Has your workplace considered trying a Wellness Challenge? At Arbutus Financial we recently held a challenge over the month of May to build some healthy competition between our Nanaimo and Vancouver based offices and had a lot of fun! We thought we would share the experience with you and the tools we used in case you’re interested in trying the same with your workplace.
The AFS Wellness Challenge ran for the month of May and we focused on a different wellness aspect each week of the month. We decided to only focus on workdays (Monday to Friday), but the whole week would work as well!
Throughout the weeks of the challenge, everyone got interactive in our team Slack channel and shared articles, ideas, and images of completed challenges.
Week 1: Exercise
We all laced up our running shoes and challenged everyone to get as much exercise as they could this week. Each half hour of exercise completed earned you a point. Everyone had a great time getting creative while getting active. We heard about hikes, bike rides, outdoor fitness classes, family walks, and kitchen dance parties to name a few activities!
Week 2: Water
Everyone grabbed their favourite water glass and filled (and filled, and filled) it up all day to get a point for each 250ml of water they drank each day. Other than lining up for the bathroom, the water week was a great success! Everyone reported drinking more water than they typically would and many have carried on drinking more in the following weeks.
13 Hacks that will force you to drink more water each day
Week 3: Mindfulness
This week everyone took things internally and focused on their mindset. We encouraged everyone to write down a daily affirmation every morning and to take the time for an evening reflection each night. Many participants wrote down their affirmations and reflections, and others made it a group activity that they discussed with their families each day. Each morning affirmation and evening reflection earned a point.
5 powerful reasons to make reflection a daily habit and how to do it
Week 4: Nutrition
Nutrition is so important, and also so subjective for each person! So we decided that rather than try and enforce any eliminations, we created a list of nutrition challenges for the week and had everyone try and complete as many as possible! Some of the more challenging ones were going a whole day without caffeine or trying to avoid processed foods. We all loved getting creative in the kitchen this week and many of us included our family members in the fun!
And that’s how easy it is! We all had a great time participating in the challenge and many of us are working towards keeping some of the aspects of the challenge going in our day to day lives. The winning team won a (Covid-safe) team lunch and a donation to a charity of their choice.
If you’re interested in trying it out yourself, below are some resources that you can use:
Healthy Habit Tracker – mindfulness
If you’d like to discuss this topic in greater detail or have any questions, please reach out to a
member of your Arbutus Financial Team.