Walking, Kids and "Winter Challenge"

So we wrapped up our summer Walking Challenge this past week, with eight of the original 34 walking participants dedicating themselves to the challenge and committing to counting their steps every day for the three month period. It proved to be more challenging than most individuals thought. Not necessarily the walking portion of the challenge but the recording portion of the challenge. One of the participants told me that she thought it was a fantastic challenge which has encouraged her to continue to count her steps. She told me that it was a fantastic way to hold herself accountable for her weekly exercise and movement on a daily basis. The winner of the challenge has also lost a whole lot of weight, utilizing Weight Watchers and this walking challenge. Id like to congratulate all the finishers and remind you that half the winnings will be donated to a local charity! Congratulations Carrie Logan for your success these last three months!

If you can remember a number of years ago, the government promoted the 10,000 Steps a Day challenge encouraging individuals to start walking and reminding everyone that every step counts! Yes, it does! Every step you take throughout your day truly counts towards your healthy living and being active life-counter. Youve heard me say it before that if there is a choice between being active and being involved in a regimented exercise program, the regimented exercise program will add more to your quality of life in the long run, but being active makes that quality of life a lot more fun. The truth is, staying active and exercising will add more to your years of life than any other health or lifestyle factor.

Did you know that if you were to walk/hike from Estes to Grand Lake its about 40,000 steps? Wow, one of our challengers accomplished this! Thats about right, the rule of thumb is 10,000 steps equates to about 5 miles of walking and its about 18 miles to Grand Lake over the mountain tops and trials! Great job walking this summer! I hope everyone decides to start tracking their daily walking. Its a real eye opener when you start counting. Give it a try and let me know what you discover.

My daughter had a writing assignment due last week for her language arts class. She was to write a paragraph about something that shes been doing or has done recently. As expected she was to make sure to use appropriate paragraph structure, supporting sentences and feelings about the topic. You want to know what she wrote about? Her sentence was about how she felt about walking to school every morning. Thats what happens when you have a father who is an exercise Nazi (sorry honey, just kidding). Yes, my husband has challenged our two oldest kids to walk or ride to school every day of the week for $10/per week and the challenge was presented for every day of the year! Yeah, well see if that happens when the wind begins to blow.

So do you want to know what her paragraph said? Believe it or not, it said nothing about child abuse or about her dad being a mean and terrible father. It said, That walking to school has turned out to be a great thing. I find myself being more alert and awake in my first hour class. I can tell that I am more awake than most of my other classmates. I am able to learn more and be more productive. I have enjoyed walking or riding my rip-stick or riding my bicycle very much and I am very proud of myself for doing it! Right out of the mouth of babes! Need I say more?

Guess what! Its time to begin our Winter Challenge. Its back by popular demand, believe it or not! Beginning in October we will have monthly weigh-ins for $10 each month. All the money for the weigh-ins go into a winners pot for those who are able to commit for the entire three months, its a $40 commitment for those who survive. There are two parts to this Winter Challenge. The first group is to completely maintain your weight through the holiday months, gain no weight and you can be a winner! The second group is the challenge group that would like to lose at least 10 pounds (or more) over the holidays and does it by Januarys weigh-in. All the individuals who made it through last fall were winners! So schedule your first weigh-in sometime the first week in October at MedX and lets let the Winter Challenge begin!

 

Deborah Holmes

September 16, 2008