About GaGA

At the end of 2007, some of us around the Internet, namely Anna, Deidra, and Audrey, were feeling a little less than motivated to keep up with any good exercising habits we may previously have had. So we decided to do what everybody and their brother does at that time of year: resolve to work out more in the new year. But we decided to do it with a little more Awesome. And, good news! You can join us in this Resolution of Awesomeness!We hereby present, for your consideration, the “Get Active. Get AWESOME!” exercise challenge of 2008. Because what’s more motivational than a little friendly competition?

Here’s the deal: Anyone who wants to participate is more than welcome. All you have to do is let us know you’re participating, and then get your awesome self active. Starting January 1, 2008, we’ll all keep track of how many minutes we spend being active every day, and whoever has the most minutes at the end of the month will win an awesome prize. And then we’ll start all over and do it again the next month. Sounds awesome, right?

So, what constitutes being active? Basically anything that gets you moving! From a quick walk at lunch to hard-core aerobic and weight workouts, as long as it gets you off the couch and gets your heart rate up, it counts! The focus here is not on weight loss or counting calories — it’s all about being active! (And hey, if a pound or two falls off in the process, that’s a pretty awesome side effect!)

You totally want to sign up, right? Awesome. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this blog and/or Email us at MondayMinutes [at] gmail [dot] com letting us know that you want to sign up. All we need is your name or nickname and your blog url (if you want any linky love, that is). You can sign up whenever you want — latecomers will just have to work harder to keep up! — but the sooner you sign up, the more awesomeness you’ll get to enjoy.
2. Grab one of those hott buttons up there to proudly display on your blog.
3. Before the 1st of each month, we’ll email all participants a fancy excel spreadsheet to keep track of your activity minutes. All you’ll have to do is put in the number of minutes for each day (Just minutes, not hours and minutes. So, 2 hours would be recorded as 120 minutes), and the spreadsheet does the rest! Okay, it doesn’t exercise for you, but it will add up your weekly and monthly totals so that you don’t have to do any math. (We’re exercising our bodies, folks, not our minds.)
4. This is the most important step: Get off the couch and get active! And keep track of how many minutes you spend being active each day.
5. Every Monday is Minutes Monday. Email us your minutes from the preceding week (any exercise you did between the previous Monday morning and Sunday night), and we’ll record everyone’s totals into our very own, very awesome spreadsheet.
6. Every Wednesday is Work Out Wednesday (WOW, for short). We will post the top exercisers’ minutes along with our own minutes so you can see how you’re doing in comparison to the competition.
7. Sometime before midnight on the last day of th emonth, send us your grand total for the month of January. Winners and prizes will be announced on the first Work Out Wednesday of the following month. That’s right, the month’s top exerciser(s) will get an Awesome Prize. (Anna, Deidra, and Audrey will not be eligible for prizes.) You know you want it. And the best way to get it is to get active, and get AWESOME!
8. At the beginning of the next month’s challenge, everyone’s minute totals reset to Zero. We’ll all start fresh with brand new activity-tracking spreadsheets and do it again!

Still have questions? We’ve got answers. Simply shoot us an email at MondayMinutes [at] gmail [dot] com, and we’ll send you an answer as soon as we can!