{"id":23779,"date":"2019-05-09T19:11:08","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23779"},"modified":"2019-05-09T19:11:11","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:11:11","slug":"inside-aurora-even-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-even-better\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Even Better"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the article on the\nfront page last week, it appears as if Aurora is once again hoping to be named\nCanada\u2019s most fit community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around, it\u2019s\nParticipACTION\u2019s Community Better Challenge. \nIn this event, people across Canada are being asked to track their\nminutes of fitness.  These will be rolled\nup within each community via postal code to see which municipality is the most\nactive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winning community will\nreceive bragging rights, as well as $150k to be directed to local fitness\nneeds.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Aurora\u2019s case, I\u2019m sure\n$150k could go towards the inevitable annual repairs to the Leisure Complex\u2019s\npool, skateboard park, or whatever else happens to be falling apart in the\nbuilding when we receive the prize money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a noble ambition for the\nTown to be number one, and I know to some of you the effort required to\nparticipate may seem daunting, especially if you haven\u2019t stepped foot in Club\nAurora since you took out your annual fitness membership in early January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, while it\u2019s assumed\nparticipants in the Challenge will focus on traditional exercise like jogging,\nswimming and team sports, nowhere does it say specifically what activities are\nincluded or excluded, and there are many activities unique to Aurora that could\ngive us an edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, repeated standing\nup and sitting down burns calories. Therefore, by leaving your picnic table to\npick up that third helping at Ribfest, you are doing your part for the Town. So\ncount those minutes, including ones spent agonizing over the option of getting\nthe barbeque or honey-glazed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of parking near the\nGO station means that Aurorans walk untold extra kilometres each day to and\nfrom their cars. Citizens in other Canadian communities participating in the\nChallenge can only dream about the minutes of activity they\u2019re missing out on\nby their municipalities providing more than enough parking near their train\nstations. While one may think of this time as just commuting, let\u2019s take\nadvantage of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note that this\nlack-of-parking-that-encourages-fitness-so-let\u2019s-count-those-minutes strategy\nalso applies to visits to the library and Cultural Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many other things\nyou may not think to include in your Challenge minutes, but really should, as\ncollectively they consume a lot of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just to name a few, these\ninclude such things as employing erratic steering motions to dodge local pot\nholes, trying in vain to eradicate your portion of Aurora\u2019s eight billion\ndandelions from your yard, and chasing after your recyclables on windy pick-up\ndays, even if you are doing so in your pajamas and fuzzy slippers, rather than\nproper athletic attire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While not traditional, or even\nintentional physical activities, the above examples do include an element of\nmovement.  However, Aurora provides\nopportunities to count minutes of activity when you\u2019re simply staying still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being angry and\/or stressed is\nnot particularly healthy, but technically it does still burn calories. So make\nsure you count those minutes you spend stuck forever behind people turning left\nat Yonge and Wellington, or time spent fuming when you see your latest water\nbill, or waiting endlessly in line at the polling station at the upcoming\nFederal election, while those in front of you try to convince the polling clerk\nthat their old Blockbuster membership card qualifies as proper identification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the above ideas, even\nthe most devout couch potato should be able to contribute some minutes to the\nCommunity Better Challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we all play our part, I\nthink Aurora\u2019s got this one in the bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston Based on the article on the front page last week, it appears as if Aurora is once again hoping to be named Canada\u2019s most fit community. This time around, it\u2019s ParticipACTION\u2019s Community Better Challenge.  In this event, people across Canada are being asked to track their minutes of fitness.  These will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6bx","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 23:16:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}