The Metro South community is once again invited to put their best foot forward and join the first 10,000 steps challenge of 2023.

We caught up with ‘Steps to a healthier you’ organisers, the Addiction and Mental Health Services (AMHS) Health Promotion Team to learn what motivated the faces behind the feet.

Natalie Davis, Trinh Ngo and Roopa Sami have led the 21-day steps challenge since 2015 and have loved seeing how the challenge has evolved during the past eight years.  

They said the challenge used to be exclusively for AMHS staff members but has since expanded to include anybody working in the Metro South area and their friends, family, and clients.

Since its first year, 2,000 people within the Metro South community have joined in the challenge and committed to taking positive steps to improve their health. 

Natalie said her team, who also bring the 3pm movement session to Metro South Health staff members, hoped the regular challenges would inspire staff and community members to move a little more, find activities they enjoyed doing and make some healthy changes.

“It’s easy to fall into bad habits and not realise how sedentary we really are,” the Senior Prevention Officer said.

“Once we know we can start to make simple changes such as parking a bit further away than normal, taking the stairs or going for a walk around the office, we can build this extra movement into our daily routines, even after the steps challenge is over.” 

This year, the steps challenge has two categories, ‘In it to Win it’ for those who enjoy competing and ‘Move to Improve’ for participants who want to set personal goals to move a little or a lot more.

“As always, there are some great prizes to be won throughout the challenge, including trophies, a Frank Green pack, Homedics Massage Gun and more,” Natalie said.

The challenge also called for participants who currently used tobacco products to take steps towards a smoke and vape-free life.

“Over the years we’ve had plenty of positive feedback from participants who have managed to quit smoking, lose weight or continue with their extra movement even after the challenge has finished,” Natalie said.

The challenge will run from 8 May – 28 May 2023 and is open to teams of three to 20 people.

Natalie and her team encouraged those interested to lace up their sneakers and race to register (PDF, 4.44 MB) for this year's challenge.