Clough Harbour Associates, an engineering company typically responsible for the plans leading up construction projects, hosted a weight loss challenge that wrapped up last month called Losing to Win.
Losing to Win was the brainchild of a committee that the company, which has locations in several other states in the country, developed to help its employees live healthy lifestyles. The Get Fit Committee decided to create a challenge based on the NBC show `The Biggest Loser,` encouraging employees to lose weight in teams in a healthy way.
More than 100 employees participated in the challenge, forming 26 teams in 15 different offices. The teams were able to choose their own names, sometimes coming up with quirky ones like `Mission Slimpossible,` and `Too Fat for a Beach Vacation,` and decide, as a team, how they were going to lose the weight.
At the end of each week, each member was asked to weigh in on a scale that is located in a former-cubicle-turned-health-center the company calls its `Get Fit Spot.` Their weight was recorded anonymously and at the end of the challenge, their total percentage of body fat lost would be used to determine the winner. The program lasted 12 weeks and ended the last week in July.
This year was the first year the Get Fit Committee ran the Losing to Win competition.
Carrie Myers, manager of operations for CHA at the company’s Wolf Road location and a co-chair of the Get Fit Committee, said she sits right by the Get Fit Spot and often times on the days of the weigh-in, she would hear her co-workers groaning about the numbers they saw on the scale.
But despite the moans and groans, Myers said the Losing to Win program, and other programs sponsored by the Get Fit Committee, are great because they not only promote wellness, but teach employees things they do not already know about how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
`Some people might be wondering, ‘What is a serving of something,’ and we will show them, ‘this is what a serving is,’` Myers said. The Get Fit Spot is complete with a scale, a blood pressure machine, reading materials and videos employees can take home to learn more about healthy habits and a computer that brings up a Web site designed by the Get Fit Committee with health topics, articles and tips on it.
The toughest thing about the challenge, according to local participant Manny Salorio, is finding the time to squeeze in an hour of exercise each day, as the Get Fit Committee recommended for the Losing to Win program. But soon, Salorio, a senior engineer, started coming up with unique ways to get in an hour’s worth of exercise.
`I would park the next lot over, and that would count ` or mowing my lawn,` he said.
Salorio said the program raised his awareness about his health.
Paula Heller, director of Human Resources, said that having the support of the entire company helps a great deal when it comes to becoming more health-oriented and losing weight. She said the company sponsors many events throughout the year, including a Wellness Challenge which incorporates programs about healthy eating options into the work day during the Challenge’s duration and encourages employees, also in teams, to compete to becoming the healthiest.
Another one of the Get Fit Committees other responsibilities include checking the vending machine to ensure there are healthy snacks available.
In order to participate in Losing to Win, the employees needed to contribute $10 each which was pooled together to create a prize of over $1,000. The winning team received the money in the end for losing the most weight.
Combined, all of the participants lost a total weight of 744 pounds. The winning team was `The Chunky Dunkers,` from Syracuse, which was made up of members Chris Burns, Kristy Harris, Colleen Denniston and Katie Flood. The team lost 10.7 percent of their body weight total, equaling about 97 pounds.“