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Upcoming Winter Active Challenge to begin in January

Under the City’s ChooseWell program Lacombians are encouraged to take part in the WinterActive Challenge program to earn prizes

Under the City’s ChooseWell program Lacombians are encouraged to take part in the WinterActive Challenge program to earn prizes by being active.

Beginning Jan. 26th and continuing to Feb. 15th, teams of five will gather and track a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity each day for 21 days.

The Winter Active Challenge is a fun way for communities to engage in physical activity and to promote overall health by staying active, officials said.

“It’s great that the challenge kind of aligns with New Year’s because people are making the choice to try and be more active and healthy. This challenge makes it fun because you have a team to encourage you and help keep you going,” said Community Services Executive Assistant Sonya Beauclair.

Communities ChooseWell is an Alberta Recreation and Parks Association initiative that has various programs throughout the year to encourage a healthy lifestyle based on healthy eating habits and maintaining physical activity.

“The programs that ChooseWell most promotes are - the Acts of Random physical activity month, which is June. Then they have the 21 days of healthy eating challenge that happens in October that gets families to eat one healthy home-cooked meal together every day for 21 days,” Beauclair said.

“The other one is the Iron Chef challenge. That is basically a healthy cooking contest, but we haven’t ever been able to coordinate anything for that here in Lacombe yet.”

For the WinterActive Challenge, teams of five can register online at www.Lacombe.ca/winteractive or contact Beauclair at 403-782-1267. All team members must reside or work in the City of Lacombe or in Lacombe County. Teams will receive physical activity record keeping charts that are submitted to Beauclair.

Between all team members, there must be a total of 17.5 hours of physical activity a week as a minimum to qualify for the prizes from Fit Body Boot Camp as well as prizes from the City of Lacombe and other sponsors. Teams can be made up of family members, friends or even coworkers of any age and fitness level.

“I know that as a mother, eating healthy and being active is important for kids to grow up with. I think that sometimes with everyone’s busy lives, it can be hard to fit it in. For me, I am always looking for the cheapest and easiest way to get it into your daily routine so that it happens,” said Beauclair. “You can go out and say that you’re going to make huge changes, but then it’s hard to follow through. I think it’s better to find the quickest and easiest way to get activity in your life. If you’re going shopping, park on the far side of the parking lot and walk the extra 100 feet into the store, just to get that little bit of activity. Go outside, and play with your kids. Run around in the snow. Pretty much anything can help.”

Activity could include building a snowman, walking around the block, shoveling a neighbours walk or driveway, ice skating, bowling, walking a pet or enjoying some of the local trails.

“The big thing is – keep it simple. For everything that we’re trying to get people to do in this ChooseWell category, we want to keep it as simple as possible. I feel that’s the best way to success.”

Teams must register by Jan. 23rd at 4:30 p.m.

kmendonsa@lacombeexpress.com