Today the LifeLab team embarks on an energetic challenge in support of National Fitness Day. Read about how we came up with the idea, and what will inspire us to keep up the step count

 

“I’ve got an idea,” said Kath.

It’s the way all the best conversations start in the LifeLab office. Albeit this one began on email as inspiration was striking at a conference some 80 miles away.

To be fair, you would be hard pushed not to be spurred into action if you were anywhere near the ukactive National Summit event. Speaker after speaker took to the stage calling for more action to promote healthy and active lifestyles.

 

Levels of inactivity combined with poor diet and changes in how we socialise have combined to build a worrying picture of our nation’s health, both now and in the future.

Allowing young people to investigate their own lifestyles and make informed choices through scientific discovery is what underpins the work of LifeLab, so the message that we could all take up the challenge of leading healthier lifestyles really it home. It also hit Kath.

“I think we need to do something for National Fitness Day,” she continued.

National Fitness Day is, as it suggests, a country-wide movement to try and get the public doing just that – moving!

It is a chance to highlight the role physical activity plays in improving health and encompasses all manner of activity from organised classes, to individual challenges and mass events.

Before long our support for this event had resulted in a plan to ‘walk’ to the school that was the furthest away from LifeLab. By wearing activity trackers we would, as a team, combine our steps over a number of days to cover the distance required.

As it turned out that school, Nelson Mandela Primary, was in Birmingham. Brilliant. A quick calculation concluded we needed to give ourselves at least a week to rack up enough steps to cover the equivalent of the 130 miles it would take to get there.

And so it begins. Today is the day we start counting those steps, with the aim of reaching our destination in time for National Fitness Day on Wednesday 26 September. Finding ways to substitute car journeys for walking, taking the stairs instead of the lift, or just heading out for a stroll around the block will be the lifestyle of choice for the next seven days. Wish us luck!

 

Keep track of our progress as we march towards the midlands by following this blog here, and the team on social media. Find us @LifeLabSoton under #LifeLabGoesWalking as part of the #Fitness2Me campaign.