Colleen Roy won the Olds Lifestyle Challenge, sponsored by the Olds Albertan and Simply for Life.
She was one of three contestants in the 12-week challenge, which wrapped up Thursday night (Sept. 4) at the Ralph Klein Centre. The other contestants were Katharine Doyle and Jeff Fraser.
Each contestant followed a nutrition and wellness program designed by Simply for Life, a health-focused company that helps people with nutrition and lifestyle choices.
To achieve their goals, they worked with local fitness and nutrition experts via complimentary three-month memberships from the CLC Fitness Centre. As the winner, Roy received another complimentary three-month membership.
During those 12 weeks, Roy lost 16 inches and 31 pounds. When it began, she weighed in at 188.2 pounds. As of Thursday, she weighed 157.2.
Roy doesn't plan to stop there.
“I'm actually just a little under halfway (to my goal). So I have another 27 pounds or so I need to lose. I want to get to 130,” she says. “I lost nine pounds in the first week.”
Roy says the program was “great.”
“I always felt full with the food I ate and was not looking for the stuff that I used to eat before, which was the junk food. So to me, getting rid of that kind of saved my life. I think I'll live a lot longer and be healthy,” she says.
“I weighed a chicken breast the other day, it was 14 ounces. If that was a normal meal, I would have eaten the whole thing. Now, my four-and-three-quarter ounces is way plenty.”
Roy, a retired letter carrier originally from Calgary, tried various weight-loss programs over the years. She liked the fact that, unlike some of those programs, this one did not involve eating packaged food from those programs.
“It's just regular food, like salads and meat and different herbs and things that you add to it. Very simple: a couple of ingredients and it's an amazing taste; lots of marinades and stuff for your meat,” she says.
Roy says before entering the challenge, she used to eat lots of junk food.
The change was so good, Roy wants to keep going.
“I can't wait,” she says.
Roy says the program is a great idea for the community as a whole.
“Less stress on the health-care system; people aren't sick or overweight and having health issues. If they're healthy, they don't need to go to the doctor,” she says.
Doyle and Fraser say participating in the challenge was well worth it, although not always easy.
“I think I did great,” Doyle says. “I think this was a great opportunity and it came along at the right time for me.”
However, she says, it wasn't easy.
“It was an ongoing struggle and always will be,” she says.
However,“it gave me the tools that I needed to make it sustainable.”
Fraser says the big thing he took away from the challenge was knowing when to eat and what to put on your plate to stay healthy.
“I've always known what healthy food was, which was important. But as far as knowing when to eat, that was something that made a massive difference. It's been a challenge, but I could see the benefits of it for sure,” he says.
For example, he learned not to skip breakfast, and not to go more than four hours without eating. Other advice included not eating more than one carbohydrate (carb) a day, and not to eat carbs at night.
Doyle says the workouts were tough.
“It was torture, and it got progressively worse,” she says.
But those workouts didn't involve lifting weights or going on machines. Instead, they worked on exercises laid out by their trainer, Drew Taddis.
“Drew's philosophy is that unless you want to work on specific muscle groups or body building or whatever, you don't need to use the machines. You can use your own body weight. That was what most of the exercises we did were centred around.
“So there were practical applications. If you're reaching for something you'll be using these muscles. If you're picking something up off the floor you'll be using these muscles. It was a good overall workout with practical application to everyday life,” Doyle says.
Fraser is confident he'll be able to keep the lifestyle change going.
“It's towards my goal that I had at the beginning, which was to have a good, healthy active 50s and moving towards my 60s -- I'm not going to say how far away that is – but I wanted to start to develop those habits,” he says.
He too is pleased with the program.
“Their advice was very realistic,” Fraser says. “They just wanted some meaningful movement for half an hour a day. So you know what? As long as you're doing something along those lines then that's a good start.”
Doyle agrees. She's been working with Taddis since January last year.
“I don't like exercising and I never will, but I've worked it into part of my routine,” she says.
“I'm really appreciative of the opportunity, because I don't think I would have made the changes without this. So I'm really grateful to everybody who was involved in it. I had this chance to make these positive changes and it's always been about sustainability for me, so even though this is the official end of the 12-week challenge, it's ongoing for me.”
Fraser feels the same way.
“I'd like to thank them for putting it out there,” he says. “It was a fantastic chance to take advantage of a great opportunity and I'm glad that they did it. It was great.”
