Registration is now open for Live Healthy Iowa’s third annual “Burst Your Thirst Challenge.” Spokesperson Sara Wesslemann says this water challenge goes along with some of the other Live Healthy events.
“Any Iowan can sign up on a team of two to 10, and they’ll just track their water consumption and their physical activity for six weeks on their team. And they’ll be tracking that on the Live Healthy website,” Wesslemann says. Drinking water is something Wesslemann says is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
“What we’ve kind of noticed is…some people think they drink a lot of water, or they think that they are fine, but once they kind of focus on it, they realize how much they don’t drink. Tracking it is kind of a proven system to see what you’re mission out on, so I think its’ a good system and a good challenge for everyone,” Wessleman explains. The challenge part of the water tracking is both a personal and a team issue.
Wesslemann says, “There’s a leaderboard, so teams will track their two components, hydration and physical activity, and that’ll kind of give them points and will move them up the leaderboard. They can challenge any other team in Iowa, so it’s pretty competitive, and a lot of companies get involved as well, which kind of creates that atmosphere within employee wellness as well.” Wessleman says there were participants from across the state involved last year.
“We had last year, 2,720 participants represented in 94 of Iowa’s counties, so we had a really wide-spread participation, so we’re hoping to maybe double that. I don’t know,” Wesslemann says.
To get involved, pick you team and then have a team captain go to: www.livehealthyiowa.org to sign you up. There is an $8 registration fee for each participant, and you will receive a 26-ounce water bottle along with weekly e-mail tips and healthy living ideas.
There are individual and team prizes available for challenge participants. The challenge begins June 18th and will run through July 30th.