Week 4 – Health Challenge update!

26 October, 2023

We’re halfway there! It’s been an exciting four weeks of the Global Health Challenge. Teams have been competing for the top spot and we’ve seen so many rankings fluctuate, we are far from done! Let’s put these four weeks into perspective. Together, we’ve now taken more than 295 million steps: that’s the equivalent distance of 59% of the distance of Earth to the moon and 24% further (56M steps!) than the halfway point in last year’s challenge!

Over the course of the Challenge, stayed tuned for stories of resilience, teamwork and cheer on your colleagues and post your stories and photographs here.

So, here’s a look at the current leaderboard.

Let’s meet THE RED HOT CHILLI STEPPERS from the UK. (Week 4 ranking – position 5)

The “Red Hot Chilli Steppers” from ACP Melting Shop (Team Captain Stephanie Oldershaw, Simon Shaw, Nathan McCall, Gareth Hobson, Jordan Cooke) have taken the lead across the UK and currently hold the fifth position among all 211 participating teams in the GFG Health Challenge.

Red Hot chilli Steppers

“We have been able to achieve high goals by walking more throughout the day but splitting this out into smaller chunks, for example, a walk in the morning, at dinner, and then in the evenings. Instead of having indoor meetings, some meetings have been able to be walking meetings, such as 1-2-1s.
Stephanie Oldershaw – Team Captain

Changing your mindset to be more active, such as not sitting for the entirety of your dinner but going outside. Every hour or so, get up and move for a minute if you have an office job.

We all engage in different activities too; some of us do weightlifting, football, biking, cricket, and hikes on the weekends.

We’re all active people anyway, but joining the challenge, for me personally, was to push myself a step further, to show myself more discipline, and that I can move even more. Especially with the colder months, this challenge is good to keep people focused and prevent them from staying indoors, helping to boost our mental health.”

Tips from the Red Hot Chilli Steppers:

Take a friend with you and use it as a social activity.
Try hiking pub crawls.
Use earphones for the gym.
Listen to a podcast.
Have a set goal in mind and try to beat it slightly each time.
Dogs are great motivators for daily walks and hikes on the weekends.
Increase activity gradually, not all at once, to avoid it being overwhelming.
Keep it fun; if you can’t find a way to enjoy it, you’ll find it harder to keep it up.

A profile on IMRAN SAMADI from The Walkaholics

As the tax team tends to be office-based, Imran, a Regional Tax Manager (Singapore & East Asia), based in Singapore, retired as an athlete during Covid in the year 2021 with the Singapore National Dragonboat Team. He used to train intensely for up to 14 times a week and managing work at the same time. Since then, he has continued the sporting habit with regular trainings and exercises despite not competing at international levels anymore.

Being part of the group tax function, where the nature of work is sedentary, he has maintained the intense healthy and fit lifestyle by continuing a daily weight training program after work, followed by evening runs (presently a daily 4km run for the step challenge). And if this wasn’t enough…. his weekends are occupied with kayaking / canoeing in the mornings (if he is not training for a local dragon boat competition), followed by a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or circuit program at the gym after!

The Challenge came also at a good time as he was recalled for National Service duties recently where he is a Special Operations Combat trainer. During the recall order, he completed a 42km marathon at the Singapore National Stadium track.
Ola Barreto Morley – team member