Mechanic James “Jason” Garvin’s commitment to health has led to a far brighter future for him and his son, and an impressive winning score of 165,412 total steps for the 2024 MPW Walking Challenge. “It’s amazing how much better I feel. I didn’t realize how little energy I had back then,” he said. “I’m purposefully walking up hills. I didn’t do that before; I didn’t want to walk anywhere except the fridge.”
Garvin said he was aware for a long time that his health was in question. He generally ignored any warning signs until he was sent for his Department of Transportation physical. “I failed miserably,” he said. Garvin knew right then he needed to make some drastic changes. He cut sugar from his diet and began regularly walking on a treadmill.
After the treadmill became boring, Garvin began walking outside. It wasn’t long before he was up to nine miles per day. “Part of my motivation was to stay healthy for my son,” who often joins him on walks and bike rides. Since October, Garvin has lost roughly 90 pounds.
“I kind of feel like I have MPW to owe for that,” Garvin said. “I knew I was heavy, but I didn’t realize I was as bad off as I was. I’m glad they brought to my attention that I needed to make that change.” He tries to walk 20,000 steps per day at minimum, and freely admits some evenings he gets home and the last thing he wants to do is leave the house again to walk, but he sticks with it.
Another motivator for Garvin is Geocaching—a global outdoor activity where participants use GPS or an app to find hidden containers called geocaches. He said it requires a lot of walking and he really enjoys joining his son for the search.
“I pushed myself during the Walking Challenge to get better numbers because I was competing, and I liked that,” Garvin said. “I had no idea I’d win. I wish it were an on-going thing.”
Coming in a close second was Material Planner Kayla Hutchinson with 162,488 steps. She strongly exceeded her goal of 150,000 steps for this year’s challenge. “Motivation is the keyword,” she said.
Hutchinson’s personal weight loss journey began in January with a goal of 15,000 steps per day, which she doubled during the 2024 Walking Challenge.
“Some days I struggled but since I was already aiming for a daily goal it wasn’t much different from my day-to-day,” Hutchinson said, adding that she’s halfway to the weight loss goal she set for herself at the beginning of the year.
Technician Adam Detty came in third place with 136,443 steps. Collectively, the 38 active participants in the 2024 Walking Challenge walked a total of 2,616,749 steps for the week of May 13 through 17.