Witness the Fitness, Part 2!

Welcome back, friends!

We're in full swing with our Jimmy Beans Wool Fitness Challenge, and I must say I am SO proud of all of the employees participating.  Whether they're walking, biking, swimming, or just moving around more, everybody has made a great effort and we're all keeping up with our goals.  In fact, after two weeks, we have a 92% completion rate for our fitness goals!

Many of the Beans chose walking as their fitness activity!

For several reasons, many of us chose to walk for exercise.  It's easy to do, can be done almost anywhere, and does not require special equipment or preparation other than comfortable shoes.  We have even started a lunchtime walking brigade: several of us walk twice around our block of warehouses together, which takes about 25 minutes and covers about a mile and a half!  It's a convenient way to get that daily exercise in and enjoy some sunshine at the same time.

Walking provides many health benefits, such as strengthening bones and muscles - including your heart! - burning calories, and improving your mood.  You don't have to walk for long periods to gain results; you can even split up your walking routine into segments of shorter duration (say, 3 different periods of 10 minutes each) and reap the same benefits as if you'd walked the total time all at once!  That means those short walks - taking the dog out in the morning, walking down to the mailbox, taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work - really add up!

We use a low-tech board at work to keep track of our progress.  It's not beautiful, but it's effective!  We keep it at the front of the warehouse where we hold our morning meetings each day so that we can all see it and be motivated by everybody's progress.  So far, it's really working and as you can see, almost all the boxes have been checked!

Way to go, Beans!  Keep up the good work!

~Heather

Witness the Fitness!

The time for New Year's Resolutions may be past, but really, who gets started in January, anyway?  It's dark, cold, and dreary in most places (and that's certainly the case here in Reno, Nevada!) and it takes twice as much willpower to get moving under those conditions.  In May, however, the weather is perfect - sunny and warm outside, but not hot, with inviting breezes and blooming flowers all around...who wouldn't want to be doing something outdoors?  It's inspired us here at Jimmy Beans Wool to start what we hope will become a yearly tradition: our very own Fitness Challenge!

Now, we all know that most activities (especially ones that may require extra motivation) are best done with a partner, so that was our first step: we teamed up with workmates to make sure each of us had support, accountability, and continual motivation toward our goals.  We discussed what might be reasonable goals for a one-month period, and how best to track our progress.  Some of us wanted to be more active, others to improve our diets.  Along with our partners, we wrote our goals on a board so we can track our progress - and we're expecting big results!

Some of the biking gals...now, Jeanne, your bike doesn't exactly count as exercise...

For our first partner feature, let's check in with Bethany and Rachel.  Since they both love to cycle and don't live too far from work, they decided to make it a goal to bike to work two or three days every week.  So far, they've made good on their goal and we are all proud of them!  They keep each other motivated by checking in with each other every day, bringing each other healthy snacks and treats, and sending short messages or texts to encourage each other to get on those bikes!  Great job, gals - you're an inspiration to us all!

Happy Crafting...and Fitnessing!

~Heather