Challenge Accepted: Rosholt woman shares journey to better health
By Olivia De Valk
STEVENS POINT – Pam Holbrook, of Rosholt, wasn’t sure what to expect when she joined D1 Training’s 2021 Weight Loss Challenge. When the challenge began back in January, Holbrook was living with the pain and limited mobility of four major orthopedic surgeries and she was concerned she had just joined a gym for body builders.
“I felt like it was for everybody but me,” Holbrook said.
The challenge began in January and ran for 10 weeks. This was D1’s third year hosting this winter weight loss challenge. Participants can choose between competing to earn points and competing to lose the highest percentage of body fat.
The top three people in each category receive a prize – for the person who loses the highest percent of body fat that price is $500 cash.
For Kevin Kirschbaum, co-owner, D1 Training is a place for everybody and the Weight Loss Challenge is about more than helping participants drop a few pounds.
“We just feel there’s a lot more to it than weight loss, given 10 weeks time you can really build some healthy and sustainable habits,” Kirschbaum said.
And that’s exactly what the Team at D1 does – helps participants build healthy habits that they can carry into the rest of the year. Each week participants were challenged in a new way – to share a recipe, to drink more water, to find a creative way to swap simple carbs out of their meals.
“Our job as coaches is to motivate and inspire and encourage our members here. What comes out of that is that the members do that with each other; encouraging each other to push a little harder, keep working and achieve their goals,” Kirschbaum said.
The challenge came to an end on March 19, when participants did their final weigh in. Holbrook lost 7.64 percent of her body weight and came in third place.
But the benefits go far beyond the weight loss.
“I would say the biggest thing is definitely sleeping better,” Holbrook said. “I have little to no pain, compared to all-over body pain before, everything seemed to ache.”
Holbrook’s lab results also showed her cholesterol level was back in normal range, as well as her white blood cell count, and improved kidney function.
Challenge members were all part of a Facebook group where they shared their challenges, successes, and quite a few inside jokes.
At the end of the challenge, Holbrook shared the results of her blood work on the Facebook page and got an outpouring of thanks for her encouragement and positive attitude.
“The whole time I thought that they were encouraging me but they absolutely were . . . little did I know, I guess my words of encouragement were benefiting them,” Holbrook said. “You could see here that everybody really cared about each other which is amazing. I just didn’t expect that to take place.”