶冻糕。她在伊利诺伊州奥克布鲁克办公，办公室附近有一家麦当劳，这也是她午餐的地点，午餐菜谱通常是烤鸡三明治或芝士堡，并搭配少量法式薯条和冰茶。

    晚餐不在麦当劳吃——工作之余她也有自己的生活。通常，她会点通心粉，她常说，“我是西红柿干酪沙拉的粉丝。这是我一直以来最钟爱的一道菜”

    健康饮食为费尔茨带来了健康，也造福了公司。全新的食品比如冰沙和燕麦粥帮助公司扩大了客户群，同时也带来了更丰厚的利润，公司股价也在近期升至历史新高。与此同时，麦当劳上周宣布，旗下店面将为开心乐园餐（Happy Meals）搭配水果或蔬菜，并减少薯条的分量，这意味着“公司为迎接重大转变迈出了第一步”，费尔茨说。

    费尔茨重视培养年轻人，她认为自己的经历是“有志者事竟成”的写照。那么这个月即将年满56岁的她又会在盘算什么新的目标呢？那就是10月9日的美国银行（Bank of America，BAC）芝加哥马拉松。虽然在2月份之前她连1英里（1.61公里——译注）都没跑过，但是费尔茨目前正在积极备战。周日，她在给我的邮件中说：“上周末我跑了13.1英里”，她继续写道，“太热了（有90华氏度——32.22℃）。我花了3小时12分才跑完。所以近期跑奥运赛事是没戏了…但是我坚持跑完了 ”

    Jan Fields, who started at McDonald's 33 years ago cooking fries and is now the fast food chain's U.S. president, was soon to turn 55 when, she says, "I woke up one day and said, "Oh my God, how did I gain this much weight?"

    Like millions of her customers at the 14,000 restaurants she oversees, Fields added her weight gradually--"10 pounds at a time: 10, 10, 10 and all of a sudden, I looked and I said, 'Oh, my God, I've gained 90 pounds. How did I ever do that?"

    Of course, McDonald's tops critics' hit list for compounding America's obesity epidemic, but Fields insists that her own culprit wasn't food but lack of exercise. "I didn't exercise," she confesses. "I worked all the time, went home and went to bed."

    Fields, No. 25 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list, has always been easy to underestimate: The seventh of eight children raised in tiny Vincennes, Indiana, she grew up skinny and dreamed of being a nun, then a lawyer. But she met a guy, married young, had a daughter, and was driving to an interview for a secretarial job at a construction company when, at 23, she stopped at McDonald's for a Coke and spotted a "Now Hiring" sign. It was, in fact, the first time Fields ever ate in a McDonald's. She and her husband, who had enlisted in the Air Force, were so poor that they couldn't afford to eat out.

    Accepting a job on a whim and starting at $2.65 an hour, she went home that first night and cried -- "a disaster" until they moved her from cooking fries to serving customers at front counter. "Never quit over one thing or one person," she advises. Rising rapidly through the ranks, she was propelled by a remarkable discipline and a down-home, inspirational leadership style.

    Along the way, Fields was working so hard that she never had time to get a college degree or take care of herself. Until she visited a nutritionist and committed to do something about her weight gain. "I started with going to the gym and getting on a treadmill," she says, noting that all you need is a walking path to begin a fitness routine. "I didn't hire a trainer."

    She started drinking a lot more water. And no soda, not even the diet kind. Fields still eats at McDonald's every day--but different foods and smaller portions than she used to. Breakfast is McDonald's oatmeal or an Egg McMuffin or a fruit and yogurt parfait. Lunch, at the McDonald's next to her office in Oak Brook, Illinois, is usually a grilled chicken sandwich or a cheeseburger, with a few French fries and iced tea.

    Dinner is not at McDonald's -- she does get away from work. Typically, she has pasta, or, she says, "I'm big on tomato mozzarella salad. That's my favorite all-time food."

    The focus on healthy eating has been good for Fields -- and the company. New products like smoothies and oatmeal have helped expand McDonald's customer base and profits, and the stock recently reached an all-time high. Meanwhile, McDonald's announcement last week that its restaurants will serve fruit or a vegetable with Happy Meals and cut the portion size of French fries signifies "our first step toward creating serious change," Fields says.

    Fields, who loves to mentor young people, contends that her story proves that people "can do anything that they can set their mind to." And what, as she turns 56 this month, is she setting her mind to next? The Bank of America (BAC) Chicago Marathon, on October 9. Though she never ran a mile until this past February, Fields is now training vigorously. On Sunday, she emailed me: "This past weekend, I did 13.1 miles," she wrote. "It was so hot (got to 90), it took me 3 hrs and 12 minutes. So I will not be qualifying for any Olympic trials any time soon...but I made it "