MPS fat-loss contest pays off

By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter

Published: August 7, 2008

It started as a friendly competition among the staff at Madison Primary School to see who could lose the most weight before spring break.
The end result transformed Novum resident Denise Webb’s life.

“I feel 100 percent better, I feel like a different person,” Webb said, a year and a half after the competition, which first started in February 2007.

When MPS staff initially brought up the idea of a weight loss competition, Webb, who wore a size 28 at the time, “Flat out said no,” the primary school reading assistant told The Eagle recently. It was the Novum resident’s husband, Neil Webb, who convinced her to do it, she said.

In the past, Webb – who has been overweight most of her life – had tried other attempts at dieting, including taking diet pills, and had researched other methods of losing weight, including gastric bypass surgery. However, these other options turned out to be short-lived solutions as well as risky to one’s health, she said.

After looking into some “natural” dieting methods, Webb settled on the Weight Watchers program, which focuses on portion control, she said. Webb also started walking regularly, including with other primary school staff members during their lunch hour.

By the time the final weigh-in came in April that year, Webb had shed about 30 pounds, she said.

The percentage of her initial body weight that she had lost turned out to be the highest among the competing staff members – making Webb the winner of the contest and a $90 pot of money donated by all of the participants.

“It was the first time I’d ever won anything in my life,” she said.

Even after the contest ended, she decided to stick with the changes in her eating and exercising habits, which she describes as a “lifestyle change” rather than a “diet.”

“My main thing is I was concerned about living longer and being there for my children,” she said.

The positive reinforcement from her husband and her fellow MPS staff members encouraged her to stick with the change.

Now, about a year and a half after she first started, Webb is 110 pounds lighter and full of energy. But the weight didn’t come off without some struggle, she admits.

The first two weeks of any new diet and exercise routine are the hardest, according to Webb.

“If you make it through those first two weeks the uphill battle is over,” she said.

It’s also important to stay motivated despite slip-ups and mistakes.

“If you cheat one day, just get up the next day and get back at it,” Webb said.

Looking back at photographs of herself before the weight loss, she says she feels a sense of accomplishment.

“I never want to be that person again because honestly, that person wasn’t very happy,” Webb said, adding that she used to feel insecure about the way she looked, and would avoid being included in photographs and being the first to walk into a room.

She also used to hate shopping for clothes – something she now enjoys and has had to do a lot of now that she is a size 16 and no longer fits into any of her size 28 clothes.

Although Webb says she still needs to lose more weight in order to meet her “goal” – which she hasn’t yet set – she thinks she’s almost there.
“I don’t think I’m very far from where I want to be,” she said.

This past school year, the staff at Madison Primary School collectively shed more than 300 pounds as part of a school system-wide initiative to encourage healthy eating and exercise.

“I’m not the lone ranger in all of this,” Webb said, adding that all of the participating staff members made positive steps toward a healthier lifestyle.

The schools “student wellness policy” – started two years ago – has resulted in numerous programs pushing the importance of exercise – including a separate weight loss competition among Waverly Yowell Elementary School teachers this past January, according to Supervisor of Pupil Services Bob Francis.

School officials also spent the year encouraging parents to trade in traditional celebratory sweets – such as sugary cupcakes – for healthier choices like fruits and vegetables, Francis told the school board at its regularly scheduled July 14 meeting.

Although the schools have not officially banned sweets from being sold during fund-raisers and eaten during parties, a few years ago school representatives started an initiative to ensure healthy options are available during special school events, officials said.

“We haven’t gotten to the point where we are saying you absolutely cannot have sweets,” Tanner told the school board at its July meeting. However, she added, the schools’ “student wellness” policy focuses on “awareness” by encouraging parents to “think about healthy choices” when providing treats for a class celebration or fund-raiser.