Healthier Work Games
Healthier Work Games
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Healthier Work Games
With the London 2012 Olympic/Paralympic Games just around the corner, this is an ideal time to encourage people to become more physically active and generally healthier. Take the challenge and be inspired by our athletes to improve your health over the period of the Olympic/Paralympic Games!
The Challenge
There are a number of challenges you could conduct over the six weeks of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Olympic Games 27July – 12 August and Paralympic Games 29 August – 9September) – the aim is to make your workplace healthier. We’ve designed a fun and simple games package covering physical activity and healthy eating that can be downloaded and tailored to suit your workplace.
Pick a country
To get started have people pick a country out of a hat (use the list provided).Depending on the number of participants people might have one country each, or teams can be formed starting from two in a team upto 10.You could ask people to research their country, a great way for us all to learn more about the world we live in.
Opening Ceremony
This is a great opportunity to get everyone on board.Have an event to start the challenge.Everyone could bring in a healthy dish from one of the 205 nations taking part.You could have a healthy morning tea and discuss the benefits of increasing your physical activity.People could also share an interesting fact about the country they have picked. Have a look at some tips on choosing healthier options for morning/afternoon teas and luncheson the healthy eating section of the Healthier Work Website.
Have a look atthe Go for 2 & 5®websitefor some healthy recipes.
Have a look at the Find Thirty every day®website for physical activity ideas.
Appoint a Judge
Choose a ‘judge’ whose decision will be final.They should follow the guidelines set up, and be fair and impartial.
Points
The Healthier Work Games runs on a point system.Each country gets 20points each time a team member achieves the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables – two servings of
fruit and five servings of vegetables.See the Go for 2 & 5®website for additional information and resources. Each country also gets 20 points when team memberscomplete the recommended daily physical activity amount of 30 minutes, which can be taken in blocks of two 15 minute walks.Visitthe Find Thirty every day® for additional resources.1 point is available each time team members make a healthier choice these include, but are not limited to:
HealthyEating
- Bring a healthy lunch from home
- Choosea healthy lunch option from the take-away
- Keep a water bottle filled up and drinking from it regularly through the day
- Snack on healthy food options
- Ensure that a meetings are catered with healthy foodoptions (information on healthy catering is available on the healthy eating section of the Healthier Work Website)
Being Active
- Takethe stairs rather than the lift (one point each time)
- Park the car further away or get off the bus a stop early
- Organise a walking meeting (when the meeting is completed it will count towards your 30 minutesof physical activity)
- Go for a walk at lunch (bonus 20 points if it’s for 30 minutes!)
- Rather than send an emailwalk to talk to colleagues
- Stand for all phone conversations during the day
Having the chart in an easy to see place will encourage all countries to work hard to improve their score.
The Closing Ceremony
Organise a fun (and healthy) reward for the winning country, with prizes for Gold, Silver and Bronze.Encourage everyone to get together to share their tips on what they did to improve their workplace health.
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