Exercise and the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award

Alright, so I've been hearing for YEARS that exercise is a great form of stress control, lowers your blood pressure, and is good for cardiovascular health.

I started a regular exercise program in 2004, and have been steady at it for at least 20 minutes a day (now it's more like 35-40 minutes a day) 5 days a week ever since. Here's a list of the types of activities I go for:

• Jogging
• Walking
• Stationary exercise bicycle
• Aerobics (purchased DVD or online at sparkpeople.com)
• Yoga

I'm feeling the itch to get into some more activities and am considering getting a gym membership. For the past 7 weeks, I've also taken on the President's Challenge which is to remain active for 5 days a week for 6 out of 8 weeks and I've succeeded at that and beyond! So, I'm ramping it up a bit: I'm going to go for the bronze award they have posted on their website (click the link above). I know this all sounds hokey and a bit cheesy, but for me, I need the motivation and if someone's gonna give me a pat on the back for doing what I normally do anyways, I'm all for it!

I challenge you to do the same. The site offers a great way to remain accountable and the awards offer motivation that normally isn't available. I'm psyched to exercise now because I know I get to log my progress somewhere. See what it can do for you! I gotta run... (no pun intended)