The CDC reports that an employee’s overall level of physical activity is strongly influenced by workplace factors. A comprehensive wellness program that includes a physical activity component may improve employee health and potentially lower the health costs per employee. This year the Fleming County Extension FCS program offered a wellness program for busy employees. The “Stepping Out” Walking Program was designed to encourage those that work to take time to increase their overall health by walking more. During this 6 week program 27 teams from local businesses participated with 148 participants. Every participant is a winner due to the fact they took time for themselves and their families. They walked for a total of 30525 miles. Team captains reported weekly participants’ steps. They also shared the weekly educational messages shared by the FCS agent and the team standings with their team members. This encouraged participants to try even harder. Reports from team captains showed members making extra efforts to “Step” more during work and after. Activity trackers and pedometers encouraged many of the participants to reach their daily goals. Participants were asked how this program has benefited them. Some of the responses were:

“I did the walking challenge to help my health and also to be involved in community programs. With heart disease being in my family, and my ratios based on blood work was 2.1, I knew I had to do something. Since I’ve started walking I have brought my ratio down to a 1.6! I also had increased my HDL by 10 points just by walking!  I’ve lost weight and now I feel great! :)”

“It’s motivated me to push myself more every week.  It’s helped by giving me energy and allowing me to walk further without being out of breath. Lost a few pounds.”

“In participating in this step challenge, I’ve realized just how few steps I was getting each day.After becoming aware of this, I now make a conscious decisions to park further away from my destination when possible. I take the long way around stores while shopping and I feel terribly guilty if I go for a car ride as all I can think about it all the steps I’m missing out on. I’ve become more aware of how I feel better mentally when I have achieved more steps in a day and I sleep so much better at night. It is interesting to see how quickly steps can add up when doing chores but on the flip side, how hard it is to get steps in, while working a sedentary job. “