National Start! Walking Day On April 16:
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the U.S. And physical inactivity doubles the risk. Start! walking and start reducing your risk. You can support the fight against heart disease by participating in National Start! Walking Day, Wednesday, April 16
Mayor Karl Dean and the Healthy Nashville Leadership Council will take to the trails of the Richland Creek Greenway on Saturday morning to start off a city wide challenge to “get moving” and to restart the Healthy Nashville initiative.The Mayor’s Let’s Get Moving Challenge is in conjunction with National Public Health Week from April 7 to 13. During the week, Mayor Dean will be participating in a number of activities to demonstrate how all Nashvillians can get moving more and in the process take advantage of our city’s many resources for a healthy lifestyle.
“The health of a city is indicative of the community’s overall quality of life and its economy. Nashville is a great and growing city, and the type of people we want to continue to attract here are looking for a lifestyle that is more active, and in turn more health and environment conscious,” Mayor Dean said.
“This week is about leading by example and bringing awareness to an issue that I hope will be part of our city’s conversation going forward. It’s also an opportunity to highlight our award-winning system of parks and greenways, which are a great place to get outdoors and get moving.”
Healthy Nashville is an initiative of the Mayor’s Office created by Executive Order. The initiative is lead by an 18-member Leadership Council and supported by the Metro Public Health Department.
“Just 30 minutes a day of activity – even a brisk walk or a bike ride – can have great benefits. It can improve your mood, your sleep, and your overall sense of wellbeing right away. Exercise can also lower blood pressure, improve cholesterol and reduce your chances of getting heart disease, cancer, or brittle bones,” said Dr. Bill Paul, Metro Health director.
“Let’s Get Moving Challenge” Schedule:
Saturday, April 5 – Kickoff Walk and “Leadership on the Move” Day
Members of the Healthy Nashville Leadership Council will join Mayor Dean at the Richland Creek Greenway to kickoff the Let’s Get Moving Challenge with a 2.5 mile walk.The Challenge: Join the mayor and the Leadership Council at 9:30 a.m. at the McCabe Golf Course Trailhead, 4601 Murphy Road.
Monday, April 7 – “Departments on the Move” Day
Each department of the Metropolitan Government will be challenged to find a way for their employees to get moving during the work day.The Challenge: Find a way to put more physical activity into a typical day. Climb the stairs instead of using the elevator or take a short walk during a break.
Wednesday, April 9 – Kids on the Move
Mayor Dean will teach a P.E. class at one of the public elementary schools to highlight the need for children to get more exercise.The Challenge: Spend some time with a child and show them how fun exercise can be. Go swimming, skating or play a ball game.
Thursday, April 10 – “Moving for Free” Day
Mayor Dean will highlight one of the ways to get moving for free in Nashville by walking at the East Community Center with one of the city’s most avid walkers.The Challenge: Use the free resources at one of the many community centers or greenways to get moving.
Friday, April 11 – “Move over Traffic” Alternate Commute Day
Mayor Dean will walk to a bus stop and ride an MTA bus to work to highlight how easy it is to get more exercise, lessen the impact the daily commute has on the environment and save on fuel costs.The Challenge: Find an alternate way to commute to work – ride a bike, take a bus or carpool. Get moving more and the car moving less.
YMCA Healthy Kids Day 2008 is coming up on 12 April:
YMCA Healthy Kids Day is a free, fun-filled day of activities designed to promote healthy kids and families in spirit, mind and body. YMCA Healthy Kids Day celebrates making fitness fun, and introduces kids to an array of YMCA programs and tools that teach healthy behaviors and healthy ways to play-an essential lesson in learning how to take care of themselves throughout their lifetimes.
Click here for a list of YMCAs hosting Healthy Kids events.
Launching this year at YMCA Healthy Kids Day is Healthy Family Home, a program to help families in any community incorporate healthier habits at home. Funded by Eli Lilly and Company, Healthy Family Home focuses on practical, achievable lifestyle changes in the areas of family life where small changes can have the biggest impact—playing every day, eating healthy and family time. Pick up a free Healthy Family Home Starter Kit at your YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day event, or visit www.healthyfamilyhome.org beginning April 12 for a Starter Kit and additional information to help you feel supported in making important changes with your family.
YMCA Healthy Kids Day is part of Activate America®, an innovative public health initiative of the YMCA movement that is making healthy living a reality for millions of Americans. By celebrating health and wellness of young people through a variety of fun, physical activities, YMCA Healthy Kids Day encourages kids and families nationwide to stay active, connected and healthy.
The YMCA Healthy Kids Day event is celebrated annually. Activities at participating YMCAs will vary and may include games, sports, health screenings and more.
This looks good and I like the online tracking component:
The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports is launching the first-ever National President’s Challenge, a six week physical activity challenge to get America moving! The Challenge, which kicks off March 20th, is designed to help people live healthier and get fit by finding activities they really enjoy.
Many people remember the youth fitness test they performed in school. What began in 1966 as a school-based program has now become the President’s Challenge and something everyone can participate in, including youth, adults, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. The online program allows participants to track their activities, see their progress and challenge themselves to become healthier.
Signing up for the National President’s Challenge is easy and free. Simply go to www.presidentschallenge.org and register as an individual or with a group to participate with friends, family or co-workers. To complete the Challenge, youth aged 6-17 are encouraged to aim for at least 60 minutes of activity, five days a week, while adults 18 and older are encouraged to get at least 30 minutes of activity, five days a week.
Register at www.presidentschallenge.org. Some nice tips on getting moving from their site:
ADULTS
• Stand up and walk while on the phone.
• Take stairs instead of elevators.
• Park farther from the office and walk the difference.
• Get off the bus a stop earlier and walk the difference.
• Take a long walk instead of a long lunch.
• Take a walk break instead of a coffee break.
• Choose activities you enjoy (consistency is more important than intensity).
• Start with small steps. Walk 2000 steps a day; work up to 10,000 steps or more a day.
• Get active with your family. An active family is a healthy family.KIDS
• Take your dog out for a walk.
• Start up a playground kickball game.
• Join a sports team.
• Go to the park with a friend.
• Help your parents with yard work.
• Play tag with kids in your neighborhood.
• Ride your bike to school.
• Walk to the store for your mom or dad.
• See how many jumping jacks you can do.
• Race a friend to the end of the block.
By combing a good ol’ fashioned scavenger hunt and health promotion, the Go for your life/Yarra Trams Melbourne City Romp, is a great initiative:
On Romp day, your team will use a mobile phone, a map and a clue sheet to try to unlock the mysteries of Melbourne. You’ll start at Federation Square (choose your start time between 10am and 12pm) and then spend up to four hours finding checkpoint locations, travelling by foot or tram.
At each checkpoint location, you’ll be given a random ‘Romp Checkpoint Challenge’ card. The challenge will involve using a mix of observation, brain power and teamwork. The Team Captain will use their mobile phone to text answers to us (normal SMS charges apply), and you’ll get an instant text back from us telling you whether you’re right or wrong.
For every challenge completed correctly, you’ll score points – the higher the difficulty factor of the challenge, the higher points you’ll earn. Plus, the further you travel away from Federation Square, the more points you’ll collect. Your team’s ranking within your chosen category will be determined by your points total at the end of your 4 hour time period.
It’s still not too late to register.
“Count Your Steps” program from Oakland encourages kids to get active:
The Count Your Steps program instituted and promoted by County Executive L. Brooks Patterson is doing a good job of getting kids to think about exercising more.
About 22,000 third- and fourth-graders walked more than 1.3 billion steps earlier this year in the annual month-long contest to promote exercise.
About 180 schools participated in this year’s contest, launched four years ago after health officials announced that childhood obesity nationwide was an epidemic. Participants received free pedometers and log books to record their walking.
(Source: Oakland Press)
Michael Valos, from Deakin University, is conducting Toddler Feeding Study at Chadstone Shopping Centre tomorrow (Saturday 6 October 2007). If you are a parent of toddlers, Michael will have a booth set up to conduct the survey. It should take 20 - 25 minutes to complete.
It’s International Walk to School Month:
Walking to school promotes health, physical activity, concern for the environment and safe and walkable communities. This year, join schools around the world as they celebrate walking during the month of October. Communities are encouraged to pick a day, a week, once a week or the entire month to celebrate. Actively promoting Walk to School for a month could also transition smoothly into the launch of a year-round program.
Examples of Walk to School activities:
- Designate “Walking Wednesdays” to encourage walking one day a week and potentially extend the event to a month or a year-long activity
- Develop walking themes for each day of the week: bright, highly visible colors day, “walking hat” day, bring a healthy lunch day, etc.
- Set up a competition with awards for the classes with the most walkers
- Offer an option to students who ride the bus or carpool to walk once they arrive at school.
- Organize a walking school bus from nearby neighborhoods. For information on how, visit www.walkingschoolbus.org
- Plan a school-wide event to recognize the day such as a picnic, an assembly, an awards ceremony or a pizza party for the class with the most walkers
- Fill the month with activities throughout the day that pertain to staying physically fit, eating healthy and caring for the environment.
See also Australian and UK examples of the Walking School Bus.
I spotted this in Oakleigh:
I think we will find more of these “market driven” solutions popping up around local communities. By the way here are the details of the “Activate Kids” event:
Activate Kids
Tuesday 25th to Thursday 27th September 2007
11am and 1pm
“Healthy exercise and food classes for kids”
Tuesday: Yoga & Wicked Wraps
Wednesday: Pilates & Rockin’ Rolls
Thursday: Dancing & Smiley Sandwiches
