After eight long weeks of Tuesday night classes at the Y and the much-dreaded weigh-ins, the Advocate and the YMCA are happy to announce the winner of the fitness challenge. After losing 6.4 percent of her body weight, the winner of the weeklong stay in Gatlinburg, Tenn. is Melissa Thomas.
After gaining weight after having two sets of twins (yes, two), Thomas had decided that it was time to change her lifestyle. About time she made the decision to start losing weight, her husband, Vincent, brought her one of the ad's that had ran in the paper.
"I had seen the ad but when he brought to me, I read it and realized it was perfect timing" Thomas said. "It was the incentive that I needed to really settle down and commit to losing weight."
Also helping to boost her motivation was Vincent, who jokingly threatened to tell the kids that the only way they would go on vacation was if 'mommy' lost weight.
Starting with the first class of the challenge, which was the nutritional class, Thomas started watching what she ate, changing her diet. Now, instead of whatever could be eaten on the go, Thomas' diet involves more meat, vegetable and fruit while keeping her calorie intake around 1300-1600 a day.
She also has joined the Y as a member and takes an aerobics class every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday morning at 5 a.m. Hesitant about the class being so early at first, Thomas now says that class jumpstarts her day.
When asked how she liked the fitness challenge, she responded quite eagerly.
"I liked it - we were able to try different things and I enjoyed it very much," Thomas said. "It really turned me on to different exercises but my favorite classes were the aerobics, Pilates and the kickboxing."
Before she started the fitness challenge, Thomas, who is a stay-at-home mother, thought that by trying to keep up four children while constantly being on the go, the pounds would just melt off "which was definitely not the case."
Even after joining the challenge, Thomas gained weight the first week followed by a two-week period where she wouldn't lose anything at all. However, Thomas stuck it out and slowly but surely, she started to lose about 3-4 pounds.
"You know, experts say that 10,000 steps a day helps people to lose weight but that isn't true," Thomas explained. "You have to get your heart rate up and then maybe, those 10,000 steps will work. Getting the heart rate up help to boost the metabolism faster."
Now that Thomas is on the path to losing weight, she plans on keeping up with her diet and exercise. Along with her aerobics, Thomas walks when she can find time and hopes to take the aquacise offered by the Y this summer if her schedule allows.
"With four kids, it's hard to find a babysitter. If the Y had a child care service, I'd be skinny," She joked.
Thomas, Vincent and their four children, Hannah and Myles (4) and Rhagan and Breanna (2 1/2) are all residents of Morganfield.
The Advocate and the YMCA would like to congratulate all the participants in the challenge for their weight loss and hope that they continue exercising.
