Five Easy Ways To Better Health
Posted by Janelle Brown on
It’s basic but true: Your chances of starting and sticking with a fitness program increase if you’re among friends! The motivation and encouragement — and even a little healthy competition — that a group provides is hard to replicate by yourself.
Since we recently kicked off the first 17-Day Challenge, Walk the Walk, with our STRIVE community, I wanted to share some additional tips and resources that have proven reliable when it comes to keeping that personal wellness oath. These steps are ready-made for co-workers, neighborhood friends, church groups — just about any setting where folks get together.
They’re also designed to be easy to start: Gym memberships and marathon experience not required! In fact, this challenge is based on “steps,” typically walking or some activity that can be tracked easily with an inexpensive pedometer, digital wristband or smartphone app.
Here are the five tips and resources to help you and your friends get started on the road to better fitness:
Step 1: Issue the challenge. As you reach out to friends or co-workers to join our walk fitness program, make sure you’ve provided all the details and how to track each person’s progress. For our program “Walk the Walk,” I use my Fitbit device to track steps or my STRIVE pedometer and other wearables also work. Sharing pictures daily through the STRIVE Facebook page provides a competitive edge to each of us too.
Step 2: Establish goals. We picked 17 days for 20 minutes of walking a day. This is a very tangible goal and during week 1, it was exciting for me to watch how many steps I took while just going about my normal routine.
Step 3: Stay connected. This is perhaps the best resource for all of us – encouragement from our community through the STRIVE Facebook page!
Step 4: Get creative. Have fun with this challenge. Are you competitive? Find a buddy to challenge to see who can get the most steps. Looking to involve the family? Start incorporating walks after dinner. The possibilities are endless.
Step 5: Measure and celebrate. What’s a challenge without a celebration at the end? I can’t wait to see more pictures of our community enjoying the Walk the Walk Challenge posted on the STRIVE Facebook page. I am especially looking forward to selecting a lucky participant at the end of the month to join for an exclusive round table discussion. This one-on-one chat will be with our winner in mind. We’ll discuss mutual challenges, how to overcome fitness hurdles and more. I’m so excited to see who it will be!
Until then, I look forward to your continued words of encouragement, and walking 17 days with each of you!
Let us know your experiences by commenting below. Happy stepping!