Donna Mirabile's face is flushed and she has stopped talking.

She has hit a wall. Or rather, a hill.

Donna is more than halfway through a 30-minute workout on an elliptical trainer at Gene Fullmer Recreation Center in West Jordan, and the machine is testing her mettle.

"You're slowing down there, Donna," says her husband, Michael.

"Well, I'm on 14 resistance," she sputters.

"Well, come on!" he says, urging her up and over the imaginary, mechanical mountain.

Since December, the Mirabiles -- Donna, Michael and their sons Jonathan, 13, and David, 9 -- have been working to shed excess weight and an unhealthy lifestyle. They are being coached by Mike Butler of Total Health & Fitness, a Utah company that provides individualized diet and exercise programs for clients.

Donna weighed 354 pounds when she first met with Butler and initially hoped to lose 156 pounds in a year. Her new goal is to reach 295 by May 24, her 45th birthday. Michael wanted to lose 64 pounds, which would put him at 198 pounds.

The good news: So far, Donna has lost 11 pounds and Michael has dropped about 3. At the end of January, Donna learned her total cholesterol had fallen from 264 to 144, which she believed was due in part to her lifestyle changes.

Donna managed to lose weight despite a few trips down "M&M Lane," health issues that cause her to retain water and weeks when she was waylaid by holidays and colds.

"We managed to go through Christmas without a 5-pound weight gain, so that was a victory in itself," Michael says.

She lost those pounds even though the family's effort to get fit has largely fizzled when it comes to exercise -- something they share with most of us.

About 78 percent of Americans don't get enough exercise to benefit their health, says Steven G. Aldana, a professor of lifestyle medicine at Brigham Young University in Provo.

"It's a lot like tobacco use," says Aldana, author of the new book The Culprit & The Cure: Why lifestyle is the culprit behind America's poor health and how transforming that lifestyle can be the cure (Maple Mountain Press, $24.99).

"Most people know it's not good for them, but we still have a lot of smokers," he says. "Most people know they should be physically active, but the pressure to not be active is great. It is much harder to get people to exercise on a regular basis than it is to eat better foods.

"It takes almost a transformation of the way you prioritize your life."

Donna gets the concept but is still working to make her health No. 1 on the to-do list.

Butler asked Donna to get in three strength training sessions and four 30-minute aerobic workouts each week. Michael was to take six-minute walks three times a week and get in a couple weight sessions.

Michael, who has chronic fatigue syndrome, found even that modest regimen too much and landed in bed for about three weeks. He is giving up the weights and settling for a new goal: five minutes on the stationary bike and two laps around the track a couple times a week.

He also has become Donna's coach, giving her moral support and nagging when needed to keep her going.

"This is our version of a date," Donna says of the trips to the rec center.

Donna keeps searching for the "perfect week" in which she meets diet and activity goals, but it has proved elusive, especially as far as exercise.

Here and there, she came close, discovering "muscles in my abdomen I never knew I had and they hurt" and that "something really cool happens after about 20 minutes. The endorphins kick in."

But many weeks, Donna got in just one session, and some weeks she went without any exercise at all.

"Maybe other people don't have this problem, but for me to go exercise I have to not care what else doesn't get done," Donna says on Valentine's Day, her first trip to the Gene Fullmer Rec Center in a week.

The excuses pile up easily: She's tired, busy, depressed, feeling ill.

"I have to be kind of militant about it," says Donna, echoing what Butler told her Jan. 19. "I am so prone to saying, 'It's OK, let me take care of you.' Unfortunately, exercise is not something anyone else can do for you. I think it's an excellent plan, I just get sabotaged by my hormones or my lack of self-discipline, but it's getting better."

Ralynne Purdy, a certified personal trainer at Gene Fullmer, once worked with a man who eventually lost 150 pounds. It took him about 20 months; he had the same "up and downs, back and forth" that stymie Donna.

Purdy said taking baby steps -- an extra lap in the pool or around the track or adding just a few minutes on a machine -- can help motivation.

Instead of a perfect week, for instance, tackle the perfect day.

"If you move five extra minutes a day, that is five more minutes than you did the day before," Purdy says.

As far as excuses that get in Donna's way, Aldana has heard them all -- from lack of time to dislike of cold weather -- and has advice in his book and on his Web site (http://www.theculpritandthecure.com) on how to counter most of them. He calls them his "stick-to-it strategies."

But get this: You are not solely to blame for taking the easy way out and staying on the couch rather than heading out to the park, Aldana says.

He says we live in a world that does a lot to discourage exercise, too, from the lack of safe, easily accessible recreation outlets to schools' decisions to scrap recess in favor of more class seat time.

Modern conveniences -- cars, elevators, escalators, TV remotes -- make it possible to avoid even the slightest physical activity. These devices "save too much labor. So now we have gyms and fitness facilities to get us moving again," Aldana says.

More than weight loss is at stake, he says. Exercise reduces the risk of such diseases as diabetes, cancer and heart problems. Combined with a good diet, it can add 10 to 20 years of good living to your life.

"That's what we're looking at," Aldana says. "It's not the nursing home, it's high quality living."

And your body starts making changes almost immediately.

"Within 24 hours, things begin to change," Aldana says. "You may not feel it, you may not know it, but cellular changes are happening."

You'll sleep better. Be less stressed out. Within weeks, cholesterol, blood pressure and resting heart rate drop. You feel better, you firm up. And the weight will come off.

It's the same promise Butler keeps holding out to the Mirabiles.

"The thing I am starting to like is she realizes the kind of level she has to exercise," Butler says. "She understands she is going to get sore, that it is normal and that she has to push herself more than is comfortable.

"I just know she could do better if she was following it 100 percent," he says, "but based on statistics, it's pretty normal."

brooke@sltrib.com

Why exercise?

Everyone should accumulate 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity, preferably, every day. Benefits include:

* Your endurance will increase and your body will change.

* With physical activity comes protection against heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain cancers.

* By getting regular, moderate-intensity physical activity you can reduce your risk of premature death and chronic disease.

* Any increases in physical activity provide benefits, especially for those who are sedentary. But remember, when you stop exercising, the benefits stop, too.

* You will help keep your bones strong, help prevent depression and experience an improved quality of life.

* Strength training is great exercise and can improve your quality of life.

-- Source: The Culprit & The Cure by Steven G. Aldana

The Exercise Groove

Steven Aldana, a professor of lifestyle medicine at Brigham Young University in Provo, says there are dozens of ways to increase your physical activity. Among them:

Walk during lunch

Take the wheels off your luggage

Make a Saturday morning walk a group habit

Take the stairs instead of the escalator

Walk to work, the store, to church, to the kids' school -- whenever you can

-- Source: The Culprit & The Cure by Steven G. Aldana (Maple Mountain Press, $24.99). On the Web at http://www.theculpritandthecure.com/.

Donna's progress

Starting weight: 354 lbs.

As of Jan. 12: 349.5 lbs.

As of Feb. 16: 343 lbs.

Goal for May 24: 295 lbs.

Michael's progress

Starting weight: 262.5 lbs.

As of Jan. 12: 259 lbs.

As of Feb. 16: 259 lbs.

Goal by December: 198 lbs.