close

And the winner is … Biggest Winner team becomes a family, loses almost 100 pounds

6 min read
1 / 4

The Observer-Reporter Biggest Winner team works together to test how far they came on physical activities like running a mile, sit-ups and push-ups. Every team member saw improvement on the exercises.

2 / 4

Paul Setto lost 20.2 pounds during the Biggest Winner competition and was the winner of the Observer-Reporter’s team. At 72, Setto said he wanted to set an example for seniors, showing that they could still lose weight and get healthier.

3 / 4

Paul Setto and Carole DeAngelo run around the track at the Wilfred R. Cameron Wellness Center on their last day of the Biggest Winner contest. The team ran the mile the first day and then ran it again the last day to see how much their fitness level improved. Most team members shaved several minutes off their initial time.

4 / 4

From left, Carole DeAngelo, Jessica Tennant, Larry Butka, Liz Rogers, Paul Setto and trainer Kendra Boni made up the Observer-Reporter Biggest Winner team. Not pictured is Kelly Stanton. The team lost almost 100 pounds during the six-week competition.

The first day the Observer-Reporter’s Biggest Winner team walked into the Wilfred R. Cameron Wellness Center at 6 a.m. for an intense workout, they couldn’t have imagined that leaving for the last time would bring tears to their eyes.

“I’m sad it’s over,” said team member Carole DeAngelo. “I miss the team immensely. I miss the camaraderie. I miss the discipline of getting up early.”

Most of the six team members were strangers, but they left as a family, according to team trainer Kendra Boni.

The team lost a combined total of 67 inches and nearly 100 pounds through diet and rigorous exercise as part of the six-week program that ended Feb. 20. Nicknamed “OR6,” the group placed third out of 10 teams competing. A “contest within a contest,” the O-R team members also competed against one another, with Paul Setto emerging as victor. The 72-year-old lost 9.76 percent of his body weight, or 20.2 pounds, winning a one-year membership to the wellness center.

But he had a goal that wasn’t just for himself. He wanted to inspire other seniors.

“I’ve had several young people and old people come up and congratulate me,” he said, adding that they followed the articles and his story. “They say that they’re an inspiration.”

Diet and nutrition were simply not a part of his life before the Biggest Winner, and he was surprised how much energy he had during and after workouts.

“I thought I would be a lot more worn out and have a lot more aches and pains in my body,” he said. “Now, I’m not saying that I didn’t have any, because I did have some.

“My wife and I were discussing this, and we just said that the Lord gave me the strength to do just what I needed to succeed in this program.”

Team member Larry Butka was also happy to inspire others.

He said people see how good he looks and decide to begin their own workouts.

“I think that they see someone like myself and see I’m able to do it,” he said. “I’m still here. I’m not injured or anything like that. They think, ‘I can do this too.'”

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is easier than he originally thought.

“It’s not rocket science. Get off the couch. Cut off a snack,” he said.

Team member Jessica Tennant needed a special kind of energy to spend time extra with her 2-year-old son.

She said before the contest, she was sometimes exhausted when she got home from work.

“Doing the early morning workout kind of jump-starts your day,” she said. “I get to have more fun with my 2-year-old now.”

Though their goals have been met, she and the other team members have no plans to stop now. Tennant, in fact, spent Tuesday and Thursday mornings last week participating in a boot camp class at the wellness center.

“It was a very intense workout, but I feel I was very well prepared for it thanks to the Biggest Winner,” she said.

Setto said he plans to continue exercising and eating healthier foods, trading bags of potato chips for carrots and celery.

Team member Liz Rogers said she is planning to run a 5K, the Christmas Story House Run in Cleveland, Ohio, in December. She walked the race for two years, but this year she is training to run it.

“I could barely run a lap. Now I can run a mile,” she said.

One of her goals was to reduce her risk of heart disease. Her father died of a heart attack when he was in his 50s.

She said because the competition went beyond exercise, she hopes that her risk has been alleviated.

Carrots have become an important part of the contestants’ diets.

“I go through a lot of carrots,” Rogers said.

Team member Larry Butka, on the other hand, nearly went through a bottle of hot sauce trying to give his healthy food flavor.

It paid off for him. He lost 19 pounds.

“I never strayed. I didn’t have a Tic Tac. I didn’t have a Cheez-It,” he said. “When all this was over, I had a big ol’ steak. I had a loaded baked potato. I ordered an adult beverage. I had a good time this weekend.”

He and the other contestants said the hardest part of the competition was sticking to the diet.

“I miss french fries,” Rogers said.

But the process gave them a taste for healthier foods, like plain oatmeal and chickpeas.

“I’m a big chickpea proponent now,” DeAngelo said.

She said she had more trouble cutting salt from her diet than sugar.

“I could have hurt someone for some salt. I might have hurt someone for some salt,” she said, turning to her office mate, Mary Jo Spina. “Did I hurt you?”

DeAngelo is a vegetarian, but other team members said they introduced weekly seafood into their diets.

“I can’t really tell you the last time I had a piece of red meat,” Rogers said. “I don’t think I’ve had a burger since January.”

Each of the team members had weak days. But those were the days that their teammates were there to build them up.

DeAngelo said her weak point was at the midway mark.

“I just remember sitting in bed. Just sitting there,” she said. “It was like I had two voices talking to each other.”

She decided she could not let her team down and dragged herself to the gym.

“Everyone was always going through something. We had to do it for each other,” she said.

Boni said the cooperation of the team members stood out to her.

“Through the words and wisdom of their trainer and teammates, they always pushed through their barriers and came back stronger, physically and mentally, every day,” she wrote in an email.

She said the group became a family in six weeks, and she believes working out and supporting each other will continue.

DeAngelo said tears were shed on the last day, and all the aches and pains of the competition were worthwhile.

“I hope that people reading this and following us realize that they can do it. It’s totally worth it,” she said. “Every ice pack I had to put on my body, every Advil I had to take, every piece of tape I had to put on, it was worth it.”

Kelly Stanton was also a member of the OR6 team but declined to be interviewed for this story.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today