The President's Challenge - Presidential Active Lifestyle Award and Champions

The President's Challenge is a program that encourages all Americans to make being active part of their everyday lives. Earn awards for your physical fitness activities, including patches, medals, and certificates. The program is produced by the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, with a mission to promote the benefits of fitness everywhere it can.

Earn this award by logging 30 minutes of physical activity at least 5 days of the week for six weeks for adults or 60 minutes for youth under age 18. As of 2012, you also focus on a healthy eating habit each week. Just about any physical activity counts. For pedometer walkers, goals are at least 11,000 steps a day for girls, at least 13,000 steps a day for boys and at least 8,500 steps per day for adults age 18 or older. On August 12, 2012 the youth goal will change to 12,000 steps per day for both boys and girls. Log your activity using an online form or print out the log and record it with pen or pencil. You can repeat the program to earn stars. Redeem for awards for a small fee, including a certificate, emblem, t-shirt, magnet.
Active Lifestyle Program

You can order a pedometer from the President's Challenge site, two models are available. Both are offered at a very good price. The President’s Challenge AE2790 Pedometer is an accurate model that counts steps, estimates distance walked, calories burned, clock and automatic activity timer. It has an easy-to-read display with big numbers, and comes with a safety leash. The AE2720 Pedometer for $8.95 has only a step counter and activity timer, but is a very accurate pedometer.

Each week you choose a healthy eating goal. After a week, you add another goal, until you have improved your eating habits with all eight goals. You can add them in any order.The goals are:
Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
Make half the grains you eat whole grains.
Choose fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk, yogurt, or cheese.
Drink water instead of sugary drinks.
Choose lean sources of protein.
Compare sodium in foods like soup and frozen meals and choose foods with less sodium.
Eat some seafood.
Pay attention to portion size.

Earn points for every activity you log, based on the amount of energy each activity burns. Roughly, these equal the calories you are burning. Earning a Bronze award takes 20,000 points. You can select walking and pedometer as two of the activities and track time or steps. Walking 30 minutes or 5000 steps equals about 110 points. You can choose from over 100 different activities.
Presidential Champions Program

Registration is free. You can register online to use their online activity log and begin tracking your walking and other physical activity immediately.
Registration

Track your physical activity with other Walking.About.com readers. When you join, add us as a Group. Our group number is 12099 and Group Name is Walking.About.com

To log your activity, sign in and use the online log each day. You can post your activities for up to 14 days in the past. Or, you can print out a log and keep track on paper. If you join a group, you can see how others in the group are progressing, selecting by date, activity, and state.

When you have reached the level to earn an award, you can order it online, by phone, by fax, or by mail. The awards include patches, certificates, and medals. You can also order shirts, hats, etc. Once you have achieved an award, you can keep progressing to the next level. The Silver Presidential Champion Award is earned with 45,000 points and the Gold with 90,000 points.