Adventures in Entrepreneurship with Jeremy Hanks

The Doba Fitness Challenge

Last month, Doba’s Director of Marketing, Clark Winegar, pointed out that at a technology company like ours, it’s relatively easy for employees to let their health and fitness go by the wayside. Typically, Doba employees spend 100 percent of the long workday glued to a chair. Aside from walking to and from meetings or entering and leaving the building, we tend to get very little in the way of daily exercise. And while most of our employees choose to take the stairs within our building, that’s only because our elevator’s way too slow.

Thus, the Doba Fitness Challenge was born.

Being who we are as a company, we knew that if we wanted to be successful at supporting and encouraging our employees in an effort to be more mindful about health and fitness, we first needed to put our money where our mouths were (and as you’ll see, we’re doing that in more ways than just one). In mid-June, after announcing that the Challenge would last three months–from June 20 to September 19–we brought a professional fitness trainer to our office, and for everyone who wanted to participate in the Challenge, we arranged for weight and body fat measurements to be taken. At one-month intervals, and again at the end of the Challenge, the same trainer will come back to the office and again take everyone’s measurements, and using a formula/algorithm developed by some of our engineers, a winner will be determined based on a combination of change in weight, drop in percentage of body fat, and muscle gained. We’ve even scheduled an optional 5k run towards the end of the Challenge for all of Doba’s employees and their families (to celebrate how far everyone will have come in just three months time).

Another thing we’re doing during the Challenge is being particularly mindful of the snacks and treats we lay out for our staff in our break rooms. The monthly waffle breakfast my fellow co-founders and I prepare for all of Doba’s employees once every month… well, let’s just say that we’re looking for a more healthy alternative for August and September.

As hectic as my life has been as of late, I knew I needed to start making health and fitness more of a priority, but never seemed to have the time. Over the last two weeks since the Challenge started, I’ve exercised nearly every day, and I can already start to see and feel a difference. Entrepreneurs typically work more than they do anything else, and if your work is at a desk, as opposed to working in a business like construction, then you really do need to make time to exercise. The benefits far outweigh the costs. And with this Challenge, I’ve found the motivation to get into good habits again.

While I have no grand illusions about winning the Challenge (several employees are taking it VERY seriously) or receiving any of its prize money (oh, did I not mention that there’s prize money involved… everyone participating paid a $10 entry fee, and Doba is putting up some prize money too, and to the victors go the spoils) it has motivated me to be active and take better care of my health. So to everyone out there, find something for motivation, and get more active; you’ll be glad you did.

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