Live Healthy Iowa’s Burst Your Thirst Challenge is a six-week hydration and physical activity challenge. This is the third year the challenge is being offered to Iowans and will take place June 18-July 30. To register for Burst Your Thirst, participants must form a team, designate a team captain and have the team captain sign the team up at www.livehealthyiowa.org. Registration will remain open until June 29.
Burst Your Thirst involves teams of 2-10 people who compete in a web-based competition tracking water consumption and minutes of physical activity. Each member will report their personal weekly total in an effort to accumulate points and move their team up the challenge leaderboard. With a registration fee of $8, each participant will receive a 26 ounce water bottle; weekly emails containing hydration tips, healthy recipes and fun summer activity ideas; access to a personal tracking page on the Live Healthy Iowa website; and opportunities to win team incentives and individual prizes.
“Not only did the Burst Your Thirst challenge help me incorporate more water into my lifestyle during the challenge, but now, a year later, I still use the water bottle to help motivate me to increase my water intake,” said Tara Ely, a 2011 Burst Your Thirst participant. “If I haven’t gotten up a few times during the day for water then I know I’m not getting enough, and I try to do better the next day. When you make water a priority in your lifestyle, you feel better. So join the challenge, and drink to your health!”
Teams registered by June 5 will receive their water bottles on or before June 15. Water bottles will be shipped to each team captain for distribution to team members. In 2011, Burst Your Thirst had 2,720 participants on 537 teams from 94 counties. Participants logged nearly 6.6 million ounces of water and more than 4.7 million activity minutes.