Airmen compete in base Slimpossible challenge

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class JaNae Capuno
  • 366th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho --  The New Year is a chance for people to hit the restart button on goals that they weren’t able to accomplish last year. For one Mountain Home Airman, improving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is their goal, and they are ready for the long road ahead.

Senior Airman Joseph Amador, 366th Fighter Wing Judge Advocate military justice paralegal, is competing in Slimpossible, a contest organized by the 366th Force Support Squadron fitness center.

The Slimpossible challenge motivates Gunfighters to maintain good eating habits and structured workouts throughout the months of January and February.

“Slimpossible is something to get people active and make people feel better about themselves,” said Senior Airman Briana Lampkin, 366th Force Support Squadron fitness center journeyman and event coordinator. “We only take down their initial weight and muscle mass.”

The contest is organized to be self-paced, and the winners will receive prizes that will be determined by the end of the challenge.

“We didn’t want to make this challenge too strict,” Lampkin said. “Everybody is different, one diet or workout doesn’t fit everyone’s needs. We wanted to make it self-paced and self-motivated to help people get into their own healthy habits.”

The challenge has helped Amador manage his workout habits by introducing the Bod Pod, a machine that tells the participant an accurate body mass index and how many calories they have burned throughout the day.

“The Bod Pod helps puts things into perspective for me,” Amador said. “It gives me a better picture of what I need to be doing throughout the day to meet my goals.”

To meet his daily objectives, Amador monitors his calorie intake by paying attention to the nutrition labels on what he eats.

“One of the biggest and eye-opening discoveries that I’ve had during this journey is sugar intake,” Amador said. “I pay attention to how many grams of sugar there is in a serving. For example, one can of soda has approximately 40 grams of sugar. For a mental image, that’s 40 sugar cubes inside of one can.”

Lampkin wants to help contestants like Amador maintain the lifestyle they are gaining from the competition.

“Knowing that they can get the self-satisfaction of completing their goals will help them lead a healthier life,” Lampkin said. “A healthy life is a happy life.”