Plumbing problems and the normal daily stresses threatened to derail his third week on the Live Healthy Bermuda 100 Day Challenge.

For a couple of nights the treadmill was still as he tried to fix the water in his house.

But still David Paynter, the paper's weekly Challenge columnist, has overcome these stresses with a salad bar at work and support from the community, which he can thank for fitting into pants two sizes smaller than those he was wearing when he started.

David, who is a father of eight-year-old Alyssa, said he couldn't believe the pants he bought just before Christmas as a pipe dream were now the only pants he could wear without looking like a baggy-pant teenager.

He said: "I haven't been as good working out and I haven't got as many workouts in.

"But eating still hasn't been bad. I went out with friends one night, but I didn't do too bad.

"I've lost 16 pounds now so it's still in the right direction. It's slowed up a little but I've been doing less working out.

"I am getting to the point where you notice a change in the clothing.

"I was away at Christmas and purchased clothing two sizes too small because I knew I was going to start some sort of plan. Now I am wearing them. I've gone down two sizes."

It's gotten to the point where he actually had to cut his belt at work so it would fit his new pants.

His colleagues at Great Things, furniture store, have done more than help with his attire.

Each day, now, salads are on the menu as one of them will go to the supermarket to load up on options and each can then create their own.

Many days it's David doing the salad run, which he says has introduced him to foods he never would have eaten before, like grilled artichoke.

He said: "We have really nice salads and I'm finding vegetables I couldn't remember what they tasted like.

"Even the other night we had Mediterranean vegetables and they tasted so good I couldn't believe they were vegetables."