Elgin High staffers lose 401 pounds in two months

It's the time of year when many of us seem to be packing on pounds, not shedding them.

But 34 members of Elgin High School's staff have collectively lost 401 pounds in the past two months.

Physical education teacher Donna Streit, who has experience as a personal trainer, organized a "Biggest Loser"-like challenge for the school.

"I was sitting in a staff meeting in October, and we were kind of beaten down by test scores, budget cuts. I thought, 'What can I do?" she said.

Streit sent out an e-mail to staffers to see if they might be interested in a physical fitness challenge.

The women, whose ages range from 24 to 61, were divided into six teams, and began working out together three to four days a week after school.

"We were inside, and (all the student teams) are using the facilities for practice. So we used everything from towels to jump ropes to our own body weight," Streit said.

The first workout, Streit said, lasted 45 minutes. Last week, it was up to 75 minutes.

"We're talking 40-, 50-, 60-year-olds. The things they're doing, I don't think they ever thought they could do," Streit said.

Helen Harris, a counselor at the school, lost 20 pounds after struggling for years to lose five.

Streit, she said, "would work our buns. She would push us, but her positive encouragement is what kept us going."

Like Harris, school secretary Debbie Dillon said the moral support helped her to finally lose 14 pounds after struggling for a number of years. "It's the accountability," she said.

Each Wednesday morning, Harris said, "we'd go down the dreaded hall, go into a dark gym and turn the corner to get on the scale."

The biggest amount of weight lost by a woman in the program, Streit said, was 22 pounds.

The program was originally scheduled to end when the school went on winter break. However, an extra month of training will begin when school starts up again in early January.

"Wouldn't it be neat if we could get to 500 pounds?" Dillon said.