The 16-Week Cliffs Wellness Program came to a close May 4 with American Junior Golf Association staff members now living with healthy habits and losing a total of 385 pounds!
The program, sponsored by The Cliffs Communities, challenged the AJGA to eat two servings of fruits and vegetables, drink 48 ounces of water and sleep seven hours at night, five days each week. They also had to either exercise for 20 minutes or walk 10,000 steps (approximately five miles) those five days. This new healthy initiative transformed the lives of numerous staff members.
The program was broken up into two components: a healthy living initiative and a weight loss initiative. In the healthy living initiative, staff members could earn a possible 25 points each week for complying with the guidelines listed above. In the weight loss initiative, staff members consulted with a personal trainer and set a weight goal for the program. Staff members ran the gamut with many trying to lose weight, others trying to gain weight, and the rest maintaining their current weight.
Chief Operations Officer Mark Oskarson was “The Biggest Loser.” Through his hard work and dedication to the program, Mark lost 30 pounds! In addition to his amazing transformation, Mark also made honorable mention in his wellness points. He missed receiving his full 25 points each week after undersleeping by a half hour one day. Runners-up in the “Biggest Loser” category were Mary Ann Cowgur, Chris Larson, Matt Larson and Roseanna Smith.
The Oskarson household certainly took to heart the Cliffs Wellness Program. Tonya Oskarson, director of corporate communications, was an overall winner, reaching 25 points for all 16 weeks of the program! Joining Tonya in the overall winner category were Mary Ann Cowgur, Stephen Hamblin, Roseanna Smith, Jodi Arnold, Jeremy Rider and Jonah Beck.
James Kraszeski, AJGA property manager, was the first staff member to reach 1 million steps, as counted by his Cliffs pedometer. It took James about 10 weeks to meet this goal, but he showed everyone that it was possible!
Team Pick It, Kill It, Eat It (or PKE for short) was named the winner in the team division. Collectively, the team lost 102.5 pounds, had eight people with perfect weight points and two people with perfect wellness points! The team was led by captain Jason Ross and administrator Kristi Dumas. Stephen Hamblin, Darren Nelson, Larry Berroya, John Dolan, Beth Dockter, Jason Etzen, Mary Ann Cowgur and Matt Larson combined to form the remainder of the team.
This exciting new program was a great way to bring a healthy and active lifestyle to an already vibrant work environment. With a summer of busy traveling ahead for much of the staff, hopefully these new changes will remain a part of everyone’s busy routine!