Christine Hoskins Pigott knew she had to focus more on improving her health after running around with her five-year-old son left her breathless.She signed up for the BF&M Bermuda 100 Day Challenge and ended up dropping 62.8lbs, while gaining a new lease on life to eat sensibly and exercise.The loss of 32 percent of her body weight put her in first place in the televised competition. Father-of-two Jamie Raynor finished second after dropping 89lbs (27.1 percent of his body weight); while Zalika Furbert came in third after losing 64lbs — approximately 23 percent of her body weight.The challenge saw a total of 24 weight loss hopefuls battle through diet programmes and exercise regimes to lose the most weight in a 14-week period.Each contestant had their own obstacles to overcome along the way. For Mrs Hoskins Pigott, who ended up twisting her ankle in the first week of running training, she had to find other creative ways to exercise at Sandys 360 gym.“I did something to the ligaments that resulted in me being quite restricted in what I could actually do by way of exercise,” she said.“So I spent the first eight weeks of the competition swimming laps every morning — that made a huge difference to my weight loss and fitness level.”Mrs Hoskins Pigott was also encouraged by one of the judges to stay away from high calorie drinks like Prosecco. There were a couple of times when she “very nearly strayed”, but the lawyer was determined to keep her end of the bargain.She is just a few pounds shy of her ideal weight and plans to continue training to run in the upcoming Appleby Bermuda Half Marathon Derby.The cherry on the cake is that she can now keep up with her energetic son.Mr Raynor said he was similarly motivated by his sport-loving sons to drop some weight and live a healthier life.When the competition started, he tipped the scale at 328.4lbs and said the weight was holding him back from being the role model he wanted for six-year-old Qur’an and two-year-old Drake.In his younger years he participated in all kinds of sporting activities — from football, cricket and basketball to motocross.But after going overseas for school he started relying heavily on fast foods and admitted “it was just a downward spiral from there”.He recently decided to change his life and said the hardest part of the challenge was adapting to a new diet.“I couldn’t eat what I wanted and when I was hungry I couldn’t just go into a shop and pick up food like a bag of chips, little Snickers bar or M&Ms. I always had to prepare it beforehand.“For me the main thing was sticking to the diet, and maybe I might have a little cheat here or there, but you do the best you can. Mainly I stuck with chicken and broccoli and ate a lot of egg whites.”It took Mr Raynor about a month before he began to see results and felt motivated to push himself further.The 28-year-old said it was encouraging when members of the public would see him out exercising and cheer him on. “That really lifted my spirits and was motivation to keep going and just keep on the journey,” he said.He told The Royal Gazette he was proud to lose more than his original goal of 50lbs, but admitted the work is not over.“It’s just the start and beginning to the rest of my life,” he explained. “It was just a jump start and I learned a few things about how to train, exercise and eat healthy foods and maybe I can share [that advice] with my family.”He wanted to send a special thanks to the competition sponsors, family for their support and his trainer Sandys 360’s Dawn Berry for pushing him. “When I thought I couldn’t do any more laps, crunches or push-ups, she was always right there in my ear. She’s a great motivator,” Mr Raynor added.Ms Furbert was inspired to take part in the challenge after seeing how it changed the life of her co-worker Esther Bascome last year.She also wanted to better her health for the sake of her 12-year-old daughter, Zahria.Ms Furbert said: “My daughter’s father doesn’t really play a role in her life and she just basically has me and her grandparents so I want to be around for her.“I didn’t want my health to become the deciding factor or to have more serious health problems develop further down the line.”She committed herself wholly to the programme, which meant waking up at 5am several days a week to get in workouts.The key to her success was planning her meals in advance and writing down everything she ate. On Sundays she would prepare most of her meals for the week, so when she arrived home tired from work she wasn’t tempted to grab snack food items.Exercising is now an important part of her daily regime — she even feels “off” when she misses a workout — and her energy level is at an all-time high.She admitted to being both excited and proud at her progress. “There were people who were eliminated or quit and I’m proud of myself for making the commitment and staying through to the end.“The reaction from people has been surprising and I wasn’t prepared for that. I posted a picture of myself on Facebook and I wasn’t expecting the level of support and [positive] reaction from people.“It just makes you even more proud. You just need to do it and make the commitment and not be afraid to fail. You are not going to be perfect, but the trick is to start the next day fresh and focus on your eating and exercise again.”