Start shaping up in January!

Start shaping up in January! Despite the constant intrusion of multivariable calculus, I think I’m in love with IAP. The recurring theme seems to be: Things get thrown your wayand you go with it, because there’s nothing to wake up for tomorrow! OK â€" not really true. But the sense of freedom and spontaneity, the “go with the flow, ride the wave of life” mentality is so fulfilling â€" I almost forget we’re in the dead center of winter. One of these lazy IAP days (NOT!), two of my suitemates Molly and Evie sent out a floor email about starting a team for [emailprotected], a 12-week fitness challenge for the entire MIT community. Presented by MIT Medical, the MIT Health Plans, and the Center for Health Promotion and Wellness, and sponsored by DAPER, [emailprotected] encourages MIT to exercise regularly, dangling a grand prize and at least a free t-shirt at the end of the journey. [emailprotected] challenges teams of 5 to 8 people to log the most number of minutes exercised each week. Participants must enter their minutes every day, Monday through Sunday. There are weekly prizes for eligible teams and individuals drawn at random â€" “eligible” meaning they are meeting the steadily increasing weekly exercise goals suggested by the program (shown in the image below.) In 2009, almost 2,300 people on 300 teams logged over 7,000,000 minutes of [emailprotected] Those are some big numbers. It’s easy to see why. Smack-dab in the middle of IAP â€" when everyone is trying to relax but feel relatively productive, nothing sounds more attractive than hopping on the “Wooo! Let’s get fit!” bandwagon. When Molly first sent out the email to the floor, a few people responded…and then tons more. What started out as plans for one team became three full teams of eight, divided by suites. So what’s going to be my plan for this challenge? According to the official rules page of the program website, “Any physical activity done at a level that increases the heart rate and/or challenges the muscles will count as exercise”. Well, the possibilities seem endless now, don’t they. Most of my minutes will probably come from Taekwondo. If I go to Monday practices, that’s 150 minutes. If I go to Monday and Wednesday practices, that’s 300 â€" add the Friday practice, Saturday Office Hours (yes! There are office hours for Taekwondo), and an occasional treadmill date in there, well …Bring it on. We start logging minutes on Monday, January 25th all the way until April 18th. By then, working out should be an established habit. Cheers to a healthy vivacious second semester!