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Biggest Winner: over 1900 pounds lost

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Chad Padgett
  • 436th AW Public Affairs
With the final weigh in finished and the scores tallied, the Biggest Winner competition came to an end March 17.

The Misfits, consisting of 436th Force Support Squadron members Theresa Bald, Mike Prystajko, Steve Cortes, Brian Bumgardner, Tech. Sgt. Chrystal Ortega and Staff Sgt. Mike Gump, took first place with 126.6 total pounds lost.

Mr. Bumgardner said the team came up with the name together while brainstorming, probably choosing that name because their clothes 'misfit.'

"I ran on a treadmill after work about half an hour a day, lifted free weights and occasionally I got out to walk on the trail by the flight line," said Mr. Bumgardner. "The whole team worked really hard to earn this win."

The contest ran for 10 weeks, bringing together over 200 Team Dover members. Although all of them joined to lose weight, some had other reasons for signing up for the contest.

"My family all have a history of heart disease and diabetes," said Senior Airman Mike Schweers, 436th Maintenance Operations Squadron. "I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to lose weight, and the contest would keep me motivated until the end."

Airman Schweers lost the most weight in the male category.

"I was doing a lot of cardio, around three to four days a week," said Airman Schweers. "The other two days I did weight training."

Mrs. Darla Tatum, 436th Force Support Squadron, lost the most weight in the female category.

"Each week I was both excited and nervous at the same time, because I didn't know how much weight the scale would show I had lost," said Mrs. Tatum. "Weighing in each week and seeing the numbers go down helped me stay motivated."

With 1931.5 total pounds lost by the 220 contestants, the next challenge is keeping the weight off.

"I made this a part of my life," said Airman Schweers. "Nothing I do is so complicated that I cannot fit working out into my everyday life."