Gustavus Health Promotion (GHP) is hosting the Holiday Health Challenge, in which participants are challenged to maintain or lose weight over the holidays. The program is open to all employees of Gustavus.

Head Volleyball Coach and GHP Administrator Rachelle Dosch is coordinating the program.

“The goal of the program is to offer another health and wellness challenge for employees as an incentive to stay healthy over the holidays,” Dosch said.

Vice President for Institutional Advancement Thomas Young recommended the program after completing a similar challenge at his local gym.

Employees interested in participating in the Holiday Health Challenge need to weigh in by Nov. 22. This can either be done as part of a full fitness assessment, in which participants will have a full assessment to evaluate body composition before and after the holidays, or by simply being weighed.

An appointment is needed for the fitness assessment and can be made online at http://gustavus.edu/hes/hplab/. If participants prefer simply to be weighed, no appointment is necessary and they are invited to stop by the Human Performance Lab in Lund Center during appointment hours, which can be found online.

The final weigh-in or fitness assessment will be conducted after the holidays, before Jan. 18, 2012. If the participant maintains the same weight or manages to shed pounds over the holidays, the challenge is considered successful and the participant will win an “I survived the GHP Holiday Health Challenge” T-shirt to commemorate the accomplishment.

The program has never been done before, but GHP does offer a Spring Challenge in which teams of employees work together to earn and record a specific number of minutes of exercise.