Health is not valued till sickness comes.
-Dr. Thomas Fuller

Capitol Hill Wellness Council Sponsors Biggest Loser Contest”

The Capitol Hill Wellness Council launched a Biggest Loser Contest for employees working on Capitol Hill in January. If your Wellness Councils wants to organize a contest, contact Larene Wyss in Groupwise or at 538-3361 who can provide you with calculation spreadsheets and ideas. Here’s how ours worked:

• In order to establish a sense of accountability, the 70 participants were assigned to one of 8 teams. A captain was chosen by each team to help motivate team members as well as act as the liaison between the contest coordinators and participants. They were then given a random 4-digit number to maintain anonymity of each individual.
• Participants weighed in on Mondays and reported their new weight for the week. The weight loss was calculated and recorded in a spreadsheet. Using the random numbers assigned, a weekly newsletter was sent out with the results. It included the weekly and the to-date percentage weight loss for each individual and team.
• Three challenges during the ten weeks also helped keep teams motivated. The first was a stairs challenge where six members of each team ran the steps from the 6th floor to the basement of the State Office Building. The second challenge required each participant to record their food and water consumption and amount of exercise on a daily basis for a week. Teams guessed the calorie content of certain foods for the third challenge.
  

• At the end of the 10-week contest, the 70 participants lost a combined total of 621 pound. The team that lost the most was the very competitive Pink Team. This team consisted of J.J. Acker, Kathryn Anderson, Joanie Aponte, Margaret Chambers, Evelyn Gruter, Mark Gunderson, Tamara Gunderson, Danielle Hood, Karen Kraus and Gary Robertson. Together they lost a combined total of 153.2 pounds or 7.2% of their total body weight.
• Twenty-six participants continued an additional 5 weeks for an individual contest. Jim Russell was the winner in the male category with a 20.4% weight loss in 15 weeks. Danielle Hood won the female category with a 10.9% loss.

Below are comments from participants on their thoughts of the contest.

• “The biggest loser competition was a way for me to kick start health habits. I really enjoyed the accountability of the competition because it made what I chose to eat a decision that I actually thought about instead of just grabbing the first thing I saw.”
  —Anne Stewart
• “The contest helped me to keep on goal. With my crazy work schedule, travel, and personal trials, this has helped me to remember me too. We do tend to put everything else first and ourselves last and not take care of ourselves. This helped me to keep somewhat of a balance. Thank you for that.”
  — Jerrianne Kolby
• “Through healthy competition and the camaraderie of my team, I had the necessary motivation to change my eating habits and increase my physical activity.”
  — J.J. Acker
• “Our team’s walking activities kept us motivated and challenged, and we kept it fun as we exchanged stories about our individual progress. Making new friends was an added bonus!” – Rocio Briceno
• “It was a struggle but worth it. I feel great and have adopted a new way of reading labels and eating the right foods.” – Joanie Aponte
• “Several Friday evenings I would just want to give up, yet I knew that I had to weigh in Monday morning and my team was counting on my continued participation.”
  — Margaret Chambers
• “The greatest assistance to control food consumption and physical activity was when we had to track what we ate and what physical activity we did. It helped to keep these things in mind all day long, especially when tempted to eat unhealthy choices or refrain from physical activity. Now that I have been in the process of exercising regularly and eating better through the team effort that helped me to lose 33 pounds, I am moving forward on an individual basis to lose an additional 14 pounds.”
  — Mark Gunderson
• “Although I was already losing weight through Weight Watcher meetings here, the biggest loser contest pushed me even more to achieve my goals. I lost twice as much weight during the weeks I was involved in both WW and the biggest loser contest. Both programs focused on healthy lifestyle habits and exercise and complimented each other very nicely.”
  — Maria Stahla