First Silver Medal!

Congratulations to Thomas Kropp the first Let's Move SD Discovery Center Presidential Champion silver medalist!  Well done!  Thomas is well on his way to earning a gold medal by the Summer Olympics.

Start 2012 strong by getting a jump on your New Year's Resolutions to get fit and eat better.  Commit (or recommit) to completing a Presidential Active Lifestyle Award Plus (affectionately known as PALA +).  You don't have to wait to New Year's to eat better or exercise more. You can start today and be halfway to earning your PALA + by January 1.

The best part is you don't have to give up the holiday fun. You can find new celebrations.  Instead of baking dozens and dozens of cookies, make whole wheat pancake mix.  Cook the pancakes in metal cookie cutters for a fun holiday dinner!

In lieu of watching TV, go for a walk to collect sticks and come back to build a fire in an outdoor fire pit. (You probably will want to lay in wood other than what you collect.)  Yes it will be chilly but fun!

Buy or make a dozen footbags, (aka hacky sacks) put away the breakables and let everyone try their hand ... er foot... at it.  Start easy by dropping the sack on knee and popping it back up to catch it.

Nutrition goals are easy too.  Eat smaller portions, pick the low/no sodium alternatives, drink water instead of sugary drinks.  These everyday choices add up to better health.

Medal Race!

After you earn a President's Active Lifestyle Award PLUS , switch your challenge to Presidential Champion to work towards earning medals.  The more you exercise, the more points you earn.  The more points you earn, the faster you will earn a medal.

We have a medal race kicking off in January 2012 as a countdown to the London 2012 Summer Olympics.  But don't wait.  You don't have to be young, athletically gifted or part of an elite squad to earn these medals.  You just have to go out and do something physical.  Get started today!

Finish Strong!

The members of Let's Move SD Discovery Center are doing well in working towards their President's Challenge Awards.  We have 7 bronze medal winners who are on track to earning silvers by the summer Olympics in July 2012.  We have 3 more people who have earned their Presidential Active Lifestyle Award.  Well done!

If you are member of the group and have fallen off in tracking, don't despair.  You can restart tracking today and earn your PALA by the end of the year!  Finish this year strong and healthy.

If you are just starting or re-staring your PALA adventure, you will notice that there is a new element: PALA +.  PALA + adds a healthy eating goal to your workout goal of 5 workouts/week.  Each week, you add an additional healthy eating goal such as choosing lower sodium versions of foods or adding whole grains to your menu.

Keep up the good work(outs)!

Anne