It’s time for December’s challenge to win a free subscription to Family Doctor Magazine. Written by health-care professionals, James Hubbard’s My Family Doctor is your trustworthy, evidence-based source for reliable health information–delivered straight to your door.

This December you’ll have the chance to be Santa’s Walking Buddy.

At WalkingSpree we have a diverse group that include many faiths and beliefs, so we fully recognize that not everyone celebrates Christmas or the spirit of Santa Claus. If you do not want to participate in the Walk with Santa Challenge. You can easily remove him from your buddy list by going to Walking Buddies and click remove. We will still verify if you’ve walked more than 7,000 steps on days between now and December 31st.

Rules:

You will notice on your profile page starting tomorrow morning that you now have a new walking buddy. . . Santa Claus. Jolly Ole Saint Nick himself.

Santa averages 7,000 steps every day during December (he doesn’t hit 10,000 because he’s on his sleigh a lot this time of year).

For every day you walk more than Santa from today until Dec. 31st, your name is entered into the draw for the subscription to Family Doctor Magazine.

Holiday Walking Tips

The holidays can be a challenging time for people to find time to exercise with visiting friends and family. So here are some suggestions to help you get those holiday steps in:

1. Holiday Shopping - You’re at the mall already, so instead of feeling frustrated that you’ve got to run around the mall so much, check your pedometer regularly and refuel that frustration into success that you’re getting healthier and boosting your steps.

2. Park far away from the malls

3. Family walks - While visiting family and friends. Instead of everyone sitting on the couch stuffed to the gills from food, suggest everyone go for a walk instead to look at the Christmas lights.

4. Shoveling snow - Not anyone’s favorite job. Remember as you push the scoop down the driveway that you’re adding more steps to your pedometer.

5. Decorating - While decorating the tree or house, take one item per trip to add more steps.

6. Walk & Talk - The holidays are a time when we’re often on the phone with family and friends. Take advantage of this time to use a portable phone and walk around your house while talking.

7. Holiday parties - Often a time for dancing. Get out on the dance floor and step up a storm.

On November 9th, D-blog day, every year, bloggers join together to write about Diabetes. This coincides with November being American Diabetes Month and Nov. 14th being World Diabetes Day.

The American Diabetes Association wants to ask you “Why should you care about Diabetes?”.

Why do I care about Diabetes?

I care about diabetes because it has been rampant in my family. My grandmother, my grandfather, aunts and uncles. I want to make sure that I am healthy for my two sons and that they, themselves, do not develop diabetes.

With numbers like these below, many of us have diabetes or have family members with diabetes and that is why awareness is critical.

Nationwide: 23.6 million people - 7.8% of the population - have diabetes

• Diagnosed: 17.9 million people
• Undiagnosed: 5.7 million people

Your Child has a one in three chance of a future with diabetes.

WalkingSpree’s 30 Days to ask “Why you should care about Diabetes” calendar.

For Diabetes Awareness Month, you can download WalkingSpree’s Diabetes Awareness calendar with walking tips for posting in your workplace or on your fridge as a reminder of the importance of every step you take.

Controlling Diabetes

Walking is one of the best ways to control Type II diabetes and improving the health of diabetics.

A diabetes prevention study of more than 3,000 patients with impaired glucose tolerance (a pre-diabetes condition) showed that those who walked or exercised five times a week for 30 minutes lost between 5 and 7 percent of their body weight and reduced their risk of diabetes by 58 percent. Those over age 60 reduced their risk of diabetes by 71 percent, a result not matched by any drug used in the study.

In another study, diabetic patients who wore a pedometer for 3 months showed improvements in their fitness, blood glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and weight, and lost an average of more than 4 lbs each.

Reduce Health Care Costs

Research shows that approximately 20% of the population with diabetes incur 80% of healthcare costs. The better controlled a diabetic is, the lower the risk for developing long-term complications from diabetes-very expensive complications to treat, like retinopathy (eye disease), nephropathy (kidney disease), and neuropathy (nerve disease).

Resources:

Dlife: Making a Difference in Diabetes: Ten Ways YOU Can Get Involved in Diabetes Awareness Month

DiabetesCompass: Your Diabetic Feet

Joslin Diabetes Center: Managing your diabetes

MyFamilyDoctor’s Twitter contest for a free magazine subscription is drawing to a close this Wednesday. WalkingSpree was thrilled to hear that one of our tweets was chosen for one of the “Favorite Creative Tip” options to vote for.

So go on over and vote for WalkingSpree’s tweet:

“walkingspree: when I buy groceries with my kids, I take the opportunity to teach them about reading food labels”

or any of the tweets that you liked for that matter:) There are lots of great suggestions on how little steps add up to big effects in your health.

follow My Family Doctor on Twitter.

follow WalkingSpree on Twitter.

If you remember our Micro Steps for Micro Media challenge we had last week that inspired many steppers to fit in more steps throughout the day. We now want to let you know of a new challenge from My Family Doctor Magazine that also follows along in that concept with their first Small Steps Twitter contest.

In order to celebrate what My Family Doctor Magazine has wonderfully dubbed National Small Steps Day inspired by blogger Mark Salinas’ post One Step at a Time, you’ll have the opportunity to win a free subscription to My Family Doctor Magazine.

They want you to:

Answer the question:
What small steps are you taking for your health?

Tweet your ideas throughout the day next Tuesday, October 21.
Type #step in the tweet.

This is a great incentive to build off your micro steps for micro media challenge. For every #step contest tweet you make, put in those 140 more pedometer steps. Just one more reason to keep those numbers going up and up.

This contest is over today at midnight. So get stepping and tweeting right now!

Be sure to follow My Family Doctor on Twitter.

I initiated this challenge to find creative ways to fit more steps into my day. I’m hoping you will step along with me. If you use a pedometer and use social media, this challenge is for you. For every tweet, facebook status update, blog comment, text message, friend feed activity or any other form of micro media that you participate in today, take at least 140 steps. If you participated in 10 micro media actions in the day, that’s 1400 more steps that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

This is an exercise to show you how small steps can add up over the day and make a positive benefit to your health. If you have time to write 140 characters in a tweet, you have time to take 140 steps.

Let me know how well you succeed on your micro steps challenge:)

10 stepping tips that we twittered previously;

1. Pacing the office during conference calls can be a great way to get in extra steps and improve oxygen to the brain.

2. Use the bathroom on the opposite floor that you are on in your home or in your work place.

3. Use a retractable leash when walking the dog. It will free your arms so you can pump more vigorously and burn more calories.

4. Keep a pair of walking/running shoes in your car or office so you can take advantage of any small period of time to walk.

5. Walk down the office hall to talk to co-workers instead of sending emails will increase your step count. This could mean 500 extra steps!

6. Sitting at your desk is a good time to do flexibility exercises like head rolls, shoulder shrugs and stretch your quads and hamstrings.

7. Setting targets is an important part of reaching goals. If your target is 6000 steps this week. Next week increase it by 20%.

8. Taking the stairs instead of elevators is an excellent way to add steps, strength train and improve cardo too.

9. To boost weight loss success, work up to 12,000 - 15,000 steps/day (add 2,000/week) and consume 500 fewer kcal/day.

10. Have kids? by walking around the field instead of sitting to watch your kids play sports, you can easily increase steps by 2000 steps/day.

On a side note, I’ve taken to keeping a jump rope in my office and alternating some of my step sessions with jump roping to give the metabolism an extra boost. It’s a way to mix up the routine a bit more in the office space and doesn’t take up too much room.

Ok, I’m off to tweet this and then do my 140 steps:)