Workers lose weight, save city $131k

FERNDALE, Michigan (AP):Ounce by ounce, 30 Ferndale city workers began to change their lives one year ago.

Today, they are 1,052 pounds lighter, and they're saving the city big bucks, an estimated $131,000 this year alone, in health-care costs, according to the Detroit Free Press.

City Clerk Cherilynn Brown dropped 17 pounds and no longer has knee pain that kept her from doing the things she loves. Now that she's at her goal weight, she was able to go biking pain-free with her son on a recent vacation.

Ferndale Police Detective John Thul lost almost 60 pounds and doesn't worry that he's going to have a stroke or aneurysm because of unmanageably high blood pressure.

"I work out about an hour and a half every day. I am actually stronger and fitter now than when I went to the police academy," he says.

Cecile Thompson, an accountant for the city, shed 99 pounds, going from a size 20 to a size 12. She doesn't have to shop in plus-size stores anymore to find clothes that fit.

Although she looks like a different person compared with photos from a year ago, it's arguably Cecile's husband, Bob Thompson, who is most transformed.

At 279 pounds, he was on oxygen and was recovering from two prior heart attacks and a stroke when he signed up for the city-sponsored Weight Watchers at Work programme in September 2012.

Now, he's 34 pounds lighter and no longer needs an oxygen tank to breathe. He doesn't need as much blood pressure medication, and is hopeful he can drop his cholesterol medicine in the near future.