If you have been following the Driven to Be Healthy Challenge sponsored by St. Christopher Truckers Fund, you know how hard the participants have been working to get moving and get healthy. On September 1st, the health challenge began with over thirty participants. Six months later, on February 29th, twelve people have completed the challenge. While circumstances prevented everyone from finishing, we are extremely proud of all of the contestants for their dedication to becoming fit and learning to live a more healthy lifestyle. Some participants were inspired to take things even further, with some giving up alcohol and others giving up smoking, which is a huge healthy lifestyle change!
Some of these contestants were able to track their individual progress on their smartwatch. These truckers were able to wear their own Fitbit, or other smartwatches, throughout this challenge so they could monitor how many calories they had burnt each day.
Overall, contestants had a 4.6 % weight loss, losing a total of 282.4 lbs. They had a combined 126,601 minutes of exercise. This could be a massive achievement for some people in being able to reach their weight loss goal. But for the contestants who finished the challenge, those are some large numbers and something to be proud of!
As for the Driven to Be Healthy Challenge though, we created two categories that drivers could sign up to and participate in. They were ‘highest percentage of weight loss‘ and most ‘active minutes exercised’. Prizes were offered to monthly winners in each category and two ‘Grand Prizes’ have also been awarded. Idella Hansen won the highest percentage of weight loss by losing 18.29%. Kim Blakely won the most minutes exercised with 33,504 minutes. While the prizes were a big source of motivation, there were other important benefits to being a part of the challenge. The most important benefit was getting healthy and living longer. The friendships developed and encouragement given to each other was inspiring. The contestants helped coach, motivate, and push each other to work hard and not give up!
Our goal in creating the challenge was to provide a contest that could help drivers live a healthier lifestyle and keep them on the road. We need drivers to keep our country moving. If we have assisted in helping one driver live a long and healthy life, then our goal has been accomplished. It’s so important that truck drivers do keep healthy as their job is quite demanding.
Many thanks to the following sponsors for their support of the Driven to Be Healthy Challenge: Rolling Strong, Brenny Transportation, Bolt Industries, Rand McNally, Driver Solutions, Buck Black Therapy, OnTimeMedia, ATBS and Mays & Associates.