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Walk Kansas encourages healthier lifestyle
As part of a statewide project, hundreds of Bourbon County residents are walking across Kansas.
According to Kansas State Research and Extension Agent Ann Ludlum, while participating in Walk Kansas, an eight-week health and wellness program, 50 Bourbon County teams comprised of 300 area residents are currently increasing their levels of physical activity and their intakes of healthy foods. By the end of the sixth week, participants logged nearly 40,000 miles of physical activity and had eaten more than 32,000 cups of fruits and vegetables, Ludlum said.
Through the Walk Kansas program, participants keep track of their daily physical activity and the amount of fruits and vegetables they consume. Each 15 minutes of physical activity is counted as one mile, and the goal is for each team's combined miles to equal 423 miles, which is the distance across Kansas, according to Ludlum.
Janet Guilfoyle, one of 20 Citizens Bank, N.A. Walk Kansas team members, said the program helps those involved both mentally by helping to relieve stress and physically by helping to keep a person in shape. Guilfoyle added if she were not participating in Walk Kansas, she would still be spending time exercising. However, completing the program with friends and co-workers makes the activity more enjoyable.
"Even if I wasn't doing walk Kansas, I would still be walking," she said. "I've been walking faithfully for more than 20 years. It's just fun to do it with people you work with."
Leah Bowman, a team captain for one of Citizens' many Walk Kansas teams, said she also walks to help improve both her physical and mental well-being.
"I do it for fun and for stress relief," Bowman said. "I just enjoy being outside ... It's more about staying fit and healthy. It's something I can do for myself."
Another Walk Kansas participant from Citizens, Kellye Barrows, said participating in the walking program is a good way for participants to become involved in the community.
"I would do some form of exercise anyway," Barrows said. "This is for a good cause ... We preach about community involvement at the bank . This is one way to get involved in the community."
According to Ludlum, Walk Kansas is not intended to be a competition between participants or teams, but rather is intended to help area residents develop healthier habits.
"It is not designed as a competition between teams," Ludlum said. "It's about establishing some healthy lifetime habits that will continue after the program is over ... Living a healthier lifestyle doesn't mean changing everything at one time. It's about looking at the choices made each day and improving those choices one step at a time."
Ludlum added Walk Kansas is a good opportunity for many team members to become physically active and improve their diets. Hopefully, by the end of the program the team members will begin to see changes such as having more energy, feeling less stressed, getting better reports from physicians, spending more time with family and friends and losing weight or inches.
"That incentive may help them continue their healthy habits for a lifetime," Ludlum said.
Each team is comprised of six people, Ludlum said, and participants receive weekly newsletters which contain updates on team progress, healthy lifestyle information on physical activity, stress management, tips for eating better, and recipes.
The progress of the Bourbon County teams as well as teams across the state can be viewed at www.walkkansas.org. According to Ludlum, useful information for the public, such as recipes, health and wellness information and consumer news can be accessed by visiting the Web site.
The final Walk Kansas event will take place at 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 11, at Fort Scott Community College. At the event, teams will be recognized for their accomplishments, Ludlum said.