Personal Fitness Merit Badge

On Saturday April 25, approximately 10 Scouts began work on Personal Fitness merit badge. Mr. Carey wants to thank all the other adults who helped make the day a huge success!

Over the next 12 weeks, each Scout who attended the April 25 class needs to complete a variety of action steps at home. Scouts of parents can see Mr. Carey during regular Tuesday Troop meetings if there are questions. The boys will need parent help or reminders to get everything finished. This includes keeping track of their exercise and nutrition progress on the forms they took home after the April 25 class. Scouts can use the paper version of the forms, or they can re-type them in computerized version (Excel, Word, etc.). Here is a summary of action steps organized by due date:

April 25-28:

• Each Scout should decide upon his exercise and nutrition improvement goals for the next 12 weeks. He should write his decisions for the 7 questions on his “Goals” form.
• Make 11 more copies of his “12 Week Daily Exercise Log” form. This will give him one page for recording his exercises during each of the next 12 weeks. Label each of these pages to correspond to each of the next 12 weeks.

April 26-May 2:

• Each Scout should select 3 days this week to monitor what he eats and drinks. He should write this information down in the “Week 1” boxes on his “Food and Drink Record” form.
• Each Scout should begin the daily exercises he wrote down on his “Goals” form. He should start writing his daily progress on his “12 Week Daily Exercise Log” form for this first week.

Each Day for the Next 12 Weeks (April 26 through July 25):

• Each Scout should record his daily exercises on his twelve “12 Week Daily Exercise Log” form sheets. For example, he would record his exercises for May 19 on the “12 Week Daily Exercise Log” page for the week of May 17 to May 23. Note: If a Scout does not do his exercises on a specific date, he can record that result on the forms.

May 17-23 (Week 4):

• Each Scout should select 3 days this week to monitor what he eats and drinks. He should write this information down in the “Week 4” boxes on his “Food and Drink Record” form.
• A parent or other adult should help each Scout repeat the four exercises we did during the April 25 class (1 mile run, sitting stretch, sit-ups, and pushups). Write the results in the four boxes on the “Fitness Record” form for Week 4.

June 14-27 (Week 8):

• Each Scout should select 3 days this week to monitor what he eats and drinks. He should write this information down in the “Week 8” boxes on his “Food and Drink Record” form.
• A parent or other adult should help each Scout repeat the four exercises we did during the April 25 class (1 mile run, sitting stretch, setups, and pushups). Write the results in the four boxes on the “Fitness Record” form for Week 8.

July 19-25 (Week 12):

• Each Scout should select 3 days this week to monitor what he eats and drinks. He should write this information down in the “Week 12” boxes on his “Food and Drink Record” form.

Soon After July 25:

• Mr. Carey will announce a date when the entire group of Scouts working on this merit badge will meet again at the Scout Hut to finish this badge. Specific date and times are to be determined, but it likely will be a Saturday morning in late July or early August.
• At this final meeting, each Scout MUST bring paper copies of ALL FIVE of his forms. These include:
  • The merit badge requirements “blue card” that he started on April 25
  • “Goals” form
  • “Fitness Record”
  • “Food and Drink Record”
  • “12 Week Daily Exercise Log” including separate pages corresponding to each of the 12 weeks running from April 26 through July 25.
• BEFORE coming to this final meeting, should complete his research related to Requirement #8 for this badge entitled “Future Career or Lifestyle.”
• During this final meeting, we will review each Scout’s forms, complete the Requirement 8 discussion, and repeat the four exercises for Week 12/End Date on the “Fitness Record” form.