SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii - With her husband deployed and starting a family on her mind, Rebecca Clark decided to hit the gym " hard.
After three months of exercise and a lifestyle overhaul, Clark lost 32 pounds, making her this year’s Biggest Loser.
The Biggest Loser Contest, which ran January-April, is a program that is geared toward motivating individuals to live a healthier lifestyle. It provides motivation, healthy information and group activities.
This year, the contest was offered garrison-wide and boasted 95 participants who collectively lost more than 395 pounds.
“I started to notice a change in my body in mid-March,” Clark said, who averaged a weight loss of 10 pounds, per month, during the contest. “My clothes were getting looser, I had more energy, and I was becoming more productive.”
Since her husband deployed last year with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Clark changed her eating habits, added regular exercise to her routine and dropped 45 pounds, to date.
Although Clark’s husband, Spc. Danny Clark, Company A, 225nd Bde. Support Battalion, 2nd BCT, is aware of how much weight she has lost, she has kept him in the dark about her transformation.
“He knows I participated in the Biggest Loser and that I lost weight, but he hasn’t seen me since he came home for rest and recuperation in December,” Clark said. “I turned off the webcam and haven’t sent any new pictures.”
Clark will unveil her new body when her husband redeploys, here, next month.
“My advice to people who want to lose weight is to start slow and add on (different types of exercise) from there,” Clark said, who made the transition from no exercise to walking to running. “Start with something you know you can do everyday, and stick with it.”
Biggest Loser participants experienced initial, periodic and final weigh-ins throughout the three-month span of the program.
“The targeted audience was people looking for an incentive program and motivation to lose weight and increase their physical activity,” said Kalei Scoggins, special events coordinator, Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation. “By using daily motivational newsletters, nutritional seminars and providing group exercise classes exclusively for Biggest Loser participants, participants were motivated to reach their weight-loss goals.”
Registration was $15, and Blue Star Card patrons could enter for $10. During the contest, participants received motivational emails, special prize challenges and a six-month subscription to the fitness journal.
As the winner, Clark received a two-night stay at the Hale Koa Hotel, in Waikiki, along with a myriad of other prizes, but she said her biggest prize was losing the weight.
Social Sharing