Health Unit encourages the public to catch Fitness Fever

Ken Johnston
Editorial@RainyRiverRecord.com

It’s last call for activity ya all!
The Rainy River Northwestern Health Unit is administrating a Fitness Fever campaign during the month of February.
NWHU Health Educator Heidi Ivall said the idea was adapted by the Healthy Communities Coalition from a similar program in Minnesota and helps celebrate Hearth Health Month in Ontario.
Participants need to pick up registration forms at the health unit or Susan’s Corner Store and Beaver Mill’s Market in Rainy River. The forms include a calendar on which participants are asked to record how many servings of fruits and vegetables they have in a day and what physical activities they did each day.
Ivall said they hope that people will strive to eat five servings of fruit and vegetables per day in February. On the calendar form there are five boxes that people can check off as they eat their fruits and veggies. The participants are also encouraged to participate in physical activities for at least 30 minutes per day and write down on the calendar what they did.
Servings have been defined as follows by the NWHU:
•1 medium fruit or 1/2 cup of cut-up fruit
•1/2 cup of fruit juice
•1/4 cup of dried fruit
•1/2 cup raw or cooked vegetables
•1 cup raw leafy vegetables (lettuce/spinach)
•1/2 cup cooked beans or peas
Some suggestions to meet the exercise goal of 30 minutes per day include walking, dancing, swimming, doing aerobics, hiking, playing a sport, snow-shoing, hula-hooping, skating, bowling and vigorous cleaning.
Ivall said that while the program started February 1st, those who can remember what they did and ate the past few days are still encouraged to pick up a form and start filling it out. She hopes that at least 100 people in the local NWHU catchment area (Barwick west and Morson in the North), will catch Fitness Fever.
Prizes for the top performers will be given out at the end of the month when all the forms are turned into the NWHU. There will also be random draws for prizes for all participants.