The real reward for physical activity is improved health, right? Or is it the chance to win an iPod Shuffle?
At the Million Step March site, it's both. We've brought back the weekly drawing – a sought-after reward as Kathy Higgins and Gary Marino crossed the state on foot from April 1 through June 12. Log your steps each week at our "Challenge" link, and you'll be eligible.
Each week for a dozen weeks, we'll draw a random number associated with participants who have logged their physical activity. We'll ship a new iPod Shuffle to each winner.
So, keep logging your steps as you reap the rewards of better health, and maybe a prize too.
Joe Miller, who covers the great outdoors for The News & Observer, has an update about the Million Step March on his blog, “Get Out! Get Fit!” at this link.
Joe plans to interview Kathy Higgins, and we’ll post the link once that runs.
Bob Greczyn, CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, explains the significance of the Million Step March and what it accomplished. This brief video clip was taped shortly after Kathy Higgins and Gary Marino crossed the finish line, ending their 600-mile walk across the state to promote physical activity.
Soon, the Million Step March will take its final twists and turns toward its inevitable conclusion in Wilmington, N.C. One day very soon, after I’ve hung up my walking sneakers and road warrior hat for yet another campaign, I’ll lie in the sand during a late afternoon on Wrightsville Beach and reflect on the entire 600-mile, 75-day campaign from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.
And I’m sure while I’m lying there I’ll think about the people I’ve met and the places I’ve seen over the course of this journey, and I’ll ask myself one very important question: Will the inspiration and education of the Million Step March keep people in this area motivated long after Kathy Higgins and I have written our last blog posts and returned to a more structured, normal existence? I sure hope it will. Keeping the fire and staying in the fight – for your health – is an important part of an unfinished struggle.
You meet America when you do walks like this – you honestly do. What’s more is that you end up having a front row seat to the obesity epidemic in our country. You spend a lot of time walking through farm country, past the cattle industries, through the agricultural heartlands. Eventually, and in time, you find yourself walking down Main Street USA, past the staggering amounts of fast food and barbecue places, the restaurant rows and the grocery stores where most of the processed food ends up.
And finally, you end up at the campaign events like the 50 or so that Kathy and I have been to over these past three months. You meet the people, see the faces and look into the eyes of people struggling with obesity every day – and the 51 associated diseases such as diabetes, stroke, sleep apnea and others.
Finally, and not to get too deep here, it touches your soul. So where did our “land of plenty” take such a wrong turn? Well, that can be debated all day long. But in the end it’s up to us as individuals to take control of our health. It’s our responsibility to stay in the fight, to be vigilant about getting and staying healthy in a world of hectic schedules and toxic food environments. And no one knows better than yours truly.
The fight didn’t end for me when I lost 110 pounds with the help of a nutritionist and therapist. It didn’t end for me when I lost 40 more walking from Florida to Boston a few years ago. It wasn’t finished when I completed the Boston Marathon back in 2005. And it won’t be over when I hit the finish line of the Million Step March in Wilmington in just a few days. You take it day by day. You wake up and try to walk a healthy path every day. Some days you succeed and some days you don’t. But here’s the rub: You’ve got to make an honest effort of it every day. You know the future if you just give up.
The good news is, if someone like me can achieve health, then you can do it too. And remember, as I’ve said a million times at every event we’ve done on this march, it’s about the long-term fix versus the short-term fix. It’s about being around for your kids and grandkids. It’s about living long and productive lives – and about living life the way it was meant to be lived.
I know you can do it North Carolina. I have faith in you.
