My 365 Day Fitbit Challenge

I have to be honest. When the announcement came out of a company-wide Fitbit step challenge at the beginning of last year, it was a ‘deer in the headlights’ moment for me. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not opposed to a healthy and active lifestyle, but to be held accountable for it on a daily basis… yikes! My life is way too busy for that. I don’t work out; I’m not involved in any sports or recreational activities…how in the world would I find the time? And to top it all off, we were put into teams. This is serious now; I had a team that I couldn’t let down. But little did I know then how this Fitbit challenge would positively affect the way I work and the way I go about my daily life over the past year.

According to a 2010 American Cancer Society study, results found that women who were inactive and sat over 6 hours a day were 94% more likely to die during the time period studied than those who were physically active and sat less than 3 hours a day? Wow, reality check – this is me in a nutshell! I spend at least 7 hours of my workday sitting in front of my computer, as do a number of us in the company. It was a no brainer – it was time to strap on that Fitbit step tracker bracelet and get moving!

I have to say it was pretty cool to see the energy and excitement amongst everyone in the company as we all set out to frantically increase our steps on a daily basis. It was amazing the lengths people would go to get in an extra step here and there. Printing to copiers down the hall so they had to get up walk, team lunch and learn webinars walking on the spot rather than sitting in front of the computer, walking to the closest Tim Horton’s instead of hopping in a car (even in sub-zero temps I might add – I was proud of myself that day), and walking all the way to the upstairs lunch room to heat our lunch instead of the room just down the hall (oh and walking on the spot while our food was heating up) just to name a few. People were joining Zumba and fitness classes and basically attempting any kind of physical activity to try and rack up those steps. Some people were flying off the charts with their daily steps…you would almost think they attached their bracelet to their dog…hmmm? All kidding aside people were putting their all into this challenge and really stepping it up!

Monthly prizes were awarded to teams – and I’m proud to say that our team was one of the lucky winners. It was personally rewarding to track my steps on a daily basis and try to beat the day before. Part of the online challenge was to receive fun little badges by email rewarding your progress. I was pretty impressed when I received my Serengeti badge which informed me that so far I had walked 804 kilometers, the same distance as the Serengeti, one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World…wild! Every day I made a conscious effort to get up off my chair at least once an hour to just stand or walk to the copier or grab file, a great way to get the blood flowing and even burn some extra calories. I even found myself at home at the end of the day cranking my favourite music and dancing my heart out just so that I could get those last few steps I needed to reach my daily goal, which was 10,000 steps. This was a pretty hard number to reach for me but it was fun to have your bracelet vibrate and flash once you did reach 10,000, one of the cool features this little tracker offers. Another awesome feature with the bracelet is the sleep tracker, but it only took 2 nights of zero activity on my reading to come to the conclusion that I’m comatose sleeper.

The 365 days came and went and guess what? I survived the Fitbit step challenge…and had fun doing it! Overall it was a great experience both personally and as a company. What a wonderful way to promote a healthy organization, improve morale and create some fun and healthy competition in the workplace. This challenge really changed the way I think about being fit and healthy. It’s not about trying to find the time to be fit and healthy; it’s about making a conscious effort to get up and walk every chance you can. Thank you SRG and our fabulous wellness committee for an awesome fit year!