Q:

What is Get Fit Twin Cities?

Q:

What is Get Fit Twin Cities trying to accomplish?

According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 65% of U.S. adults aged 20 years and older are either overweight or obese, resulting from poor diet and too little exercise. The Twin Cities are not immune to this alarming trend.

Get Fit Twin Cities promotes physical activity and proper nutrition and will provide Twin Cities residents an opportunity to join a fun, communitywide movement to improve health.

Q:

What is the deadline for registering a Get Fit team?

March 1st.

Q:

Can children participate in Get Fit?

Yes. Children under the age of 18 can participate in Get Fit with parent/guardian consent and a parent/guardian must serve as the Team Captain. Get Fit will not be communicating or collecting email addresses of children, therefore, it will be the responsibility of the Team Captain to provide the child with Get Fit information and report his/her minutes of activity.  

Q:

Why was the Weight Loss division eliminated?

Last year Get Fit included a weight loss component, however, this year Get Fit is focusing on promoting a healthy life style through physical activity and nutrition - this benefits both children and adults! For those concerned about weight, adopting healthy eating and exercise habits are important for successful weight loss.

Q:

How do I start my own team?

Recruit 1-9 more people (for a total of 2-10 team members) to join you in getting more physically active and/or losing weight. To register your team, you will need the following information from each team member:

• Name
• Age
• Race or ethnicity
• Zip code of residence
• Weight, if your team is registering in the Weight Loss Division
• e-mail address, if available 

After completing the registration form, you will be prompted for payment for your entire team; however, the first 10,000 people who live or work in Minneapolis or St. Paul register for free, all other Twin Cities metro area participants register for $5.

Q:

What Happens After I register my team?

After registering your team, each member will receive an email that will include their individual username and password. Participants can then download a Get Fit Pass that provides access to free or reduced rate fitness clubs, activities and classes. A “Get Started” email will be sent out to all participants reminding them of the Get Fit start date.    

Q:

What counts as physical activity?

Pretty much anything that you deem to be intentional physical activity. For example, walking from your desk to the elevator does not count but intentionally taking the stairs instead of the elevator does. Moderate or strenuous activity on the job also counts. The idea is to track how much time you spend daily being physically active and then trying to increase it. Examples of moderate activity would be walking briskly, dancing, shoveling the snow, swimming for recreation and bicycling.

Q:

How will I record minutes of activity?

You can report your Minutes of Activity by logging into your personal dashboard or you can report your minutes to your team captain and s/he can report them for you.

Q:

What is the role of the team captain?

At a minimum, team captains are responsible for registering their team, entering montly reports of Minutes of Physical Activity and/or Weight, and sharing Weekly Get Fit Twin Cities e-mails with members of his/her team. More importantly, team captains play a key role in keeping the team members motivated and involved throughout the four-month program. A Captain's Handbook with ideas for team activities will be mailed to each team captain.

Q:

As team captain, how do I sign up another team?

Q:

Can I add, delete or replace a team member after initial registration?

Team captains can add or delete a team member by logging into their team dashboard and clicking on View/Edit team members. If a participant has been deleted from a team and would like to be reassigned to another team, please contact us at info@getfittwincities.org.  

Q:

What kinds of local events will Get Fit offer?

Get Fit had a kick-off event for the 100 Days of Fitness on January 12, 2008 at the Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis.

Other local Get Fit events include Get Fit Tuesday Mardi Gras celebrations, skyway lunchtime walks and other events in Minneapolis and St. Paul. These will be publicized via the weekly emails and on the Get Fit homepage. Check often for updates!

Q:

Who is behind Get Fit Twin Cities?

Get Fit Twin Cities, an affiliate of Live Healthy America, is a program of:

• Steps to a Healthier Minneapolis, an inititative of the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support, and
• Steps to a Healthier St. Paul, an inititative of St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health, and
• Community partners and sponsors; for a list click here

Steps to a Healthier Minneapolis and Steps to a Healthier St. Paul are part of Steps to a HealthierMN, a national program funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that focuses on the prevention of diabetes, obesity and asthma.

Q:

How do I register a Minnesota team outside of the Twin Cities?

Q:

Why do some participants have to pay the registration fee and others don't?

Anyone in the Minneapolis and St. Paul metro area is eligible to participate in Get Fit Twin Cities. As sponsors of the program, the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul provided registration fees for 10,000 of its residents and worksites. Registration fees are determined by the worksite or residential address of the team captain only.

Q:

Who can I contact with additional questions?