President's Challenge

I think I said in an earlier post that I had signed up on presidentschallenge.org. I did this more as a way of keeping up with my activity than anything else. But, over this week, I have really enjoyed being able to put some time into it. One day I didn't even put in a full thirty minutes, but it was still exciting to be able to put something in. And it's fun to see the points stack up.

I've always been impressed that we have a president that is so active right now. Whether people like Bush or not, he is a role model for the country. I think the President's Challenge program is a great initiative in our dangerously overweight country. We need to make a change at a national level, and make it something that is easy for anyone to participate in. This program has done that.

The only thing is, I don't think they have put enough effort into marketing this program. Sure, it's free to sign up for the program. And they keep the awards at a cheap price if you want to purchase them. But not enough people are aware of this program. I had to go to Weight Watchers to find out about it. I did a check to see how I compared against people of my age in my city, there was one other person that fit the criteria. You think that something like this would be marketed well to college areas. It's important to teach activity at a young age to people. The habits that these kids set in college will likely stay with them for years.

I also like that you can create groups on President's Challenge. I just hate that there isn't a group for me to join in my area. It would be nice to be able to join some people in being active. And I'm competitive enough for that to make me aspire to even higher heights. But I don't feel comfortable creating a group at this time. But if I don't find a group in the next few months, maybe I will gain the confidence to create one. Since I found out about this at Weight Watchers, I could always try to start a group with people there.

Anyway, this long spiel actually started simply because I wanted to post a goal. I have a goal to earn 1,000 points a week on the site. That really shouldn't be TOO difficult. It's only 40 minutes of moderate walking a day. And you can post in as little as 5 minute incriments if you need to. So far I have 605 points this week. I'll have to be a little more active this weekend to reach that goal this week, but not worries if I don't. I refuse to belittle myself if for some reason I am unable to get in the activity one week. I can only accept what I am able to accomplish and strive to do better.