Biggest Winner Contest bringing out the best in competitors
Dawn Kirschner, center, a member of Washington Hospital Team 1, concentrates on her workout last week at the wellness center.
Jamie Golden, a member of Washington Hospital Team 2, works out with trainer Butch Marasco.
Washington Auto Mall team member Ryan Komorowski completes a circuit on a rowing machine.
Francesca Sacco, a member of the O-R Under 40 Team, stretches after finishing a cycling workout.
Wellness Center team member Matt Prescott, right, and Brian Higgins work out last week.
Tracy Pareso, a member of Washington Hospital Team 2, boxes with trainer Butch Marasco.
Nicole Zidek pushes herself to log 6 kilometers during one of the Washington Auto Mall team’s workouts.
Near the end of their intense, hour-long workout, members of the Wilfred R. Cameron Wellness Center’s Biggest Winner team sat on mats in the gymnasium, arms linked. Their task, assigned by trainer Kristy Boyle: complete 20 group sit-ups.
“You’ve gotta hook arms, bend those knees,” Boyle told the team, whose fitness levels varied. “Synchronize your sit-up. You’ve got to do it together.”
The participants groaned – and laughed – while teammate Emily Mahoney set the pace, barking out, “Up, down, up, down!”
The seven teams competing in Wellness Center’s The Biggest Winner Contest, a corporate weight-loss challenge which pits area businesses against each other, are nearing the end of their monthlong journey to get in shape and adopt a healthier lifestyle.
And if there’s one thing The Biggest Winner has revealed, it’s that the competitors on all of the teams don’t want to let their teammates down.
“I love the camaraderie and how we encourage each other and push each other. We’re in this together,” said Tanya Kassler, spa supervisor at the wellness center who participated in a Biggest Winner competition two years ago and then “fell off the wagon.”
The competition, a take-off of NBC’s reality show “The Biggest Loser,” started Jan. 4 and wraps up Jan. 29.
With a little less than a week left, the 42 participants (each team includes six members) are exercising with a trainer for an hour three times a week. They also have unlimited access to the wellness center on off days.
The Biggest Winner’s top team will be determined by the greatest decrease in combined total body weight percentage of each member over the entire program.
A contest within a contest, members of the teams are pushing themselves and each other to see who wins a grand prize of a one-year membership to the wellness center.
Washington Auto Mall’s team surged from last place to first place, and team members were happy with their progress. The team’s collective weight loss so far is 3.58 percent.
“We are super-excited we are in first place, rallying back from last place,” said Dana Phillips, human resource manager, who joined the competition to lose weight after she had a baby. Phillips now logs the food she eats on her MyFitnessPal app.
Washington Auto Mall team member Ryan Komorowski said he feels better physically and mentally since he started the contest.
“Being on a team really keeps you motivated more than just doing it on your own,” said Komorowski.
While the teams are undergoing rigorous boot camp-style workouts led by wellness center trainers, the center’s dietitians have coordinated the equally important nutrition component of the competition.
Each participant was given a healthy eating plan and a daily calorie goal, and just about all of the contestants have stepped up their exercise and find themselves passing on calorie-packed desserts.
Wellness center dietitian Jacqueline Ely said her message for participants is to “fuel your body properly.”
“Choosing the right foods and eating the right way is important to long-term success,” said Ely, who emphasized that it’s never too late to start eating healthy. “It’s more than just eating a specific calorie level. It’s choosing the right foods that give your body nourishment and essential nutrients. Meeting proper nutrient requirements will promote great health and teach you how to eat right for the rest of your life.”
Liz Rogers, editor of the Observer-Reporter and a member of the O-R’s Over 40 team, said she has pushed herself harder than she thought possible.
Rogers is seeing results: she’s lost 7 pounds and said she has more energy since the competition started.
“I have altered the way I eat: no junk food, no alcohol. And I’m studying nutrition labels more than ever, and am taking great pains to hit those daily protein goals,” said Rogers.
Francesca Sacco, marketing assistant at the Observer-Reporter and a member of the O-R’s Under 40 team, said she is starting to see and feel results.
“Going into the competition, I was very focused on building my core and losing inches. I can say that I’m making strides in both areas,” she said.
Trailing Washington Auto Mall are Meadows Racetrack & Casino, O-R Over 40, O-R Under 40, the wellness center, Washington Hospital Team 2 and Washington Hospital Team 1.
Members of the Meadows Casino collectively have lost more than 50 pounds, and conversations at the office in the past month regularly include discussions of team and personal progress, said Sean Sullivan, vice president and general manager.
“It’s been extremely beneficial and helpful in ways I didn’t necessarily expect. It’s also impressed me greatly that everybody’s engaged, everybody shows up at the gym at 6:30 a.m. and goes through some really challenging and difficult times,” said Sullivan, noting that team members range in age 35 to 65 and their fitness levels vary. “There are some who are more comfortable doing this than others, and some are being pushed and challenged differently than we are, and they’re still showing up, which inspires me.”
Sullivan said the nutrition aspect of The Biggest Winner has been especially valuable, and that team members are eating far differently than they did before the competition.
“In my opinion, when you get older, you’re going to see more beneficial results from lifestyle and nutrition changes than from exercise,” said Sullivan. “This has really gotten folks, me included, to re-prioritize the importance of health. The most difficult concept here is that it’s one thing to sacrifice for four weeks, it’s another to have meaningful lifestyle changes, which is what we want to do.”
Currently in last place is Washington Hospital Team 1, but team member Cheryl Hilty said the team isn’t discouraged.
“We’re all having a great time. It’s a lot of work, but we’re finding out we can do more than we thought we could,” said Hilty, staffing coordinator at the hospital.
The team has used an array of equipment, including medicine balls, kettle bells, ropes, spin bicycles and rowing machines – everything except the climbing wall, Hilty joked.
“We work hard the entire hour we’re there. Win or lose, we’re still winners at the end. I’ll be better off Jan. 31 than I was Jan. 1, and I feel the difference,” said Hilty, who lost weight on Weight Watchers before joining The Biggest Winner but did not exercise. “This has gotten me off the couch. It may not show a lot on the scale, but I can see it in the shape of my body. I feel better, things fit better. It’s a good feeling.”