Hi, everyone! Have you checked out the Skinny Daily Post forum here? I just checked it out today...very cool! The actual website (
www.skinnydaily.com) is really remarkable! This is one of the articles on the website, which I figured you might find inspiring and a great complement to your work for this challenge:
Feel Like a Kid
Awhile ago reader Debbi from West Virginia wrote in to suggest I take a peek at the work of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. I remember this group and their programs. A child of the Eisenhower administration, when the council was first conceived, mine was the first generation to receive regular physical fitness evaluations in school. Well, the program has evolved just a bit during the past 40-something years. Today its programs reach the generation it started with, the generation who begat that generation, and the generations that have followed. A very cool website offers anyone at any level of fitness a good guide for getting as fit as they can.
Here’s Debbi on her experience:
I’m a little too old to have participated in the President’s Physical Fitness program during my youth. It wasn’t until the 1960s, under both Kennedy and Johnson, that youth participation was emphasized. I was in high school by then, and more interested in boys, art and getting away from my parents than in physical fitness.
With maturity comes wisdom, or so they say, and I’ve learned that staying active is a necessary part of maintaining my health. In my eternal quest to get in shape, I stumbled upon the website for the President’s Challenge (presidentschallenge.com).
The President¹s Challenge offers citizens of any age incentives for participating in regular exercise. One can earn awards in a number of ways. Go it alone, or create or join a group. Start small, as I did, with the Active Lifestyle program, or really push yourself and try for a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal.
After registering at the website, you can log your activity on a daily basis. To earn an Active Lifestyle award, you must complete 30 minutes of activity five days out of seven for six weeks. And you have eight weeks to do it. This is pretty easy for those who are already fairly active. The list of activities includes just about everything from machines like the treadmill or rowing machine to adventurous activities like hang gliding and rock climbing. You can even log time doing household chores or playing children’s games.
While all activity counts, I logged only “intentional” exercise. I’ve been running the sweeper and mopping the floor for years, gaining and losing weight the whole time. So, for me, that didn’t count as activity.
The Presidential Champion awards — the bronze, silver and golds — are for those who are much more fit, and willing to commit to daily activity. You earn points for the work you do, and the harder the intensity the more points you earn. (The points are tallied for the Active Lifestyle awards as well, but consistency is more important than effort.) Twenty thousand points earns a Bronze award. According to information on the website, if you run five miles a day you can earn a Bronze in about six weeks.
I earned my first Active Lifestyle award last week. Each day for the past six weeks (Yes! I did it in six, not eight, weeks!) I¹ve eagerly logged on and recorded my exercise. With each addition, the point of a white star would turn red, and a message would tell me how many days I had left that
week, and how many weeks remaining to earn my award. I felt a certain childish delight in seeing those stars fill up — not unlike receiving a gold star from the teacher for a math test.
I was really anticipating that Big Day when I completed my initial goal. I have to admit to a bit of disappointment when I didn¹t get a big ³congratulations² message. The screen simply started over again, with six white stars waiting for me to start filling them in again.
So I did.
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Debbi rocks. She writes that since starting exercise program, her bloodwork has become “disgustingly normal,” giving her plenty of incentive to keep going. I went to play on the site and noticed that citizens of any country are welcomed to use this easy interface. Groups can sign up to track their progress, too. The number of activities included are pretty extensive, and the emphasis is on minutes logged above all else.
Nice logging software, and if you’re the sort to work for official kudos, gold stars, or a simple pat on the back — and you know if you are — this is a great way to pick some up.
Presidents’ Challenge Online:
http://www.presidentschallenge.com/
Enjoy!
