Peer Pressure

There's nothing like a little peer pressure to keep one motivated to eat healthy and workout. Our community has come up with a way to inspire people to live healthier lives. It's called Healthy on the Shore. Corporations encourage their employees to form teams of four and enter the Corporate Challenge. You track activities, how many 8 oz. glasses of water you drink, and how many fruits and vegetables you eat. You enter your team's points weekly and at the end of the session, a winner is announced. The top team wins bragging rights.

Being part of this challenge has inspired me to go a little farther with a healthy lifestyle. I already drink a lot of water and eat a fair amount of fruits and vegetables, but I've added a little more of each to my diet. As far as exercise, you get points for working out but also for activities like shoveling snow and cleaning house. You even get 20 points an hour for playing with children (if only I had some grandchildren--maybe I could rent some). You can also earn extra points for parking further from entrances or taking stairs instead of the elevator (the only problem is Muskegon doesn't have buildings tall enough for elevators).

Yesterday, in order to earn a few extra points for the team, I decided to shovel a path on our deck from the house to the grill. Part of my motivation was a fear that the deck was going to collapse because of all the snow on it. I worked for about 90 minutes and finally had a path cleared.

I wasn't in the house for more than 10 minutes when an avalanche of snow and ice came down from the roof and covered my handiwork.

I could've been killed. But it was worth it for the team. I got 48 extra points.