Legionnaire Michelle Heaton joined The American Legion’s USA 250 Challenge to motivate herself and celebrate America’s 250th birthday.
The American Legion USA 250 Challenge is ending soon, but I am looking forward to a personal challenge — continuing my progress for many years to come.
I was really excited when I first read about the USA 250 Challenge because I’m always looking for motivation and accountability buddies! So, I brought the idea of doing it as a group to the Women Legionnaires Committee at Ronald Reagan Pacific Palisades Post 283 in California. Without hesitation my fellow members agreed to take part in the challenge in one or more of the categories. I was no longer alone on my journey for self-improvement!
There was a time when my weight stopped me from participating in fun activities. I struggled with health issues due to my weight, and as you could imagine, this led to a decline in socialization because of associated mental health issues.
I chose to sign up for all three challenge categories — physical fitness, mental wellness and community service — to help get me out and into social situations among my peers and community. This allowed me to refresh my spirit with mindfulness activities, work with health professionals on my mental health and pushed me to try new things with the physical fitness part of this initiative.
Let me tell you — it has felt like the busiest year of my life.
I was helping with as many American Legion events as I could, passing out school supplies, helping our homeless veterans find housing, working membership booths at varies events like local car shows, fleet weeks, and even the Indy Car Races at Laguna Seca California.
For mental health I became more open with my family and friends. I engaged with peers with online chats while playing video games and took part in (California) American Legion Gaming. That helped me find a community online and people I could chat with at any hour of the day, so dark moments didn’t have a place to hide. I started back with mental health care providers at my local VA, practiced mindfulness and meditation, and started using audio aids for guided sleep practices to try to improve my bedtime routine.
Participating in fitness was a slower start. Let’s face it: fast food and slow days are easier than putting in the work to stay busy and create healthy meals at home. Having my fellow Legionnaires on the same journey as me helped tremendously with accountability and made it feel like fun.
Between deep sea fishing, sunrise hikes, pickleball, indoor rock climbing, riding mountain bikes, bowling, laser tag and so much more, I have had my eyes opened to so many new experiences, getting opportunities to work on my physical wellbeing and feeling like I had purpose again while making new friendships along the way.
I can’t thank The American Legion enough for bringing this idea to its members and their families. It has been a great way to promote The American Legion in so many ways. Engaging with our servicemember community. Talking openly about difficult topics. Motivating one another to make healthy lifestyle changes that are sometimes pushed to the side when you have to face them alone.
I don’t need to get into the numbers. My weight loss journey speaks for itself. The benefits go beyond the changes to my body.
I can see changes to my reaction when being out with other people. I can see the joy again in my face; I notice I hide less in the background in group photos. I have more memories cataloged with activities that I never saw myself doing in a million years.
This is proof that combining community service, mental wellness and physical fitness helped. Now part of me glows inside, knowing I matter, I can make a difference — one connection at a time. We all need to Be the One first for ourselves and then for others.
I know there are others out there doing the same thing for me in our amazing organization. This isn’t the end. It’s not goodbye. The challenge represented 365 days that are just the beginning of something great! Let’s keep it going!
Michelle Heaton is sergeant-at-arms at Palisades Post 283 in Pacific Palisades, Calif. She is also the secretary for the post’s Women Legionnaires Committee.
- USA250 Challenge