Health Care & Benefits Division

Holiday Challenge - Holiday Holdout!

 Holiday present

The 2023 Holiday Challenge - Holiday Holdout - ran from November 20 - December 15, 2023!  

The Holiday Challenge is a healthy habits challenge. The Holiday Holdout Challenge inspires you to make good choices during the holiday season to better manage stress, feel good, and stay fit even while it is cold outside and our activities are different than normal.  There is motivation as you go along and prizes at the end too!

The challenge is open to all members of the State Plan.

To Participate

The Holiday Challenge is complete.  Look for new details in November 2024.


Contest details

  • You’ll compete as an individual - but can absolutely still work together!
  • The goal is to complete one Holiday Holdout from the list below at least 5 days each week. Everyone who logs their “holdouts” at least once a week will be entered into a drawing for prizes!
  • This is a self-reported contest, which means you need to click the thumbs up arrow (on Sonic Boom - link above) to indicate you completed a “holdout.”  NOTE: you can self-report your activity up to 7 days in the past.
  • To see how you’re stacking up overall against others who are participating in the challenge, check out the leaderboard on Sonic Boom (link above). Then, look just below that to follow your personal daily progress.
  • Be healthy and have fun!

Holiday Holdouts (choose one per day):

  1. Bring your own healthy snacks to a gathering
  2. Make a healthy dessert
  3. Skip a sugary treat
  4. Make a healthy substitution
  5. Say “no” to an invitation/obligation you can’t make
  6. Pass on a libation
  7. Talk yourself out of an impulse buy
  8. Craft, upcycle, or repurpose a present
  9. Reconnect with a friend or family member
  10. Eat lunch or hang out after hours with a coworker
  11. Write down 3 good things that happened today
  12. Get 7-9 hours of quality sleep
  13. Go on a social media “fast” for the day
  14. Post a picture on the “Caught Ya” section of the main page
  15. Go on a 30- to 45-minute walk
  16. Spend at least 15 minutes reading or listening to uplifting book or music, share the titles on Caught Ya
  17. Complete at least one Mental Wellbeing Academy course
  18. Spend at least 5 minutes in nature (walk, bike, play a yard game, work in the garden, visit a park)
  19. LOL by practicing laughter and smiling, spend time with those that make you chuckle, or look for humorous blogs, YouTube videos, or other ways to tickle your funny bone
  20. Practice positive lingo

Prizes

The best prize is better health! We'll have other super cool prizes as well.  Winners will choose from a variety of prize choices including kindle fire, yeti cups, coolers, wireless ear buds, and much more.

Winners will be selected from a random drawing from all participants who entered their "holiday holdouts" for each week of the program. Prize winners will be announced within two weeks of the end of the Challenge.

 

Still have questions?

Contact HCBD at (800) 287-8266, (406) 444-7462, TTY (406) 444-1421, or benefitsquestions@mt.gov.

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