Springing into Action: Get Active! #2

Who doesn’t want to tone up those arms and legs just a bit before the tank tops and shorts come out? Not to mention tightening those abs for swimsuit season. It’s round two of the Get Active! Challenge at work, and getting active as spring starts seems perfect timing. If you read my 2013 blog post on this topic, you may recall that my company introduced an eight-week challenge in the fall to encourage us to exercise 140 minutes a week and/or rack up 56,000 steps for at least four of the eight weeks. Round one appropriately ran right up until Thanksgiving week, and round two started April 14^th. If you achieve the goal, you can earn a Fitbit, a $40 Amazon gift card or, new this year, you can donate your $40 award to Habit for Humanity.

We can sign up individually or join teams, so I formed a team called the Family Circus.  Why Family Circus?  Because this time, we can enroll family members on our teams. We started out with four spouses signed up on our team, but I had to kick my husband off, uh, I mean, remove him from the team because he was sidelined by some unexpected minor surgery the second week.  As team captain, I just couldn’t let him drag our averages down! Do you get the impression we’re a competitive bunch?

Even though I achieved my personal goal the first week, I was at the back of the pack when compared to my team mates. Instead of 140 minutes per person, the team averaged 271 minutes each and we averaged 74, 231 steps per person, far exceeding the 56,000 step  goal. The team I was on last time never quite hit its stride, so I’m hoping this first week is a good indicator of some committed folks.  And, who knows, I may even be inspired to step up my own exercise program.  I’ll never be the class star, but I can try adding a bit more walking to my routine to increase my steps and minutes. 

That small change would have the added benefit of increasing my aerobic capacity, something my personal trainer keeps encouraging me to do. And, it sure would make my dog happy.  As much as Banjo loves to lie around, he also loves his too infrequent walks.  Sounds like a win all the way around.