Employee Loses 100 Pounds Within Weight Loss Competition, Awarded Goal of First Skydive

PEORIA, Ariz. - To achieve a goal, one is oftentimes advised to set an incentive to gain once the goal is reached. Recently, a local resident, D'Artagnan Lopez, a fitness technician with Innovative Senior Care(SM), hit a weight loss goal to be able to make his goal of skydiving.


Lopez lost 100 pounds through his weight loss journey, which has been ongoing for the last eight months. He participated in a recent employer-sponsored wellness and weight loss competition at Freedom Plaza Peoria, a Brookdale Senior Living continuing care retirement community in Peoria, which motivated him to shave off the remaining pounds.

During the Brookdale Weigh, the wellness and weight loss competition, participants lost more than 30,000 pounds and more than 3 percent of total body weight through the first-ever employer-sponsored 12-week competition. Out of 35,000 employees, 4,000 actively participated within 1,224 teams at about 400 offices/communities nationwide.

Lopez's goal and incentive after losing 100 pounds is to make the weight requirement to skydive. Having achieved this goal, Brookdale was pleased to award this dream to him.

On Thursday, Aug. 13, Lopez proudly plunged 13,000 feet from an airplane and was in freefall for 60 seconds.

"It was a pure rush," said Lopez. "This is a day I will remember for a long time."

"D'Artagnan is a shining example of living an Optimum Life. He set a goal, then worked hard to achieve it," said Sara Terry, vice president of Optimum Life for Brookdale Senior Living. "He is now embracing one of our company's cornerstones, 'Have fun and celebrate life every day,' by rewarding himself for his commitment to wellness. We are honored to be a part of this experience, and wish the best for D'Artagnan."

Brookdale's Optimum Life concept is geared toward cultivating whole-person wellness through fulfillment in the six key dimensions. The company's Experiences of a Lifetime program provides a helping hand in making some of the dreams of its residents come true.

Innovative Senior Care(SM) offers ancillary services including physical, occupational and speech therapies available onsite to residents of Brookdale Senior Living communities.