Between January 15 and February 11, the CBR Health and Wellness Committee decided to launch a New Year 4-week personal health challenge: the CBR Step Challenge. CBR members were invited to track the steps they take on a daily basis using the Google Fit app. The goal was to average 12,000 steps per day over the course of the 4-weeks. This is no easy feat, as 12,000 steps equates to just over 9 kilometers! Some CBR members take many steps as they go about their work in their labs, but others are glued to their benches or computer screens, depending on the demands of their research and other daily tasks. Fortunately, “step equivalents” were allowed in the CBR challenge to help offset the discrepancy between those who walked kilometers in their labs and those who chose to get their “steps” in through other means (e.g., swimming, dancing, house cleaning, cooking, and more all count as step equivalents!).
Marine Theret, Step Challenge winner
22 eager members signed up for the CBR Step Challenge and began tracking their daily step totals. To increase their numbers, members took the stairs instead of the elevator, walked extra laps to and from their labs, got off the bus a few stops earlier, and took interesting fitness classes that would count as step equivalents, among many clever tactics. At the 2-week mark, 9 participants had reached the goal of 168,000 steps over the 14 days. CBR goodie bags awaited those who met the 2-week challenge – recipients received CBR tote bags containing a variety of healthy snacks (e.g., sparkling water, raisins, nuts, oatmeal packets, apples, oranges, Gatorade, and granola bars).
The race continued for another 2 weeks, challenging individuals to complete a total of 336,000 steps over the 4 total weeks. Those who met the 4-week goal were entered into a drawing to win the grand prize: a magic bullet blender for blending up healthy smoothies, snacks, and treats for years to come. Almost all step challengers who met the 2-week goal hung in the race until the very end, with 6 participants meeting the final 4-week goal and 2 others just short of the mark.
The grand prize drawing was held, and the winner was (drumroll please…) Marine Theret from the Rossi lab, with a whopping total of 669,096 steps! Though the drawing was entirely left to chance, Marine actually had the highest step total of everyone competing in the challenge. In addition to walking in her lab, Marine’s secret to taking so many steps was participating in spin classes and swimming and counting these as step equivalents.
Congratulations to Marine and all CBR members who took part in the Step Challenge!