After the first of the new year, a group of Dankmeyer employees decided to get together and work out a fitness plan.  They divided into teams and devised a plan to report their progress weekly, with weigh-ins and exercise plans.  They figured that by working in teams, they could encourage each other and have a little "healthy" competition.  They also went back to joining in the Dankmeyer Plank Challenge, where at intervals thought the day, employees who could take a tiny break would gather and do some planks.  He observed the first time and thought it looked like fun, so he joined in! It was hard work.

After some consideration, he asked if he could spend some time rotating through the teams just to see what form the different exercise and nutrition plans were taking.  He had observed that this tradition of focusing on fitness at the new year seemed to be pretty common, and if his friends and co-workers were going to do it, he wanted to cheer them on.

He first was invited to go on a hike with Adrienne Castle, Patient Services Coordinator.  Adrienne likes to hike with her family and so they set out to explore Patapsco State Park. It was a little chilly and damp, but they made their way along some old railroad tracks and got some good steps logged for Adrienne.  Adrienne explained that at other times of year when the weather was more pleasant the hiking trails would be more crowded AND there would maybe be some mosquitos.

Also on Adrienne's team was Barbara Delorenzo, Director of Accounting.  Barbara took 3DPO along to her gym one morning.  There he got a good look at all of the devices that people used to work up a sweat (or so it seemed to him.) There were treadmills and elliptical machines, and rowing machines and bicycles.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying their work, and there was a lot of good music.  Barbara was kind enough to supply him with some of his own size weights, and then told him what the proper form was to use them.  Barbara also swims, but on this day they did not go into the pool.

Jamie Dean, Patient Services Representative, was on a different team.  She invited him to visit her at home one evening where she could introduce him to some yoga. This activity was good to stretch the muscles and improve flexibility and coordination and balance.  It did seem to require some concentration.  You did your work on a mat to provide a comfortable surface to work on, and sometimes you stood (sometimes on one leg), and sometimes sat, sometimes kneeled and Jamie twisted her body around in all kinds of ways that 3DPO couldn't do, or at least imagine himself doing.  She also did some balancing exercises, and had a jumprope.  Using that jumprope could really get her heart rate going!

Then 3DPO learned that Becky Snell, Director of IT and Marketing, had recently been out of town to run in some races and brought home some hard earned medals.  Her favorite form of exercise was running, using a walk/run interval method.  She was recovering from some hard races and so was limiting her recovery exercise to some walking and stretching but promised to have him over next month when she started training again.  He had seen runners and walkers and wheelchair participants at a run last year when he and Digit had gone to an event with some Dankmeyer clinicians, so he had a good idea what she had been up to.

Each team had team members working on nutrition.  Abi Ostrander, Patient Services Representative, was having him over for the weekend so he could learn about nutrition and food preparation.  Abi liked to prepare meals in advance to make it easy to bring healthy and nutritious meals for lunch at work.  As soon as he gets back, he will post pictures from that experience.

Everyone seemed devoted to helping their teammates succeed in reaching their goals.  It was very nice to know that Becky and her teammate Heather Iman, Patient Services Representative at the Cumberland office (3DPO had just spent some time in that office, so her knew Heather well), gave each other a pep talk regularly on the phone.  Since they worked in different offices they didn't see each other every day, but still cheered each other on.  In fact, while all the different teams teased each other in good nature about their progress, they all wanted everyone to succeed!  And teamwork is good for everyone!