One of the owners of our company is a fitness enthusiast, so he is always thinking of ways to get people in our company more active. I work out of my house, so I have the convenience of having my home gym in our basement. I have a full set of dumbbells (5lbs - 50lbs), a gym quality circuit machine, and a Precor Elliptical machine. I really have no excuse not to get downstairs and exercise on a regular basis.
Our "corporate office" is based in a little town called New Concord, OH. It's about 80 miles east of Columbus and Resource Systems is a rather large employer of the area. When our two owners built the office, they made sure to dedicate a good portion of the 2nd floor to a corporate gym. There is a treadmill, an elliptical machine, free weights, benches, a TV; all of the things you would expect to have in a gym. They encourage employees to take time to exercise, offer classes taught by fellow employees, and schedule cool events like this Wellness Challenge.
The Challenge takes place over the course of the month of February. Each day, participants can earn one fitness point (for 30 minutes of exercise) and one wellness point (for performing a lifestyle activity, like drink eight glasses of water a day, or eat only a salad for lunch). Each week, there are three bonus points for bigger activities, like taking a multi-vitamin every day for a week, or scheduling an annual appointment with your doctor.
At the end of each week, participants who scored points for the week get their names entered into a drawing of some kind (not sure what the prizes are yet). You get the number of entries equal to the amount of points you accumulated for the week. At the end of the contest, those who scored a total of 50 points or higher are entered into a "big" drawing for a large prize of some sort.
I am participating in the Challenge. I figured I have no reason not to, being that I try and work out at least six days a week already. It's a good motivation to make sure I exercise, in case I need it.
This week's Bonus points are given for completing a test called RealAge. I've done this before a couple of years ago during another fitness challenge at a gym I used to work out at. The online test asks a series of questions related to health, habits, relationships, diet, and fitness. Each section asks questions like the daily amount of fruits and veggies eaten, how many days a week someone exercises, cholesterol levels, the use of multi-vitamins, alcohol and tobacco use, sex life, stress levels, etc. The whole test takes about 10-15 minutes.
After you skip over the part about emailing your friends to coax them to take the test, about an hour later, an email arrives with your results.
My "RealAge" is 32.2.
I only had a few things that make my age older:
- I don't take an aspirin on a daily basis
- I am not sure what my cholesterol levels are (going to get that checked)
- I don't floss
- I have a little stress in my life
- I eat too much red meat
- My height to weight ratio (has always been an issue for me...the last body fat check I had I was at 15%)
These are things I think I can fix. I am going to challenge myself to to see if my RealAge changes each month. I assume as long as I keep doing the things I am good at and eliminate the things that are bad, I'll be pushing 21 in a few months.
Now that will be scary!
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