Meet the Winners!

Here they are! The winners of the NEA Fitness Challenge have strolled and sprinted through miles of hallway and track, trimmed and slimmed with exercise and healthy diets. Now they’re taking the top prizes home to their schools. The winners represent the hundreds of school workers across the country who took up the Challenge during the 2003–04 school year to change their lifestyles and get in shape.

by Sheree Crute

Surveys confirm it: Educators are at particularly high risk for obesity-related illnesses. So when hundreds of NEA members signed up for the Fitness Challenge last year, they knew they were embarking on something important. Not only could they lose excess pounds, they could lessen their chances for diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. They could get better educated, too—and on issues of health, there’s plenty to know.

Take obesity. Nobody understands exactly why school workers appear to have disproportionately high rates, but studies show stress plays a big role.

”Our research at Ohio State University has shown that people who are stressed metabolize fat more slowly,” says Catherine Stoney, Ph.D, a research scientist at the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. That may not make you fat, Stoney says, but the body’s levels of the stress hormone cortisol also shoot up when you’re

under pressure, encouraging the body to deposit more fat in certain areas, like the abdomen. Add that to high-fat, high-carbohydrate cafeteria and school vending machine fare, and you have a perfect recipe for weight gain.

“Weight management is very complex, “Stoney says, “but many factors are behavioral and we can control them.” That, of course, is where the Challenge comes in. By making modest changes, Challenge members made extraordinary improvements in their health and well being. Here are their stories.

Photo by Kim Walker

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Most pounds lost by a team—108.25

Winners: The Mustang Muscles

Top losers: Jennie Finney, Susan Hoskins, Mary Plaster, Ron Ross; Stony Mill Elementary School, Danville, Virginia

The Mustang Muscles had their very own secret weapon: Susan Hoskins, Mustang team recorder. As soon as Hoskins, Stony Mill’s guidance counselor, heard about the Challenge, she wrote up a two-page brochure and pitched the idea at a faculty meeting. “I thought teamwork would be great for morale,” Hoskins says, “plus I thought it would help me maintain my recent 50-pound weight loss.” She was right on both counts. Her final team of 12 took the prize for most pounds lost, with four top losers at the head of the pack. And Hoskins, 51, dropped another eight pounds.

The Mustangs discovered that moderate changes can produce dramatic benefits. “I dropped nine pounds,” says Ron Ross, 50, the school’s speech therapist. He was surprised to find that was enough to drop his high blood pressure 10 points into a healthy range. Mary Plaster, 58, a Stony Mill kindergarten teacher, lost eight pounds and found it helped give her the “energy to keep up with the kids,” as well as control her Type II diabetes. And Jennie Finney, 49, dropped 17 pounds by just “cutting back on carbohydrates and getting active.” Enough weight to greatly improve her hypertension, her family’s biggest health risk factor.

Success secret: “Now we laugh more. We became more caring and closer to each other while getting healthy,” Plaster says.

Photo by Eric Hylden

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Most miles walked by a team—3,030.1

Winners: The Jackson Jaguars

Top walkers: Marjorie Adkisson, Amanda Herman, Frank Meuers, Kelly Ross; Jackson Middle School, Champlin, Minnesota

Beating genetic health risks and easing job stress kept the Jackson Jaguars’ top walkers on the move all year. “My dad died after his fifth heart attack at 66,” recalled team recorder Amanda Storey, 39. “I want to live longer than that.”

Frank Meuers, a Jackson math teacher, used the Challenge as a way to add to the fitness regimen he developed after suffering a heart attack in 2002. “Even though the doctors declared me healthy, I wanted more,” explains Meuers, who is in his early 60s. “I started out at two miles a day; I’m now up to four,” says Meuers, who, like all Jaguar team members, used Jackson Middle School’s lengthy halls (it has 2,400 students) as a track.

Jaguar walker Kelly Ross, 36, found the Challenge was “a great way to get us to work together.” Ross, who teaches seventh and eighth grades, also said her workout cleared her head: “It helped me deal with all of the changes in education today.” De-stressing was a great motivator for computer teacher Marjorie Adkisson, 58, as well. “It’s just so peaceful walking outdoors,” Adkisson says. “I get in touch with nature.”

Success secret: “Just make it a habit,” Storey says. “Your weight will take care of itself if you eat in moderation.” Adds Meuers, “Remember, it’s an investment in yourself.”

Photo by Janet Hostetter

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Most inches lost by a team—40.5

Winners: The Energized Eagles

Top Losers: Vicky Grove, Lynn Vatthauer; Lafayette High School, Redlake Falls, Minnesota

Lynn Vatthauer, Lafayette’s French teacher and technology coordinator, has a talent for getting folks organized, so when she read about the Challenge, she was up to the test. “When I heard about the Challenge I thought, ‘what a great way to kick off the year.’” She started off with a team of 10, but found that she and team member Vicky Grove were the ones most focused on inches and pounds lost, so they kept track together.

“I was walking regularly, but with age,” says Vatthauer, 44, “I started gaining inches anyway.” She’d trimmed seven by May. 

“Between work stress and caring for my sick Dad,” Grove explains, “I put on the pounds.” She credits support with helping her drop 83 pounds and an amazing 33.5 inches from her frame since September. 

Success secret: “Teamwork,” Grove and Vatthauer agree. “We competed to see who ate the healthiest lunch and people scouted out the teacher’s lounge to warn me off high-calorie treats,” Grove says.

Photo by Steve Wilson

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Most pounds lost by an individual—22

Winner: Jennifer Boehme, Jordan Hills Elementary, West Jordon, Utah

When Jennifer Boehme’s husband was diagnosed with leukemia, she started stress eating and packed on 20 pounds. That’s when the 33-year-old sixth-grade teacher joined the Challenge. Boehme created innovative ways to get a workout—walking the perimeter of the hospital while her husband was getting treatments and riding an exercise bike they put in his hospital room.

Photo by Craig Mitchelldyer

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Most inches lost by an individual—29.5

Winner: Tom Grove: “the Beach Bobcat,” Beach Elementary School, Portland, Oregon

A single moment captured on film changed Tom Grove’s life for the better. His daughter took a picture of him—in profile—at his 50th birthday party. To beat that bulge, he joined the Challenge. Grove, a second-grade teacher, learned to control portions, fill up on vegetables and low-fat treats, and use a food diary. He also started walking—measuring out a course to and from school.

Photo by Steve Levin

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Most miles walked by an individual—3,694.9

Winner: Jerry Brian: “Go Ghosts,” Kaukauna High School, Kaukauna, Wisconsin

Speech pathologist Jerry Brian was just 48 when his doctor told him he had Type II diabetes and hypertension. He got so depressed, he went out for a walk. It felt so good, he did it again. Brian lost 100 pounds in two years and took on the Challeng