What impact did the Challenge have on you?
Sara Persily
- “The 5420 Challenge impacted me in a few major ways. First, I became more active, walking places I normally would’ve driven and getting moving more regularly throughout the day. Being more active made me feel healthier and motivated me to eat healthier as well. Second, I started going for walks during the work day to take a break and get my steps. I found that taking walking breaks really increased my productivity, because it helped me clear my head and take a defined break from work. When you take a break and sit at your desk, it’s so easy to not really take a break (“hey look at that email that just came in! I’ll just answer that real quick…”) or to let your break stretch into your work time. But if you say, I’m going to take a break and walk a lap around the building, there’s a clear divide between work and break and when I get back to my desk I’m ready to work again. Finally, the challenge allowed me to connect with my coworkers in new ways. I met some awesome people through the teamwork aspects of the challenge that I hadn’t talked to before (looking at you, Stan- Perambulating Purple People Eaters forever!) and I got to know some other coworkers even better, either by walking together or by talking about the challenge around the office (who said trash talk is always a bad thing?). Overall it was a very fun challenge and I can’t wait for next year!”
Gregg Adams
- “I felt the effect of the 5420 Challenge in several ways. Seeing the response by so many people in the company gave me a sense of community and connection. When I didn’t feel like “getting my steps in,” and there were plenty of times I didn’t, all I had to do was think of what my teammates were doing or see one of them post a big number and that would get me out the door. But mostly, I believe the extra steps I logged over six weeks contributed significantly to my marathon preparation and will have a positive impact on my performance when I go to Berlin in September.”
Ricky Ledford
- “It has given me that “push” in losing some weight, feeling motivated more and to eat less, drink less, and push me to keep going.”
Stan Wells
- “Like a well-structured parfait, the 5420 Challenge furnished layers of positive consequences. The biggest was inspiration and assistance. The second layer was incentive to interact with and get to know my co-workers better. During the Team portions of the Challenge I was privileged to meet and interact with people I generally don’t work with or even see during the week. I look forward to continuing this interaction and expect that I will feel comfortable asking a co-worker to go for a walk at lunch sometime. My motivation to compete also had positive impact at home. While looking for new and interesting ways to achieve steps, my wife and I found some new parks and trails that we will return to in the future. The Challenge was inspirational and invaluable in quitting smoking. The challenge helped me by highlighting that it is okay to take a four-minute walk to get my head together instead of lighting up and gave me something else to focus on when I was dealing with the worst of the physical withdrawals from my dirty little habit. During the Team portions of the Challenge I was privileged to meet and interact with people I generally don’t work with or even see during the week.”
Bryan Patrick
- “I joined the 5420 step challenge for the competition and challenge of winning first place! Some people, who shall remain nameless, rose to the occasion and stepped to the amount of a psychotic person. This lead to syncing games to hide the steps between each other throughout the day, chaffing, and strained muscles in order to get 30,000 steps in a day. The trash talk between people made us all laugh! It was a lot of fun to interact with other people you don’t normally get to interact with.”
Keri Storms
- “I started the challenge with two goals in mind, to kickstart my weight loss and to strongly compete with co-workers (I’m very competitive). But in the end, I accomplished other goals that were not realized and were more important to me. I became actively engaged with family and friends at work and home through exercise and conversation. This ultimately changed my lifestyle and has made me healthier both mentally and physically.”
Kathy Waterman
- “While I got up and moved more and more each day, watched a little less tv in the evenings, and experienced some amount of weight loss…and while all these things are impactful and positive…. I think the greatest impact was the office comraderies, the new friendships built and the support to and from one another. You spend so much of your waking hours working everyday with each other but maybe not really getting to know someone for a long time…. BCER Work Life Co-workers… Walking each day through the challenge sped the “getting to know you” process up, it really did allow the extra time to get to know some people on a more personal basis … BCER Work Family/Friends!!…and for that I am grateful!”
Tony Nutsch
- “The 5420 Challenge, while primarily a step counting event, caused me to be more aware of my overall health habits. I now try to move about more during my work day, am more aware of my eating habits and if possible, walk instead of drive. I also enjoyed the comradery and friendly competition between myself and my co-workers during the 5420 Challenge.”