Pounds lost in contest are Unalaska cook's gain
Woman motivated by fear of diabetes, health problems, pain
ANCHORAGE - If Unalaska's Biggest Winner was a high school graduating class, Linda Lekanof would surely have been voted least likely to succeed.
As a cook at the high school, Lekanof helps prepare about 800 breakfasts and lunches each day for hungry students. Daily, she stares down heaps of hash browns, bales of bacon, mounds of muffins, pounds of pudding and piles of pepperoni pizza.
Then there are all the special events the school caters - sports tournaments, award ceremonies, receptions, band concerts. Not to mention whipping up a family dinner - after her day job and before her night job as a security guard for Oonalaska Corp.
And she still won Unalaska's Biggest Winner, a weight-loss contest hosted by the Oonalaska Wellness Center that drained a total 571 pounds from the community over the past year.
The winner was determined by the total percentage of body weight lost (total pounds lost divided by beginning weight), not pounds lost. It was a close contest between Lekanof, Ishtar Hogsett and Rebecca Flanagan, said coordinator Char Gisvold.
Lekanof walked off with the grand prize - a Hawaiian vacation courtesy of Northern Mechanical - after dropping 32.85 percent of her beginning body weight. Hogsett lost 28.99 percent and Flanagan, 26.78 percent.
Flanagan's name was picked in the cash drawing, and she took away a cool $1,000 from the Feb. 27 fete at the Grand Aleutian.
Initially, Lekanof was motivated by fear of diabetes and other health problems, and pain.
"I knew I needed to lose weight, I felt it and I saw it," she said one recent morning while preparing lunch for 400. "My legs and hips and ankles and knees were really hurting."
She signed up for the contest on the last day of registration in January 2009. She was packing 207 pounds on her 5-foot, 2-inch frame.
"And even then, I gained 10 pounds before I got serious," she recalled.
The contest is self-directed. There is no prescribed diet or exercise plan. Contestants might never even meet each other, because they weigh in monthly during business hours at several locations.
But Lekanof trod her own path to success.
"I just cut down the fat and bad stuff," she said. "I reduced calories and became more active. It works."
Now, she's a fan of sugar-free, fat-free and low-fat everything; ham wrapped in lettuce and big salads topped with every fresh vegetable you can think of and hardboiled eggs - whites only, of course. And frequent snacks.
"I found out I do like healthy food. I try to eat fresh. And I never let myself get hungry. That's one thing I used to do when I failed" at other diets.
She got support all year long from her family and fellow exercisers at the PCR.
"What really helped me was going to Zumba class," she said. "Those people really motivated me."
Lekanof said her husband, Nick Lekanof, freed her to concentrate on her personal goal.
"In all our time together, he never once had anything negative to say about my weight."
Her kids, Nicholai, 27, and Jana, 22, patted her on the back verbally.
It wasn't always easy. Even though she never felt truly hungry, she sometimes felt deprived.
"When I'd go off my program, it was really hard to get back on," she said. "But I've learned more about dieting than I ever have before. I know what works for me."
One thing that worked was the contest prizes.
"I wanted to win those prizes, they were really great."
Each month of the contest, a new prize was added to all the previous prizes - gift cards for massages, baskets of fresh produce, lunch at Amelia's, free passes to the PCR gym - and given to the person who lost the most since the last weigh-in.
"This couldn't have been done without our donors, without their incentives," said Susan Lynch, who solicited all the goodies. "It was a focus to keep us going and weigh in every month, because you were going to get something sweet."
Lynch lost more than 50 pounds during the year. She's committed to the 2010 contest, despite an imminent move with her family to Texas.
"It's a really, really good program. I'm going to do it again, I'll be gone for the (monthly) weigh-ins, but I'll fly back for the final."
All are invited to the next contest, which starts officially on March 15. But registration is open until April 15, Gisvold said.
Hogsett said the experience taught her that she can do anything she puts her mind to.
She used a free online program to track calories. She began journaling to help her discover why she gained the weight in the first place. She tossed processed food out of her cupboards, and figured out how to balance protein and carbohydrates in her diet.
"I became keenly aware of what I eat, and what it does to my body," she said.
She exercised three times a week, and weighed in monthly to keep on track.
Still, there were times when she slipped up.
"The difference is, I learned to forgive myself and do something about it, instead of beating myself up."
Now that Lekanof has traded in her size 22 jeans for a svelte size 8, she's working to maintain her weight in the 130-range, a number she hadn't seen on the scale for 25 years. She could stand to lose another 10 pounds, so she'll weigh in on March 15. She'll be taking her fabulous self off to Hawaii in May, after school closes for the summer.
"All the planets aligned for me, the motivation, those prizes, it's unbelievable," she said.