Parking spots offer prizes, good health

Parking Spots Offer Prizes for Good Health

 

 

 

SALT LAKE CITY — The health benefits of regular activity are well known, and a new parking lot initiative can help pay off in ways you wouldn't expect.

Keeping active can significantly lower the risk of heart attack and can lower blood pressure and cholesterol. But if an hour at the gym doesn't always fit your busy lifestyle, health professionals like Intermountain Healthcare's Dr. Liz Joy say work more activity into the things you already do.

"We want people to achieve activity throughout their day," Joy said. "Taking the stairs instead of taking the escalator or the elevator, parking a little bit further away from where your destination is and taking those steps is important. All those activities add up to improve your health."

As a healthy reminder to live active, Intermountain Healthcare's LiVe Well program has painted scores of parking spaces that are meant to get people into the habit of walking more.

Intermountain has about 60 locations around the state where we have these parking spots.

–Bobbi Tibbets

"Intermountain has about 60 locations around the state where we have these parking spots," said Bobbi Tibbets with the Live Well Parking Prize Patrol. "These parking spots are a great way to maybe get into a habit of parking farther no matter where you go, whether the spots are there or not."

Parking your ride in one of those spots might just gain you more than just great health, though.

"We also might catch you and give you a really great prize for it," Tibbets said. "A significant thing like an iPod. We've given away iPods, gift cards, T-shirts."

Tibbets said Intermountain is always eager to paint even more stalls.

"If a business is interested in being involved with this, then they can just go to intermountainlivewell.org and fill out a form for us to come out and paint their stalls," he said.