How Elgin woman, dog teamed up for winning weight loss
Elaina Jerome of Elgin knew she wasn't going to lose weight alone.
Her boyfriend, Mike Brockway, was going to join her and they'd shed pounds together.
What Jerome didn't know, until she saw a Facebook post advertising a quirky contest sponsored by a Naperville pet shop, was that her dogs would become part of the team, too.
But when Jerome joined Two Bostons Pet Boutique's Lose Pounds with your Hounds contest with her 3-year-old beagle-terrier mix Rosie, she went all-in.
“I was already in the process of trying to lose weight, so I figured why not enter and see if I could win,” said Jerome, a 26-year-old veterinary technician at VCA Aurora Animal Hospital. “I liked the idea of being able to involve your pets. Pets are a huge part of my life. Being able to do it with my dogs is huge for me.”
Jerome and Rosie lost a combined 10 percent of their body weight during the six-week contest that concluded in July to become the winner among roughly 30 contestants, said AdreAnne Tesene, owner of Two Bostons.
“Her excitement for the whole process was amazing,” Tesene said about Jerome. “She's been on this journey to become healthier and she was just ecstatic with becoming the winner, and we are just extremely proud of her.”
Second place went to Brockway, 29, who competed with another of Jerome's three dogs, a beagle-terrier mix named Wally. Their weight-loss total of 8.6 percent wasn't far behind.
But as the winners, Jerome and Rosie gained bragging rights over their companions and a free six-month supply of dog food from Two Bostons.
Getting slimmer was a two-part effort for Jerome, beginning in March, when she weighed 233 pounds at 5 feet, 5 inches tall. She set a goal weight of 130 pounds and already had lost 25 or 30 by the time she weighed in for the contest at Two Bostons first Pet Wellness Fair in June.
The two prongs of her weight-loss work are the classics: healthier eating and more exercise.
“I premake all my lunches for the week so I'm not tempted to go out for fast food. I avoid a lot of processed foods,” Jerome said. “It's lean meats, vegetables, whole grains, brown rice.”
Rosie, who weighs 21 pounds now, didn't need a new diet. Jerome rotates her meals between several brands of dog food, and these days she's eating a variety from Whole Earth Farms.
“She really didn't have that much to lose,” Jerome said about her canine teammate. “I kept the food the same but just tried to get her moving around more with me.”
That meant more trips to Bode Lake forest preserve near Streamwood or to the dog park at James O. Breen Community Park in St. Charles, where Jerome typically would “hang out and sit around at picnic tables” before Lose Pounds with your Hounds motivated her to get moving.
“I would walk laps around the dog park the entire time and they would run with me,” she said about her doggy workout partners, Rosie, Wally and her third pet, a schnauzer mix named Champ.
Jerome's lifestyle changes have played out exactly how Tesene hoped they would for contest participants.
“The basic idea is that we want pets and people to be healthy together. The healthier the pet is, the longer they're going to be with the person,” Tesene said. “If the people are active, their dogs are going to get more walks. In turn, it's going be a healthier relationship for everyone.”
Jerome and Brockway are noticing improved health and significant weight loss, with Jerome down 56 pounds and Brockway 66 pounds lighter. More than halfway to her goal, Jerome says she's prepared to stay the course, keeping her body in motion and her pups by her side.
“Any time extra that I can spend with them,” she said, “I like to do.”