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Camaraderie helps D-3 staff shed pounds during Capitol Mall Fitness Challenge

Daily walks, discipline during the weekends, debriefings each Monday morning and the Emmett High School track team helped the District 3 “Bootie Busters” take second place in the Capitol Mall Fitness Challenge.

The captain of “Bootie Busters,” Judy St. Germain, said team members Jeff Brothers, Kelly Byrne, Julie Schwendiman and Zane Smith encouraged and motivated each other during the 10-week fitness event that started Jan. 30.

The challenge involved 57 teams representing 30 agencies. At the end of the 10 weeks, the 523 people who participated lost a combined 2,271.5 pounds.

The training regiment for the District 3 team members included walks three times a day during the work week while on breaks and during the lunch hour, working out at the gym and at home, and for Jeff Brothers, some running with the Emmet High School track team.

The training involved more than the physical component. Team members talked each morning and updated each other after the weekend.

“We talked every morning,” St. Germain said. “After the weekend, we’d get together and ask each other what we ate and what we did in terms of exercise.”

In addition to the verbal encouragement and exercise, team members monitored what they ate and reduced portion sizes.
“Even now, being off the challenge, none of us have gone back to bad eating habits,” St. Germain said.

Brothers, who lost 20 pounds during the challenge, said he initially craved his daily dose of Mountain Dew.

“I used to drink Mountain Dew every day. I’d have it gone by right around noon,” he said. “I just went cold turkey on it. That first month was hard. Now I don’t have to have it.”

They’re enjoying the benefits of healthier eating habits and physical activity.

“All of us have more energy,” St. Germain said. “We had a lot of fun doing the Capitol Mall challenge. We’ve all entered the next fitness challenge, the London Bridge to Fitness.”

Two other D-3 employees who also work in the Materials section, Mart Earl and Keith Nottingham, were inspired by their colleagues and started to exercise without formally signing up for the Capitol Mall Challenge. Between the two, they lost 70 pounds.