I first bought a Fitbit Ultra back in June, 2012 as part of a fitness initiative in my company. The plan had started in our Wilder, Vermont location, and had quickly become a grass roots effort within our division. The manager there had come up with the idea after purchasing a Fitbit Ultra after his daughter had become a big fan of it living in Chicago, Illinois. He decided to purchase one to see how active or inactive he was with a sedentary job.
He came to realize that when you sit behind a desk all day, you fail to meet the 10,000 steps goal set out for an active individual according to the American Heart Association. Determined to change that, and become healthier in the process, he set out to exceed 10,000 steps each and every day, rain or shine. During nice days, he would take walks through the surrounding neighborhood, which had a couple of benefits.
The first benefit was that it increased his step count that day. A simple 30 minute walk can increase steps by up to 4,000 depending on the speed with which someone is walking. The second part was that it got him out of the office at least once a day. This doesn't mean he wanted to leave work, or was not as productive. On the contrary, he actually became more productive when he would leave for a walk. By leaving the office, he had the ability to clear his mind, and start fresh with some new ideas when he got back into the office. It also increased his time outdoors, which gave him more time in the sunlight gaining valuable vitamin D, a rarity in some of the northern parts of the US most months of the year, and it also gave him fresh oxygen due to the high density of forests and woods within Vermont.
In doing this, and seeing the effect it had on his personal life, his professional life and his health, he decided to add incentive to his team to do the same thing. He offered to purchase a Fitbit for any of his employees that wished to participate, however there was a small catch. The employee had to purchase the device first, and then show their commitment by walking at least 500 miles before he would reimburse them for the expense. He also sweetened the pot by allowing anyone, with or without a pedometer, to go out and walk twice a day for 20 minutes each day if they so choose. This increased the productivity and the general office mindset overtime, and had exponential benefits. With a happier and healthier team, he looked at less waste, less time off for sickness, and higher levels of sales.
After seeing the success he had, I installed the same practice in my office in Maine. I was the first, and each of my 3 employees joined shortly thereafter. Each day, we would all get into the office, and the first thing we would do was to look at our stats against each other in the online dashboard. It made for great camaraderie and also a little competition to get people more active during the day than they had been in the past. Almost 2 years in, and we are still out there hustling and cheering each other on when we pass huge milestones. Somewhere in the next 3 months, I will pass 5 million steps, and I am so proud to have gone that far, all for the sake of my own health, and the wellbeing of others.
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