Exercise is a key component of breast cancer prevention. 30 minutes of moderate physical activity per day can help decrease your body fat percentage and the amount of estrogen in your body. Exercise also strengthens your immune system, which enhances your body’s ability to recognize and eliminate early cancer cells. In addition, exercise along with a healthy low-calorie diet helps maintain a normal body weight, a crucial component in decreasing your risk.
But how to make sure you get your daily 30 minutes? Make a game of it! Enter the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) Challenge, a program of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. Over 1 million PALA and Presidential Championship awards have been presented so far. How do you get yours?
- Sign up on the www.presidentschallenge.org website. It’s free!
- Pick one of the four challenges. We recommend the PALA challenge, which encourages kids to move 60 minutes a day and adults to move 30 minutes a day, both for 5 days a week for 6 out of 8 weeks.
- Get moving! You can even break your activities into 10-minute smaller chunks. Or, you can substitute your activity with steps on a pedometer.
- Log your activities online.
- Earn your Presidential Active Lifestyle Award!
- Check out the cool PALA gear.
- And, most importantly, keep going with your new healthy lifestyle. Remember, breast cancer risks don’t go away because you’ve gotten an award. Risk is reduced from a long-term healthy lifestyle.
