Announcing the 21-day Walking Challenge. Starts Aug 11th.

Announcing the 21-day walking challenge! A 5 days a week – 30 minutes a day challenge to get you move your body, improve your mood, sleep better, reduce saggy skin, and burn an extra 2700 calories!

Yup, you can make all these things happen just by walking 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week! Bring a friend, or do it on your own, read below for details.

Now I know walking almost daily is no easy feat. Even though it sounds easy, keeping up with it is actually quite harder.

Starting Monday August 11th, I’m starting a 21-day walking challenge, and I invite you to join:

• If you’re not currently exercising: Perfect way to get moving!
• If you’re currently exercising: Sitting multiple hours throughout the day kills and exercising does not protect you from the increased mortality risks (even up to 40%!). Adding walking in your daily life will inevitably decrease how much you sit, and might even extend your life for a couple of years. Not kidding about this.

What You’ll DO + RECEIVE

• You’ll walk 5 times a week for 30 min each time for 3 weeks! That’s a minimum of 2700 calories burnt – not bad!
• You’ll get “Extra Credit” options, or little tweaks you can do to transform your walking into a very efficient workout. You’ll also learn about stretching and get some god posture advice to make your walks even more powerful.
• You’ll get community support by joining a private Facebook group, just for the people participating in this challenge. Joining the group is crucial, so if you don’t have Facebook access, then please don’t apply.
• Daily accountability by logging your minutes walked on your team’s WalkSheet.
• Optional: Share a picture of your daily walks on Facebook. It can be a leaf, your shoes, the sunset, or your smile. And in return, you’ll get back likes and encouragement to keep going.
• You get TWO invites to double or triple the fun: Bring a friend or two and participate in this challenge as a team.
• The team with the 2nd highest walking minutes wins a small prize! Read below for details.
• The 21-day Walking Challenge officially starts on Monday August 11th and ends on Sunday August 31st. So by Monday September 1st, you’ll be done!

How To Get In – Now!

Fill in the form below with your name and e-mail by Friday Aug 8th at 5 pm PST. That’s it!

You’ll then receive an e-mail with instructions:

• You’ll be asked to sign a medical disclaimer, saying you’re fit to walk, you acknowledge the risks, yada yada.
• You’ll get the link to pay the commitment fee of $40. Why a commitment fee? Well, it’s easy to say “yes!” and then do nothing, which is not what we want from this challenge. We actually want you to get moving, and a small financial token will inspire you more to keep a walking schedule, and not drop the ball on your first week.
• You’ll be asked whether you want to play alone, or find a partner in crime and play together. Finding a teammate or two makes walking much more fun, plus you’re more likely to stick to your walking schedule.

But There’s More Fun Stuff – And A Small Prize!

We’ll actually be playing a game with this challenge. You can play by yourself, or you can play with a friend or two.

The game is simple: The team that scores the 2nd highest score wins!

Now I know that giving the highest prize to the 2nd place winner sounds totally weird, but there’s an explanation behind it.

• So say Lucy and Katie join as a team. Lucy reports 150 minutes of walking on the first week, and Katie reports 100. Both of them together have walked a total of 250 minutes, or 125 min/person.
• Say Tom walked 130 min on his first week.
• And the team of Nina, Jerry, and Sarah got up to 100 min/person.

If they keep up the same walking schedule for all three weeks, Tom will get the 1st place, Lucy and Katie 2nd place, and Nina, Jerry, and Sarah will rank 3d.

So the 2nd place winner will be Lucy and Katie – and those two girls will receive a secret prize.

But Why Give The Prize To The 2nd Place Winner?

Your daily walking minutes will be self-reported, which means that even though we’ll all try to adhere to the Honor Code of Honesty, it only takes one person to cheat and spoil this friendly competition.

And that’s why the prize will go to the 2nd place winner. It’s been mathematically proven that people cheat less when the winner is the person who came second.

What’s The Prize?

We’re not doing the walking challenge to get a prize – the prize is sleeping better, better mood, 2700 calories lost, blah blah.

BUT…

There’ll also be one small, symbolic prize for the 2nd place winner. Again, small encourages honesty. And as I said before, I don’t want you to do this for the prize. I want this to be a fun game. The “competition” is only there to make it more exciting for everyone.

Won’t I Feel Bad If I Come Out Last?

Unless your team is one of the 3 top teams, noone will be able to see your daily walking minutes (other than me). Your walking minutes will stay private. Every week I’ll share with everyone the weekly scores of the 3 top teams, and that’s it. So even if you’re last – you won’t even know it, as only the scores of the 3 top teams will be shared with everyone in the Facebook group.

But Why Walking?

Other than the minimum of 2700 calories burnt in this 21-day walking challenge, let me give you 5 very good reasons:

1. Walking protects your heart.

Lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, increase levels of HDL, lower number of heart attacks, you name it. Your heart loves walking 🙂

2. Walking is totally anti-aging.

Walking actually delays cell aging. Yup, you read that right. Aging can be read by the length of telomeres, the protective caps that are found at the end of chromosomes. With time, their length gets shorter and shorter, resulting in higher risks of various age-related diseases like cancer (Aubert G, Lansdorp PM., 2008) and of course, saggy skin (Kosmadaki MG, Gilchrest BA, 2004).

Walk more and you’ll slow this process down!

3. Walking makes you happy – and it even beats drugs for people with depression!

We know that exercise improves you mood – even for those with depression! Throw away the Zoloft, and get started with walking.

4. Even a single session of walking improves your sleep.

A study found that a single exercise session like a bout of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (e.g., walking) reduced the time it took to fall asleep and increased the length of sleep of people with chronic insomnia compared to a night in which they did not exercise (Passos et al., 2010)

5. Walking reduces stroke risk.

The California Teachers Study examined how many women suffered a stroke between 1996 and 2010. The women who did moderate physical activity like walking in the last 3 years before getting into the study were 20% less likely than women who were sedentary to suffer a stroke.

But Will This Be Worth It If I Quit Walking After The Challenge is Over?

Absolutely! You’ll have enjoyed the benefits of walking for 3 weeks, including:

• Burning 2700 calories.
• Enjoying dawn and sunsets.
• Feeling less stressed and happier.
• Feeling less stiff.
• Sleeping better at night.
• Just having fun sharing your experiences with others!

Don’t think about the rest of your life right now. That’s too big to even process!

Focus on what you can do now, and if you think that you got it for the next 3 weeks, then hurry up, fill in the form above, and I’ll see you “on the inside”.

Sounds good?

P.S. Fitness Reloaded reserves the right to change any of the terms and rules at any time without warning. Thanks for your understanding.