How were you active during October?

Three teams were selected by the City of Surrey to participate in the Be Active Challenge during the month of October, which was Healthy Living Month.

Each team received a month of healthy lifestyle coaching, including healthy eating tips and eight personal training sessions.

Each team also received a one-year free facility pass for use at all city-operated recreation centres and facilities.

The teams' progress during October was tracked online, in video and in a weekly update in the Now newspaper.

Each team's story will also be featured on the City of Surrey website and residents will be asked to vote for their favourites.

The winning team will receive a $500 active getaway to Whistler.

Our weekly write-ups about each team focused on what they want to achieve and how they were "Be Active" throughout the challenge.

Surrey residents get to decide who they found to be the most inspiring participants in the Be Active Challenge.

From Nov. 7 to 13, log on to surrey.ca/beactive to vote for who they would like to see win the grand prize $500 active Whistler getaway.

JULIA AND LORI

Great news - after only three weeks with our personal trainer, we're down seven inches between us!

This week, we finished up with our personal trainer, Rose. We are now working to save up some money so we can meet up with Rose again in the future to update our program.

It was a busy week for both of us so it took a little organizing and reorganizing to get in our "Be Active Challenges," but we did.

This week brought us Halloween. "Walking the hood" in costume was fun and easy - and our Halloween candy remained untouched.

We're now starting to write down everything that goes into our mouths, keep up with our water intake, trying to cut out sugar and watch our carbs.

We plan to continue with our weight/cardio program at a minimum of twice a week at our neighbourhood gym and adding in at least one extra activity, be it biking, power walking or an exercise class for the third day.

MALA

This was the fourth and final week of the "Be Active" program. I had started out apprehensively. Now, in my A to Z of fitness, I could say I was approaching my fitness activities with considerable zeal and zest.

My trainer Dan helped me by designing a program structured around my health issues. Now I feel confident that I can train on my own.

Most importantly, every day affords the opportunity to do something that will improve my physical conditioning.

The experience has been a blast and I've acquired skills that will last a lifetime.

I'm now looking forward to going back to my regular cardio and circuit training sessions and attempt the routines that I had avoided out of fear.

What did I learn from this month? I learned that anybody can lead an active life and work toward a healthy life with proper nutrition and exercise.

Let's be active Surrey!

NOEL, ROXANNE AND ASHANTI

Overall, this month has been positive in so many different ways beyond the physical aspect of this challenge to be active.

My family has always been active and on the go but during this month, we have found various and invaluable ways to keep active. This past week, it was Ashanti's turn to select the activity we would do next with our trainer, Kerry. She chose Aquafit.

It was fairly challenging - I was out of breath midway. Kerry, as usual, was so considerate and adapted the exercise to each one of our needs. As well, this week we kept active with elliptical training, isometrics, swimming, and of course biking with Elvis (our dog).

Ashanti has been very busy with her basketball and cheerleading practises. This week we will be doing our first ever boot camp class.

Thanks to everyone for their support, and don't forget to vote!