Esther Bascome dropped 54.6lbs and gained health and vitality in the 100-Day Challenge.The loss put her in third place at the end of the competition, which was televised over six weeks.When she started she had high blood pressure, but has been taken off medication thanks to her new-found fitness.“My blood pressure is doing a lot better,” she said. “I was on a mild blood pressure pill but now the doctor has taken me off of it. He said he would do it if I could prove to him that I would keep my blood pressure steady. My sugar was always fluctuating. I said ‘trust me’. It has been good since he took me off. I have to get it checked regularly, but I am not going back there again.”The HWP customer service representative was trained by Dawn Berry at Sandys 360 gym. Ms Berry also trained 100-Day Challenge first place winner Molessia Joyiens and second place winner Terry Smith. Mrs Bascome said there was no messing around with Ms Berry.“She was really tough. She also came to my office and questioned my colleagues about whether I was doing what I was supposed to. She also called us if we missed a training session at the gym.”Mrs Bascome exercised three times a day. Lunch-time power walks were the norm as were weight training classes and runs with her 100-Day Challenge team.“Now the challenge will be to keep the weight off,” she said. “Now that the challenge is over I will keep exercising, but it won’t be doing it three times a day anymore.”At the beginning of the competition Mrs Bascome confessed a weakness for Klondike Bars, full of chocolate, fat and sugar.She has since discovered the wonder of salads.“My salads are nice and full with fat-free dressing,” she said. “I look forward to eating them.”Mrs Bascome is still discovering how to incorporate her new-found fitness into her everyday life. When she spoke with The Royal Gazette she had just finished a long walk and she planned to head off to a weight training class that evening.She is looking forward to a new wardrobe as, having lost 24.6 percent of her body weight, she has dropped from a 22 dress size to a 14.“So far, everybody has been giving me things,” she said.She thanked HWP for being supportive of her endeavour to lose weight and become fit and healthy.First place winner Ms Joyiens is the founder of Syncairly Yours, a charity that helps premature babies and their families. She lost 60.8lbs pounds and dropped ten dress sizes in the process.“It was challenging,” said the 43-year-old. “I guess that is why they call it the 100-Day Challenge. It was inviting and invigorating for me. I believe I was born to be athletic and I let that slide in my life.”She won awards as a long and middle-distance runner as a child, Ms Joyiens explained. She said she was derailed from the athletic track her life had been on with the birth of her three children now 19, 21 and 24.“To be able to become fit again through this challenge has inspired me inwardly,” she said. “It is an inward challenge rather than an outward challenge. It was about the iron spirit that needed to rise up in me.”Her daughter, Angelica Smith, was a competitor in the 100-Day Challenge last year but was eliminated. She inspired her mom to join.“She was eliminated because she gave up,” said Ms Joyiens. “I think that was the main reason for me coming to it. I was disappointed in her giving up. I said next year I will go into it just to show her the spirit of being tenacious and accomplishing things you want to do.”Her ultimate goal is to run the May 24 half-marathon next year.Mr Smith came second after losing 62lbs and 23.9 percent of his body weight.“Now that the challenge is over I am going back to weight training to get myself back up muscle-wise,” he said. “I joined primarily to lose weight and get my body fat down, so that I could go right into pumping up and getting bigger for the competition. It was nice to go to the gym after the competition ended and just work out without worrying about whether I was going to win or whether I was losing enough weight.”This summer he hopes to offer fitness classes at Sandys 360 gym to first-timers.“A lot of people don’t feel comfortable when they first go to a gym,” he said. “They aren’t feeling their best about their bodies and they see all these people at the gym who are looking their best. They might not realise that a lot of those people at the gym started out like them.”His original goal was to drop 52lbs. When he saw 62.4lbs on the scale at the final weigh-in, it was a very emotional moment.“This event is very consuming,” he said.The competition’s final episodes run June 5 and 7 at 8pm on ZBM.