Students take on healthy living challenge
The healthy living challenge is back this semester and has expanded so that all students living in on-campus housing can participate, said MarLee Harris, dietitian for Dining Services and Student Health and Wellness.
The challenges include drinking 64 fluid ounces every day, working out for 30 minutes a day, walking more and many more areas of physical health. Points are given according to each member on the team’s participation, Harris said.
“We’re really focusing on helping the students to feel better,” Harris said.
The teams are broken up into groups of 10, Harris said, and all of the organizing, announcements and scoring will be done through Facebook. Even the winner will be announced on Facebook, she said.
This is the second consecutive semester for the healthy living challenge; however, last semester only certain on-campus housing locations were able to participate, Harris said. Now, though, they are expanding the program so that all students that live in on-campus housing are able to participate, and so far there are 15 teams of 10 people, Harris said.
However, it isn’t feasible for all the students to be able to participate, she said.
“If we had the resources, I’d love for everyone to join,” Harris said.
Every week, just by participating, contestants are entered in a weekly drawing to win an iTouch, and 7 will be given out, Harris said. The program is running for 7 weeks, from February 16 through April 12, and students can still join the contest, she said.
“There’s students on the Facebook site constantly talking, anyone can find a team,” Harris said.
At the end of the contest, the team with the most points will receive a catered meal by Utah State Dining Services, and will be taken by Aggie Shuttle to a movie of their choice, Harris said.
There are also other tips and health announcements on the Facebook group site, said Stacy Bevan, senior in dietetics.
“I’ve been working on the health tips for a while,” Bevan said. “We want to try and get discussions going on the Web site.”
The purpose of the competition is for the students to become more aware of healthy living practices and that is done through the challenges and the information that is posted on the Facebook site, Bevan said.
There are other prizes given out daily, such as a flash drive, driving through a bus obstacle course, free HURD membership, a free night’s stay at the University Inn and massages.
The sponsors are the USU bookstore, the University Inn, USU Housing, USU Dining services, HURD and Coca Cola. For more information or for questions, send a message through Facebook to MarLee Harris.
-seth.bracken@aggiemail.usu.edu
LC