About six weeks ago, I mentioned that we were having a wellness challenge at work with the goal of getting employees to be more active for a sustained period of time.

Well, the challenge is over and I’m glad to say that I reached my goal for physical activity.  There were a couple of prizes to help motivate us.  When we hit 10 hours of activity, we received a gym bag.  That one was a piece of cake.  The next prize was awarded at 30 hours of activity.  I crossed that bridge during the last week of the challenge, finishing at 33.5 hours of physical activity.

That put me in 33rd place out of 69 participants.  The 30 hour prize was an 8 GB Ipod Nano.  I already have a (6 year old) Nano, so I wasn’t really stoked about it.  Then I got mine and took a look at it.  WAY COOLER than I was expecting.  There have been some significant improvements since I got my original one.

iPod Nano after my first walk using Nike+

Liz has an Ipod Touch, so I didn’t think the Nano would be worth messing with, but the Nano has built in feature that the Touch doesn’t have.

One feature that I think is kind of cool, although I doubt I’ll use it much, is the FM Radio Tuner.  Kinda nice to get radio on the thing, but it is a music player.  Rumor has it you can pause the radio, but haven’t tried it so I don’t really know.

The feature I’m really stoked about is the Nike+ Fitness tracker.  This tracks steps, distance, and time.  It then uploads the data to the Nike+ website and keeps track of my fitness over time.  The thought that my health is actually being tracked so easily is very appealing.  The Nano, unlike the Touch, doesn’t require the Nike+ sensor to track movement data.

My 33.5 hours of activity included some softball, walking, biking, and even a day working on a Habitat for Humanity house.  I lost 10 pounds and have more energy.  My desire to be active has increased, which means good things for me going forward.  I think the wellness challenge has been a success!