Tag Archives: weight-loss

Challenge takes 14,400 pounds off HISD employees, adds $80,000 to paychecks

If you happen to be at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, you may notice employees in athletic shoes walking both inside and outside of the building. They’re part of the more than 5,500 HISD employees from across the district who are hoping to be bathing suit-ready in a few months signed up for the HISD HealthyWage Challenge that began in February and continues through the end of May.

All that is required to succeed is to maintain a slow-but-steady weight loss of four pounds a month for four months, and each participant will be rewarded $160, as well as be entered in a drawing in which each team member might win an iPad. There are other incentives as well, including one that doesn’t require losing weight — everyone who weighed in and out for the first month of the contest is automatically entered into a drawing, and five lucky winners will win a FitBit in April.

At the end of the first month, 3,515 employees weighed in, and 2,023 had lost at least four pounds and will receive $40 in their April 9 paycheck — for a total of $80,920. The total weight loss in February was an amazing 14,400 pounds, which is equal to one elephant, one school bus, or two pickup trucks.

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Robinson ES Teams Win Big in National Weight Loss Contest

It took them almost four months to do it, but HISD teams have collected two of the top three prizes in a national weight-loss challenge—earning them both lighter frames and heavier wallets.

Both teams were formed at the same district campus: Judson Robinson Elementary School, and one group will take home a $10,000 prize at the national winner of the HealthyWage Matchup, while the other will split a purse of $3,000 as the third-place winner.

Team Bravo 5, which consisted of Robinson ES faculty (and sisters) Susana Perez and Yudith Vazquez; their brother Jorge Vazquez; their cousin, José Ortega; and another Robinson ES teacher, Sonia Cedillo; collected the top prize and national bragging rights after dropping 167 pounds collectively—or 16.59 percent of their body weight.

Team Xtreme, meanwhile, lost 143 pounds, or 15.26 percent of their collective body weight. That team was made up entirely of Robinson staff members: teachers Deordre Adams and Heather LaDay, and Apollo 20 tutors Quynh-Anh Cao, Talia Grundy, and Jennifer Harwell.  

HISD had 467 participants in the contest, which lasted from March 20 through July 4. Collectively, they lost a total of 2,968.6 pounds—or an average of 6.36 pounds per person.

You can read more about what the winners did to lose the weight and see before and after photos at the HealthyWage blog.

• See Team Bravo 5’s video. (Quicktime video)