Juggling graduate school, a long-distance marriage and environmental advocacy with a healthy lifestyle can be tough, especially when bad habits are decades old.

Stacie Pointer said she's determined to give it a shot, especially now that a professional trainer is helping her. The 28-year-old is one of three winners of the 2010 Durham Fitness Challenge, who will get help planning their fitness goals, workouts and meals over the next three months.

The challenge is sponsored by the David Turner Lymphoma Foundation, named for a Durham man who was diagnosed at age 24 with Stage IV lymphoma, a cancer affecting the immune system. It's aimed at helping residents live healthier lives.

Pointer said she's always carried extra pounds. She grew up in an Army family that moved every few years, so often she was not only the new kid but the big kid, too.

The subtle - and sometimes overt - comments about her weight hurt.

"There were lots of negative impacts," Pointer said. "The idea of the publicity about [being in the Fitness Challenge] is the worst nightmare, but I'm going to have to get over that if I'm going to make the kind of changes I need to make."

Pointer eats a largely vegetable-based diet, although she has been known to grab a Zero candy bar for breakfast. She loves to cook, too, and has "a soft spot for rich ingredients." Her favorite food is fried green tomatoes.

The biggest challenge will be eating on a schedule, she said. "I looked at the eating plan - my goodness - I feel like I'm eating so often. You eat three squares a day and three snacks. The portions are pretty significant," she said.

Pointer has a political science degree from UNC and now is studying for her master's of business administration at N.C. State. She's interested in clean technology and renewable energy, she said, and also serves as vice president of the NCSU chapter of NetImpacts, an international group that uses "the power of business to create amore socially and environmentally sustainable world."

This summer, she was an intern with the Institute for Sustainable Development, based in Durham.

Her husband, Ian, still lives in England. Although they married in April, he's still working out his immigration status, she said. She hasn't told him about the challenge yet, but she did tell her housemates and family.

"They were pretty excited about it," she said. "My housemates eat pretty healthy, and they're supportive."