Register now to take part in Live Healthy Iowa 100 Day Wellness Challenge

Live Healthy Iowa’s 100 Day Wellness Challenge opened registration for its 11th year in late December in preparation for kicking off the challenge January 23. This year's participants will benefit from a new website for the program, offering participants in the Challenge more innovative and user-friendly features, including updated personal tracking and goal-setting options and expanded nutrition resources.
The 100 Day Wellness Challenge is a simple and affordable challenge, encouraging Iowans to make healthy choices. Over the course of 100 days, teams  of two to 10 people take part in friendly competition by tracking their activity minutes and/or weight loss through the Live Healthy Iowa website.
Last year, the 100 Day Wellness Challenge had 27,252 participants in the challenge on 4,335 teams in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. Participants reported losing 113,207 pounds and logging more than 73 million minutes of activity during the challenge.
“The 100 Day Wellness Challenge is perfect for all Iowans - friends, families, business, schools or communities,” said Nicole Bruce, health initiatives director of Live Healthy Iowa. “It provides a simple solution to healthy changes needed to improve the lives of participants. Gather your team now. Let’s make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation.”
Registration for the program can be done online as either an individual or as part of a team through a team captain at www.livehealthyiowa.org. The registration fee of $20 entitles participants to a number of items and features helpful guidelines in meeting the Challenge. A link on the Hy-Vee web page, www.hy-vee.com, also allows a $5 discount off that registration fee, which will be payable online at the completion of registration. Only 25,000 of those discount coupon codes are available, and they can be accessed under the Live Healthy America link under the Health tab on the Hy-Vee web page.
Participants can register for either or both of two divisions of involvement in the 100 Day Wellness Challenge program, recording minutes of physical activity or weight loss, or both. Both measures are reported at the end of each week either individually or to a team captain.
Minutes of physical activity are those that involve activity above and beyond normal daily activity, such as walking during a lunch break or taking part in an exercise class or other activity. The goal is to simply increase physical activity on a regular basis.
The weight loss division records initial weight for an individual or team and then reports weekly weight loss or gain as a percentage of that total individual or team weight. Individual weights cannot be viewed by anyone other than the individuals reporting or administering the weight loss division on the event's website.

LOCAL REGISTRATION
Participants in Allamakee County may register a team or as an individual under the Allamakee Group ID code LHIALLCO. By typing in that code, all participants will be registered under Allamakee County, where a newly-formed wellness coalition is looking to increase participation in the event from its low levels of past years, hoping to get at least 10% of the county's population to take part in the event.
Allamakee County is one of 20 counties throughout the state of Iowa designated for rural outreach, based on health and insurance statistics, to help improve the overall health of the county's residents. The local coalition has been initially working with John Stevens, a former Grundy Center school district administrator who is now the Outreach Coordinator for Live Healthy Iowa.
It is planned to have each week's results recorded by local teams in the Minutes of Physical Activity division published in The Standard as the program gets underway.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
In addition to the incentive to become more active and improve health, each participant will receive a training t-shirt, weekly motivational e-mails, a personal tracking page, unlimited access to recipes, workouts and health information, a chance to win team and/or individual prizes, a one-year magazine subscription to one of 10 health-related magazines, and much more.
More information about the program can be found through the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) link on the Live Healthy Iowa website, www.livehealthyiowa.org.

Through the recently announced Healthiest State in the Nation Initiative, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad shared his plan to make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation within five years. While Iowa scores well in many areas, there is a significant opportunity for improvement in healthy behavior and work environment.
“Making Iowa the healthiest state in the nation is not only critical to the economic viability of our state, but also critical to the quality of life for all Iowans,” said Gov. Branstad.
Learn more about the 100 Day Wellness Challenge and Live Healthy Iowa at www.livehealthyiowa.org.  

ABOUT LIVE HEALTHY IOWA
Live Healthy Iowa, formerly Lighten Up Iowa, was created in 2001 by the Iowa Sports Foundation as a strategic health initiative to address the state’s growing obesity problem. Live Healthy Iowa brings together friends, families, businesses and communities in team-based wellness challenges designed to promote positive lifestyle change. In 2011, more than 152,000 adult and youth Iowans took part in a Live Healthy Iowa program.