Jan 19, 2020 6 min read

The ninth annual Biggest Winner competition kicks off this week at Wilfred R. Cameron Wellness Center with 12 teams competing for the title, and the Observer-Reporter is fielding a reader team for the fifth consecutive year.

In addition to working out four days a week for seven weeks with a personal trainer, competitors will undergo regular weigh-ins, physical assessments including a body fat analysis and blood pressure screenings as well as counseling with a dietician. They also get to pick one of four optional add-ons: a cholesterol screening, resting metabolic rate test, 25-minute massage or stress management class.

The teams will be vying to win one month of membership at the wellness center and a spa day from the center’s Spa Harmony. In addition, the Biggest Winner from each team will receive free training classes in April. The O-R team winner will receive a one-year membership to the wellness center. Winners will be determined through a combination of total percentage of body fat lost and participation points.

Tyler Weyers, exercise physiologist at the wellness center, is leading the O-R team, whose members range in age 16 to 56.

“I don’t think anybody else has an idea what they’re in store for,” Weyers said last week. “We’re gonna have a lot of fun.”

Weyers has a two-part plan starting with three weeks of “onboarding.”

“We don’t want anybody to be so sore that they don’t come back,” Weyers said. “Workouts will combine cardio and weightlifting because building muscle mass helps to increase metabolism.”

He will gradually increase the movement quality before the final push, he said.

“The last four weeks we can really ramp up the process and really kind of focus on nailing down that fat loss goal,” he said.

The youngest member of the O-R’s Biggest Winner team is Taylor Crouse, 16, of Claysville. The McGuffey High School junior is competing alongside her mother, April, who already has lost 75 pounds over the past year by following Weight Watchers and starting cardio workouts. Taylor, too, has dropped 40 pounds in the past year by counting calories and starting to walk and run.

“I saw my mom losing so much weight, and I wanted to lose weight, and then I kind of started trying. I feel like all my clothes feel better and look better definitely,” she said.

As for her mother, who works at the scale house for Waste Management: “I needed other options. Getting the trainer and getting healthier is why I wanted to do it. This will be a whole new thing, a whole new world.”

Deana Wheeler, 49, lives in the South Hills and is the event marketing manager at Washington City Mission.

“I’ve thought about it for the past two years,” she said, “and I just decided I’m going to be 50 this year, and it’s time.”

She said she knows what she’s in for with the commitment to exercise and diet, but she’s ready.

“I’ve spent a good amount mentally preparing for this and the last week-and-a-half saying goodbye to some very special foods,” she said.

Wheeler said she used to work out regularly and lost 70 pounds at one point.

“And then, you know, I got married and had kids, and it creeps back a little every year,” she said. “I’m just looking forward to solidifying a life change and being a new person.”

Joseph “Jody” Fleming, 37, of Fredericktown, is a certified orthotics fitter and athletic trainer at the Hanger Clinic in Washington. The husband and father of two young sons said his family is his inspiration.

“My mom passed,” Fleming said. “She was only 57, so that was an eye-opener.” He has worked with a nutritionist in the past and lost 50 pounds, but has since regained some of the weight.

“With me having two young kids, I don’t want for them to grow up without me,” he said. “So, it’s more for them than myself, but it’s a good excuse to do so.”

He admits his big downfall is his love of craft beer, which he realizes will not be on the menu during the contest.

“I’ve already told myself that for the seven weeks, there is no alcohol,” he said. “That’s a good start.”

The final two members of the team are also O-R employees. Regina Stefan, 56, human resources/payroll coordinator at the newspaper, is getting ready for her daughter’s wedding this summer.

“I always used to exercise three to four times a week,” she said, “but the past three years it’s just kind of fallen off the radar. I don’t like the way I feel. I don’t like the way I look. With my daughter getting married in June and trying on dresses, I’m like, ‘oh, everything’s falling,'” Stefan said with a laugh.

She heard other staff members talk about competing in previous years and thought it might be her time.

“When they asked me if I would want to do it, I’m like, ‘yeah, I really do want to do this,'” she said.

Trista Thurston, 25, of North Strabane, digital operations director for the O-R, is preparing for her own wedding in October.

“That date is literally staring me in the face, and I really want to feel confident,” she said. “I don’t want to have to be in my own head on that day and think about does my chin look ridiculous? Can people see my love handles?”

She doesn’t have a certain goal in mind as far as weight loss, but wants to improve her health and appearance overall. She said she has shied away from working out because of her asthma.

“I’ve had asthma my entire life,” Thurston said, “so I’ve always stayed away from exercising just because I thought I can’t breathe, so why would I even try?”

She has workout videos and games, but said she lacks input on whether she’s doing them properly.

“You don’t have someone there that’s actually knowledgeable about the form,” she said, “so I’m always conscious like something doesn’t feel right.”

She’s looking forward to direction from the team’s trainer and getting motivation from teammates.

“I’m really motivated by peer pressure,” she said.