The Central Grampians LLEN have again signed onto the Stawell Regional Health “2006 Community Walking Challenge”.

The Community Walking Challenge is an initiative of the Health Promotions Team at Stawell Regional Health, and Staff from the Central Grampians LLEN are participating in the challenge for a second year.

The Walking Challenge will run from Monday 18th September, through to Monday 30th October. Walking times will be calculated over this period for each individual participant. To make it an even challenge, the amount of time walked is calculated, not the distance.

Each staff member has had a full health assessment prior to undertaking the Challenge, and with a health assessment scheduled at the end of the Walking Challenge, the bar is set for all staff to give it their best shot!

“Last year the walking challenge was incredibly beneficial for all our staff, I was pleased to hear after our final assessment that each member had benefited greatly from taking part in the Challenge and was pleased with their own efforts”, said Team Captain Rhian.

Any walking, either individually or with our team members, that isn’t part of a usual routine, can be counted in the tally for the walking challenge. Rhian also stated “There may even be a few pets that benefit from the Challenge. I know our Dog loves being out on the lead and she certainly could use the exercise”.

While the team don’t have great hope for taking out the annual “Greatest Amount of Time a Team Spends on Walking” award, which always goes to the Grampians Bushwalking Club, we do hope to have a shot at the award for “Greatest Improvement in Team’s Health”.

As added incentive for staff to really give this year’s Challenge a red hot go, Rhian is issuing an ultimatum, where results may just find their way to being posted here on the CGLLEN website. “Last year I asked for individual weekly results, and once received and collated, I sent them back to all our participants and called them “The Shame Files”, I think this year they may just find their way onto the internet!”

We're now into week 3 in a total of 6 for the walking challenge, walking times ending 8th October are first, accumulative times follow:

Belinda: 151 minutes (13.06 hours)
Sarah: 125 minutes (7.58 hours)
Kate: 120 minutes (5 hours)
Geoff: 40 minutes (4.6 hours)
Rhian: 50 minutes (4.5 hours)
Dianne: 95 minutes (2.75 hours)
Total: 581 minutes (37.56 hours)
On average, our team is walking 12.5 hours per week.

Our accumulative tally actually looks okay. Wonder how we stack up against our competitiors?

Happy and healthy walking CGLLEN Staffers!