By Lori Ehde
Monday is the big day for 27 Rock County teams participating in the Shape-Up Challenge.
The six-week Challenge, sponsored by Luverne Community Education and Nobles-Rock Public Health, starts Feb. 11 and continues through March 24.
Community Education organizer Cindy Arends said she and Public Health Nurse Paula Anderson were expecting possibly 10 or 12 teams to register at Thursday's kickoff meeting. So, 27 was a surprise.
Anderson lead the meeting by explaining the program. She said the Challenge is not about losing weight, but rather improving lifestyle.
"It not only focuses on proper activity and nutrition, but on the person as well," Anderson said.
She added that losing weight is often a pleasant side-effect of the program.
"If you're eating five servings of fruits and vegetables each day, you're not going to have a lot of appetite left for things that are fattening," she said.
"Plus, if you're happier overall, as a person, this tends to be motivational in meeting personal goals."
The Challenge calls for teams of five to seven participants to compete in a friendly health competition they say is a BLAST.
The acronym stands for Better nutrition (five servings of fruits and vegetables each day), Lifestyle change (drink eight glasses of water a day), Activity (structured exercise 20 minutes a day), Self care/Social connection (maintain annual checkups and complete random acts of kindness) and Time out (10 minutes a day of relaxation time, deep breathing or prayer).
Team members earn points in each of the BLAST categories (minimum requirements apply).
At the end of six weeks, the team with the most points wins.