A new inter-parish walking challenge is set to get the island moving. The Department of Health is inviting everyone to represent their parish in the 50 Million Steps Challenge.

“Our overall aim is to get people moving but we wanted to do it in a fun, competitive way,” health promotion co-ordinator Virloy Lewin told The Royal Gazette.

“Physical activity combined with a healthy diet is very important for overall health. We know that our obesity and overweight rate is at 75 per cent, so we need to take action and this is one of the ways we can work towards that.”

The Department participated in the 1 Billion Steps challenge with the American Public Health Association in January.

Dr Lewin said they wanted to do it again but tailor it to Bermuda, and they came up with a parish competition.

“The competition element brings it up a notch — we have a purpose to why we are walking because we want our parish to be the best.”

Kimesha Butterfield, who heads up the Warwick Warriors, is eager to recruit more team members.

“It’s exciting because I’m competitive,” she said. “The last time I checked, it was six. I’m hoping to have more because I’m on the beat recruiting people.

“A few people that signed up with me, I know them and they’re excited and very competitive.”

A total of 88 people have signed up to the challenge so far but Dr Lewin, who leads the Devonshire Dancers, would like to see between 50 and 100 on each of the nine teams.

“It would be great if we could get to that amount just to get more people out there and get them more active.”

She added that being physically active does not have to mean joining a gym and working out “furiously”.

“Walking is an easy exercise — it’s not jarring on the joints. Anybody can do it at any age. For those intimidated by gyms, this is a simple way to start.”

She added: “We don’t want to do a stroll — we want to do something that will cause us to breathe a little heavier and get the heart rate up.”

Participants in the challenge can sign up and log their steps via the Stridekick application, which supports various fitness tracker brands.

“In joining, you can sync your fitness tracker to the platform,” Dr Lewin explained. “You can also download the Stridekick app to your iPhone or Android as well.”

Those with a pedometer can enter their steps manually, she said, adding: “There’s no excuse for anyone not to join. Each day you can check and see which team is leading and it does it not by the number of steps but by the average, so the average number of steps.”

She added that the application also gives the option to set weekly goal for the team members.

The challenge runs from July 24 to September 25, culminating in a prize-giving for the team and individual with the most steps at the Celebrating Wellness event on September 27.

For more information visit www.stridekick.com/tc/bermuda or e-mail healthpromotion@gov.bm. The PDF flyer and instructions can also be found attached to the online version of this story at www.royalgazette.com.