Colleagues from DeBakey HS win $10,000 in 2014 HealthyWage weight-loss challenge
When it comes to losing weight competitively, HISD employees are the undisputed champions. Teams of district workers have now won at least one of the top three prizes in the HealthyWage challenge for the past three years.
The latest victors come from the DeBakey High School for Health Professions. Clerk Win Loflin and counselor My Kim Huynh teamed up with friends Otibo Eboe-Arthur, Chie Horimoto, and Diana Ung to drop a total of 165 pounds, or 18.36 percent of their body weight, since January.
In addition to the money the co-workers earned through HISD’s “4 for $40” challenge, as well as the iPads they won last month in a drawing for teams who had met their monthly weight-loss goals, Loflin, Huynh, and the other members of “No Mo Junk in Da Trunk” will also split the top prize of $10,000 for the HealthyWage challenge that began on January 31.
“I took up the challenge because I really want to get pregnant,” explained Loflin, who lost more than 30 pounds and is Ung’s older sister. “I plan to put the money aside for maternity leave. Two years ago, my doctor sat me down and told me that I had to lose weight. He pulled out my medical chart and showed me that when I was 18, I weighed 118 pounds and that I had gained more than 60 pounds in 12 years. He told me that if I did not work on my weight and diet, it would lead to more health problems, since my family has a history of heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure. Pregnancy would be really risky, since I was not just overweight, but obese.”
HISD is now in the home stretch of its four-month-long “4 for $40” challenge. At the contest’s mid-way point, employees had shed 14,400 pounds and earned $80,000 in incentives. The most recent figures show a cumulative net loss of 21,000 pounds and a payout of $158,800 to date.
Benefits General Manager Brad Bailey noted that of the 2,146 participating employees who weighed in and out last month, only 755—or about a third of them—actually met their weight-loss goals. And of those who were on teams, only three had all members qualify to win iPads or FitBits.
“That means there were only three teams in the drawing for the iPads and the FitBits in May,” said Bailey. “That ought to encourage teams to really go for it this last month. If they can all lose four pounds, they have a good shot at each getting an iPad or a FitBit!”
The deadline to weigh-in to qualify for the final month’s prizes is Friday, May 30. You can read more about this year’s winning team on the HealthyWage website, and find details on the 2013 and 2012 winners at the links above.
Congrats to all of you! You look fabulous!!
Awesome, thats wonderful, congratulations!
Good Job yall! Hard work and discipline never fails.. it will always pay off..
“Discipline weighs ounces, regret a ton.. ” =) keep it up for a lifetime.