TAYLORVILLE — What the winner of a weight-shedding competition lost in pounds has helped a food pantry gain in a monetary donation.
The Taylorville Memorial Hospital Foundation has completed the 24th session of its Lose-to-Win Challenge (three previous sessions were under a different name), a 14-week program conducted three times a year.
The current challenge, from Sept. 7 to Dec. 14, had 118 participants who lost more than 748 pounds. The winner is determined by the percentage of weight lost.
The 24th session’s winner, Jerry Ippolito of Taylorville, donated his individual winnings of $300 to the Taylorville Ministerial Food Pantry.
Ippolito, 61, won the challenge with 18.89 percent of weight lost, going from 187 down to 152 pounds.
Now that Ippolito individually has won the challenge twice during separate sessions, he said he was determined to donate his current winnings.
“I felt kind of embarrassed about winning, so I donated all my individual winnings to the Taylorville food bank because I don’t think it’s right for somebody to win it twice and just make a living off of it, so to speak,” said Ippolito, who also was on team Cranberry (with Ed and Patti Ovca), which won in the team category of the 24th session.
An informational meeting will be held on the start date of the next Lose-to-Win Challenge at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Room 414 at Taylorville Memorial Hospital, 201 E. Pleasant St. Past participants have included residents of Taylorville, Morrisonville, Kincaid, Stonington, Riverton, Springfield, Decatur and Litchfield.
For more information, call 824-1840.
Janelle Cornell, dietitian and coordinator of the Lose-to-Win Challenge, said, “Signing up is as simple as showing up.”
'On their own'
The weight-loss incentive program started in 2008 when a group of Taylorville Memorial Hospital employees approached Cornell. The public eventually was allowed to participate, and later, the name “Lose-to-Win Challenge” was born.
Money collected from each challenge pays for the prize money. People new to the challenge pay $25; returnees pay $10. No specific diet plan or exercise plan is followed.
“They’re on their own. I discovered awhile back that a lot of people know what to do to lose weight. They just need a reason to do it,” Cornell said. “Part of this program kind of provides that reason, an incentive.”
Confidential weigh-ins are scheduled every other week on Wednesdays, with flexible times available between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Lose-to-Win also has a component in which participants donate food to area pantries, including those in Edinburg, Blue Mound and Mount Auburn. The last session collected about 354 pounds of food for the Taylorville Ministerial Food Pantry.
“They bring in food when they come in to weigh. It can be food that they purchased specifically, or if they’re trying to clean some of the stuff out of their closets since they know they shouldn’t be eating,” Cornell said. “One of the longtime members of the program suggested that a number of years ago, and we thought it wouldn’t be a bad thing to do.”
Food, money
The Taylorville Ministerial Food Pantry got Ippolito's $300, in addition to the food collected.
“I just donated it to the Taylorville food pantry because they’re always in need of money, especially this time of year,” Ippolito said. “I figured if I donated a dollar amount instead of canned goods, they could buy what they want.”
The Taylorville Ministerial Food Pantry, at Franklin and Webster streets, would also welcome the donation of a pallet jack as it plans its move to a new building to be constructed at 1429 E. Main Cross. Don Readhead, the pantry’s coordinator, said he hopes the new building will be up by February.
“Then we’ll be able to occupy it by, I say sometime in the spring,” Readhead said.
Ippolito said he gained weight the first of the four times he participated in the Lose-to-Win Challenge because “I wasn’t serious about it."
“Then the third challenge, there was another man that won, and I asked him, ‘Well, how did you win?’ So he kind of explained to me. So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll get in it again,’ because I was way overweight. At one point, I was 238 pounds, and I’m at like 160 now.”
Ippolito, who a few years ago won a challenge by going from 219 to about 154 pounds, used a combination of eating no more than 1,000 calories a day and walking about 3 to 4 miles daily. He said he'd like to maintain his weight between 159 and 163 pounds.
“I’ll just eat regular, try not to overdo it. If I gain a pound or two, I’ll cut back and try to stay where I am now,” Ippolito said. “Six years down the road, who knows what will happen. I might have to get in it again, but I’m hoping not to.”
— Contact Tamara Browning: tamara.browning@sj-r.com, 788-1534, http://twitter.com/tambrowningSJR.
