Fitness Challenge

I was reading in Family Fun yesterday and came across an idea in the "Mom of the Month" section. I am so excited by this idea. It is so good to have some competition and for it to be fairly short ended. I think I will present this idea to the family tonight. Get those kids, and their parents going.


After holidays, vacations, or when they've just let good habits slide, Laura Blum, our February 2009 Mom of the Month, and her family jump back on the healthy track with a fitness challenge.

For the challenge, the Blums split into two teams. Each team has a captain who is responsible for choosing a team name and recording points. To avoid duplicate tallies, only the captain is allowed to enter team members' points on a scorecard that is divided into the following three categories:

1. Water -- 1 point for every 8 oz. glass a team member drinks*
2. Vegetables -- 3 points for every serving size eaten (1 point is given for taking a few bites; 2 points for eating half a serving)
3. Exercise -- 1 point for every minute of physical activity

Occasionally, a bonus challenge is introduced. Laura has used these to encourage her kids to try new foods like eggplant, V-8 juice, and even shark when she was trying to incorporate more fish into their diet. They are also used as opportunities for physical competitions between the two teams, like push-up contests -- a favorite of the Blum boys --and basketball contests. All bonus challenges posed must be agreed upon by the entire family, with the number of points given for completing the challenge determined at that time.

Aside from recording the points, the main role of the captains is to motivate the rest of their team on the path to better health. If a teammate is playing a video game, it's the captain's job to encourage him to head outside to play. Or if someone's balking at trying a new food, cries of, "Take one for the team," have been exclaimed by a captain on more than one occasion.

The Blum boys also receive points for the vegetables and water they consume and any exercising they do during school hours. Following the "honesty policy," the boys report their tallies to the team captains once they arrive home from school.

The challenge repeats each week until every family member has had a chance to be a team captain. The prize? The week's winning captain gets to select the dessert for the Blums' weekly Family Night. For Laura, this is a big motivator. Not only is she the lone female in the family, she is the only non-chocolate-lover too!

* For a good estimate of much water you should drink, divide your weight (in pounds) by two. The result is the number of ounces of water you should consume daily, plus another eight ounces per each twenty minutes of exercise. In rare cases, drinking an excessive amount of water can lead to hyponatremia (an abnormally low concentration of sodium in the ).