21 Day Fitness Challenge

All year, we have been working at staying active for at least 30 minutes everyday. This encourages a healthy lifestyle and makes us better learners.

Recently, the wonderful folks at Fitness Town (fitnesstown.ca) have presented our class with the 21 day Fitness Challenge. They have let us know that it takes about 21 days to develop a fitness habit. Therefore, they have provided us with some great gear and equipment to challenge ourselves even further. We received some cool fitness journals, handbooks and water bottles. They also gave us a bunch of fitness gear such as dumbbells, bosu balls, exercise bands, skipping ropes, exercise mats, medicine balls and sandbells to have some real cool workouts.

Day 1 of the fitness challenge so we drank water all day, did a quick workout in the morning and charted our activity and nutrition in our new journals. We set some initial goals and we began working towards our first set of goals. We are excited to continue on this challenge and will keep you updated with our progress and learning. Thanks Fitness Town!

Day 2

The weather was nice so we went for a morning run today. We ran/walked between 1 to 2 km. in 20 minutes. Our school perimeter is 700 m. so we keep track of our laps. Right now Bill is leading our class for the year with 61 km. Kenji, Michelle and Lisa are right on his tail though, so keep running Bill.

Day 3
We love our new water bottles! I think we broke a class record for trips to the washroom this week though, and it’s only Wednesday 🙂

Day 4
We upped our morning laps to 2-3 km today. The nice weather makes it easy to get out for activity. Soccer and basketball practice after school, as well as swimming for some of us.

Day 5
On Friday afternoon, we had P.E. During P.E. we played many sports and games, such as basketball, skipping ropes, the Tennis Ball Challenge Game ,and we swung on ropes. It was a lot of fun. Lisa & Samantha.

Day 6 & 7 (The Weekend) Over the weekend we did a bunch of different things to stay active and healthy. We played some basketball and soccer games, walked in the mall, the neighbourhood and around Strathcona school. We also swam, skated, played on the Wii, ran & played ball hockey. We are having a lot of fun with the fitness challenge so far. Sammie & Kevin.

Day 8 Today we had a dodgeball challenge vs. Division 4. Over 30 minutes we played a total of three games and they narrowly beat us 2 games to 1. We also did a workout with the exercise bands and the medicine balls. At lunch we helped run the SHL (Strathcona Hockey League ) for the Grade 4’s and 5’s. We can’t wait until our Grade 6/7 league starts in 2 weeks. Sunny, Alan and Ken.

Day 9 Today we had our Fitness Town friends come over along with the Vancouver Sun and SHAW Tv. Fitness town gave us a major workout! We did various activities ranging from crunches to push-ups with the bosu-ball. About 30 minutes later a few kids from each class were chosen to be interviewed. It was a lot of fun and very exciting. We are learning so much everyday.

Day 10 Today we talked about nutrition.  Mr. Brown tried to tell us to chew every bite of food at least 20 times.  It is supposed to help with digestion.

Day 11  We started our day with a 2km jog and we ended our day by practicing flag football skills and drills. Javier and Derry.

Day 12  Still counting chews!  It’s amazing how quickly we can swallow our food sometimes and not even notice how quickly we eat.

Days 13 & 14 (the weekend)  Our second weekend of the 21 day fitness challenge was filled with many activities to help us stay healthy and fit.  We played some sports over the weekend such as soccer, basketball, swimming, skating, and some of us walked around the neighbourhood.  Ken even played ping pong for three hours!  Kenji.

Day 15  Check us out on SHAW TV channel 4, tonight at 6pm or 10pm.  Our class was filmed and interviewed during a workout last week by ‘The Express’, a show on Shaw.

Day 16  This morning we had a mini bootcamp with three stations.  We had a skipping rope station to work on our cardio and jumping skills.  Bilan led us in a medicine ball station where we did the Med Ball 200.  Mr. Brown then led us in an exercise band station.  Each station lasted about 7 minutes and we rotated through all three.  It was also very cool to see ourselves on TV!

Day 17  Back to Back Bootcamps!  Today we cycled through 6 stations of exercise bands, sandbells, medicine balls, skipping ropes, dumbbells, bosu balls and dynamic strength workouts (using our body weight).  The more we do these exercises, the better we seem to be getting at them.  We’ve already noticed that we’re feeling stronger and more fit from all these cool exercises.

Day 18 We are learning ballroom dance today!  We’re learning the Cha Cha with the New York Break.  The Cha Cha is a Latin American Dance.  Dancing is a fun and easy way to stay active, and wow we sure work up a sweat.

Day 19 Good Friday (no school) – Canucks fever has taken over (except for Ken who for some reason is cheering for the Blackhawks).  We all paced around in anticipation for game 6.  The best way to burn off this nervous anticipation was to get out and do something active.

Day 20 & 21 (the weekend) – We are all very motivated to keep active and finish off the challenge strong!

Day 22 Easter Monday (no School) –

Day 23 – Even though we have finished 21 days, we are very encourages by all the activities we participated in.  We are going to keep logging our journals through the end of the school year.  We still continue to go for morning walks/jogs, we are continuing with our ball room dance program and flag football is tonnes of fun! 

Reviews and Reflections:

My favorite thing  about the challenge was when I changed my habits by eating more vegetables & fruits.  I liked everything about the challenge. I lost some weight and I ate healthier foods and ate less junkfood.  Thank you very much for everything  Fitness Town. – Allister

My favorite thing about the fitness challenge was that I got to use all the new equipment they donated. It was kind of tiring exercising every day though. The Fitness challenge changed me because now I drink more water.  Before the challenge I didn’t even drink one cup of water a day!  I’d like to thank Fitness Town for giving us the water bottles and all the equipment.  I’d also like to thank them for encouraging us to exercise more.  – Bernadette

Participating in the 21 day Fitness Challenge made me realize how unhealthy I was eating and the little amount of water I drank.  It was really nice for the FitnessTown people to donate the cool fitness equipment to our school.  The water bottles were nice and easy to use, so it didn’t make drinking water a hard thing to do.  After getting the notebook to write down the exercises I did, I exercised more to make sure I stayed healthy. – Maelin

My favourite thing about the 21 day challenge were the Bosu Balls and the balance boards.  They were so much fun to play and exercise with.  My least favourite part was all the pushups everyone made me do, they were sooo hard!  This challenge has affected me by the way I now eat and drink.  I eat healthier things and I consume more water on a daily basis.  I would like to thank Fitness Town for all the equipment and the goody bags too.  I’d also like to thank them for taking time out of their days to do some strength training with us.  So once again, a big thank you! – Cissey

When I found out that we would be doing a fitness challenge I wasn’t very happy because  I didn’t like to do exercise very much.  But when I saw the equipment I knew it was going to be fun.  My favourite thing about the challenge was the use of the equipment.  It has changed me by making me eat less junk food.  I would like to say thanks to the Fitness Town people. – Lucie

My favourite thing about the fitness challenge was that we got to use new exercise equipment and start better habits for a healthier lifestyle.  My least favourite thing was being shown on TV because it was so embarrasing.  The 21 day challenge helped me make and break some habits like eating less junk food and eating more healthier foods.  I would like to give many thanks to Fitness Town for buying new equipment for our school and for helping us become healthier and more fit.  I hope many other kids can develop new habits to become more active. – Michelle