Heartfelt Team Lean Weight Loss Challenge Testimonial

This email has been in process in my mind for weeks now, but I wanted to finally get it down in print while the Team Lean Challenge is still in process.

I’ll begin by saying that the Challenge has been life changing for me personally and for the ladies with whom I work out at Healthy Way.  Thank you to you and to Bon Secours for making such a program available to us as Bon Secours Hampton Roads employees.  This offering by BSHR is indeed cutting edge, as the recent article on the front page of the Virginian-Pilot indicates! Companies are recognizing the need to help their employees practice good self-care as well as the benefits to the companies themselves of healthier, happier workers.

Although I was intrigued by the competition side of the Team Lean Challenge, I was most thrilled at the opportunity to have access to and encouragement from a nutritionist and from trainers who could guide me through the mazes of healthy eating and complicated-looking exercise equipment. As a 61-year old woman carrying way too much weight, I was ready for the challenge and also hopeful for a positive lifestyle change that I would be able to maintain past the end of the program.

I am grateful to my managers in the Spiritual Care Department for helping me to arrange my work schedule to accommodate my new commitment to physical wellness.  Because of them, I was able to average probably four times a week at Healthy Way.  I have lost over twenty pounds and still have two more weeks of the challenge to go!  I am happier, stronger, more energetic–and more productive at work, I am sure, due to the higher energy and endorphin levels!

Although I am fairly knowledgeable about diet and nutrition information, Healthy Way’s nutritionist Judy Mitnick helped all the facts I know come to life with helpful conversations about things such as “breaking the chain” when I might find myself headed for a binge or to stop my “all or nothing” attitude toward eating which, before, could have me binging all day if I over-indulged at lunch.

And the In Motion trainers.. Wow.  I cannot say enough about how wonderful they ALL have been to those of us participating in the Challenge. Wyle, Emily, and Ryan have been amazing in helping us to strengthen our bodies in ways they may never have been before!!  I can imagine that it wasn’t easy for them to fit our workout sessions into their already-busy schedules.  But they never complained and always seemed happy to see us. They greeted us by name and found ways to adapt the exercises to our individual fitness levels and aches-and-pains.  They encouraged and pushed us to “finish strong” and to work to our own fitness potential.  My success in the program is do to my own hard work, yes, but that hard work was most certainly inspired by the excellent staff at Healthy Way. I cannot put into words how very grateful I am!

I understand that conversations are being had about offering the graduates of this Team Lean Challenge pilot program, at least at the Healthy Way facility, a way to continue this positive relationship we have with our trainers. Most of us still have a good ways to go to get to a healthy weight and BMI.  The rest want to maintain their level of fitness. The accountability factor and encouragement that the trainers give are crucial, I believe, in helping us to stay on the right path. Please know that I am happy to be a spokesman on behalf of the program as well as the need to offer the graduates some sort of “after care” opportunity. […]

If I knew the names and email addresses of your up-line, I would have CC-ed them into this email.  Please feel free to use all or part of it as you try to let your supervisors know how we participants feel about the Challenge and those encouraging us along the way!

Thank you for all that you have poured into this Team Lean Challenge program, from conception, to carrying out the informative webinars, to keeping up with our weight-loss percentages, to doling out awesome incentive prizes to the bi-weekly winners.  We at Bon Secours Hampton Roads are blessed to have you on our team!

With great gratitude,

Chaplain Robyn Ruth

DePaul Spiritual Care Department