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 Staff photo/Katie Yantis: A truck dumps dirt along the Miami and Erie Canal towpath where it crosses Ohio 66. The project will make it easier for those using the towpath to cross Ohio 66.
By KATIE YANTIS
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — Hiker, bikers and walkers in the region will notice a
difference in a few sections of the Miami and Erie Canal towpath trail
starting this week.
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Biggest losers |
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Friday, 20 June 2008 |
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 Staff photo/Missy Plokhooy
And the First Place Winners of the Second Annual Grand Health Challenge are Three Sisters and an Outlaw. From left Amy Glover, Dawn Lambert, Dara Moritz and Pam Schwer.
By MARY BARGDILL
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — The participants of a local health challenge were able to reap the rewards of half a year’s worth of hard work and determination.
The Second Ever Grand Health Challenge, a six month health challenge sponsored by the Grand Lake Health System, The Evening Leader and the Wapakoneta Daily News, came to a conclusion in the Union Hall in St. Marys Thursday evening, as the winners were announced.
The grand prize of $1,000 went to Three Sisters and an Outlaw, the team which lost 22.40 percent of their original body weight. The women are related to each other and used monthly family get-togethers as an opportunity to eat healthy and sample new dishes.
Each of the women had their own motivation to lose weight.
Waynesfield resident Amy Glover said she wanted to lose the weight because of health reasons. Shortly before the health challenge, her doctor discovered she had high blood pressure and needed to medication to bring it down.
“Now I’m off,” she said. “I’ve got kids at home and I want to be there for them, and it really helped having family supporting you at all times.”
Dawn Lambert, of Wapakoneta, received a treadmill for Christmas, and with her husband’s encouragement, would use it as often as possible.
“He would tell me many times to get on that tread mill,” she said. “We didn’t sign up for the money. We signed up to lose weight and get healthy.”
Wapakoneta resident Dara Moritz said she wanted to lose weight following a pregnancy.
“I just had a baby eight months ago and I wanted to get that weight off,” she said.
For Pam Schwer of Wapakoneta, it was about the competition.
“The first month we were in seventh place,” Schwer said. “Then it was really an incentive.”
The women had various ideas of how they planned to spend their prize money, including purchasing a digital camera, gas grill, massage and new earrings.
The team that came in second place with a $500 prize was Flab U Less Four, after having lost 18.80 percent of their body weight.
Team members Jeff Van Horn, Angie Van Horn, Fred Creech and Lisa Creech each used whatever plan worked best for them, which included a lot of walking.
“Instead of eating for half an hour at lunch I walked,” Lisa Creech said, adding she ate lunch during a fifteen minute break late in the morning.
Jeff Van Horn said he has done a lot of walking and jogging in the last six months.
“About five miles a day,” he said.
The Goal Seekers came in third place after losing 16.85 percent of their body weight. Sherri and Daryl Lauth and Larry and Ronda Shelby walked away with a $300 cash prize.
“Each person was individually motivated,” team captain Sherri Lauth said. “We got some new low cal recipes that even the kids like.”
Larry Shelby lost the most percentage of body weight for men at 30.10 percent.
However, because he was on a winning team, he was disqualified from taking that winning title as well. That $100 prize went to Todd Gibson of Three Roses and a Thorn, who lost 26.95 percent of his body weight.
Gibson said that during the challenge, Shelby had been an inspiration to keep working on his weight loss goals.
Shelby said his “Five Cs” to losing weight and getting healthy were “challenge, commitment, cutting back, competition and the curiosity to see how much weight you can actually lose.”
Stacy Williams of Newbie and the Repeats took the $100 prize for the woman who lost the highest percentage of body weight of 29.83 percent. Williams said she worked with Project Health, formerly known as the Metabolic Profile System, which required attending weekly classes in Lima.
“I eat protein at every meal and I drink nothing but water or decaffeinated tea or coffee,” she said.
The Evening Leader Publisher Deb Zwez said she was pleased with the number of participants for the 2008 Grand Health Challenge, which included repeat team members as well as some new faces.
“Our goal was for people to develop a healthier habit,” Zwez said. “When you bring people together and share their success — I think it inspires people. It’s hard. You have to work at it. That’s the whole point of these monthly meetings. It’s just to keep going. We’re all in this together.”
All remaining teams in the health challenge lost a combined weight of 5,985 pounds. The weight loss of teams that had dropped out of the challenge were not included in the final tally. Zwez announced plans for a third health challenge were underway for next year.
“We’ve already agreed to partner up with Joint Township To do another health challenge,” she said. “We, the newspapers, could never do this without the support of the hospital and vice versa.”
Grand Lake Health System Outreach Coordinator Anne Larger said she was also happy with the challenge.
“I was ecstatic because of the weight loss and the comments throughout the community from people (who said) the challenge helped to lose weight, and (gain) a healthier lifestyle,” she said.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 June 2008 )
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