The Benefits of a Break

Last week we celebrated the Fourth of July. In the Northeast, it was fabulous weather and I am sure there were many barbeques, picnics and family and friend gatherings. An article in the Boston Globe referred to July Fourth as a “happy holiday” in contrast to Memorial Day and Labor Day which represent more somber or more serious commemorations.  I feel that all holidays should provide an opportunity to recharge and share fun with others and to not think about work or other stresses in life.

Speaking about recharging and summer, this is a prime time to try to fit in either a breather from our normal day to day routines, or a complete vacation if you are able. True vacations from work are so important because they ward off burnout, promote creativity, recharge our batteries, and overall improve quality of life.  According to Susan Krause Whitbourne, PH.D., in a recent Psychology Today article on the importance of vacation, chronic stress takes a toll on everything from our resistance to infection, sleep, our ability to ward off injuries and certainly our mental state. Taking a break from the stress of life can break the cycle at least for a while. 

Not all of us have the luxury to get away from it all but if you do, try to unplug and detach from work email and Smart Phones. Dr Krause says that if you are a person who dreads going back to work and having to plow through thousands of emails, look at your work email for 10-15 minutes a day and then shut down.  If you are unable to take a total vacation away somewhere, a stay-cation at home can be restorative if you plan day trips and step out of your normal routine.  Even a long weekend can help re-charge your batteries whether it is home or away with the goal of trying to disconnect from work either completely or as much as possible.  Planning fun activities that you enjoy in advance can help keep you from straying from the goal of having a true break. There are many resources on the internet to help plan local trips such as The New England Vacation Guide.

If you are in a management position try to encourage your employees to take time off, even for a few days since in the long run the company will be rewarded by having employees coming back with renewed energy and focus. Finally, vacation doesn’t have to be the time to totally blow the diet and healthy eating habits. Take a look at Healthy Destinations and see what you can do to control the waistline and enjoy the fun!

Here’s to a good summer and hoping you can take a break!!

Get Employees Moving – Promote Fitness Walking

Last year, The American College of Sports Medicine published revised recommendations for the amount of moderate physical activity that is needed for weight loss:

• At least 250 minutes per week (50 minutes a day, five days a week) for significant weight loss
• At least 150 minutes per week to prevent significant weight gain (20 – 30 minutes, most days of the week)

 Are most overweight Americans living up to these physical activity prescriptions described above? The resounding answer is NO!

 Fitness walking (which is defined as walking at a pace that is above a stroll, being slightly breathless but still able to talk) is a logical activity to get people started on the road to weight loss and better health. If it is so logical, why aren’t more people lacing up sneakers and taking to the outdoors before work, lunchtime or after work for a brisk walk? Our Fitness Works at Work professionals hear all kinds of excuses for why people don’t exercise but these are the most common ones: “No time, can’t get away from my desk, my boss has scheduled a meeting at noon”, etc.

Another observation is that walking is perceived as a leisure activity and not as a fitness activity. On the other hand running is taken seriously and even meetings are rescheduled or not planned at all so that a runner can get his or her time in. When someone says that they are going for a walk, it conjures up a stroll with friends and not a true fitness activity. 

So as an organization, if you are not doing so already, legitimize fitness walking and promote it as a worthwhile, healthy activity. Encourage your managers to give employees time to walk, run and exercise in any other way during their lunch break or other times during the day.

Here are some ideas to get a walking program started:

• Make sure you have a safe place to walk outside
• Enlist ideas from employees who already have a fitness walking routine established
• Form a walking buddy network or oganize a walking group
• Set up competitions between departments or plants using an online tracking calendar on hard copy journals
• Set up a virtual walk among all your US facilities and offices
• Offer “time spent” walking programs by tracking time where there is no need for pedometers – set a time goal instead of a step goal

 What about pedometer programs?
In most cases when people wear pedometers they become more aware of their activity level (or lack of activity) and do make efforts to increase their activity level. However, we have found that the inexpensive models one wears on the waist can be a waste of time. They are time-consuming to calibrate, count any type of movement as “steps” giving false information on activity,  fall off, break and in most cases aren’t accurate and lead to frustration. We now encourage our clients to use accelerometers. They are more expensive but are worth it. We have had great success with our ActiHealth Program using the Actiped from FitLinxx. The ActiPed is a very small, wireless activity sensor that clips onto any shoe and accurately tracks steps, distance traveled, calories burned and activity time. The data from all ActiHealth devices is sent wirelessly to http://www.actihealth.com where members create a personal web site by choosing from a variety of engaging applications that allow them to track their data, set goals, create contests and join communities.. Our FWAW coach then works with participants to set goals and then works with them on a weekly basis to help them stay on track and reach their goals. Many employees who have participated in this program have made significant health changes in reducing weight, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. Contact iris@fwaw.com if you are interested in learning more about our program.

Bottom line:  Onsite fitness walking programs and creating a culture of wellness where employees are urged to take time to exercise during the work day can not only help employees to become more active and less of a health risk but can also help overweight employees reach that 250 minutes a week of physical exercise they need to promote weight loss.

The Gift of My Job

Last week I took the train to Manhattan to provide a day of wellness at the field office of one of our bio tech clients. As I was walking the dogs this weekend I was thinking back on that experience and reflected on the true joy and gift it is to be in the health and wellness business.  

I went down on Tuesday night and stayed at a very surreal, uber hip hotel called the “Hudson” that gave the vibe of being in a nightclub and was designed by the founder of Studio 54. Wild scene and rumor had it that Lady Gaga was staying there that night so the place was nuts.  Anyway, I spent most of Wednesday in the client’s facility teaching back–to-back sessions on topics such as Back Care, Stretch Breaks at Your Desk, Abdominal Training and Fitness on the Fly.  Went non-stop from 9:00am – 3:00pm. At the end of the day on the train ride home, I was one tired puppy but had a huge smile on my face from the experience.

 Every time I do one of these wellness days for a client, the consistent wonderful reaction I get from the participants amazes me.  Employees, especially those that don’t normally have health and wellness programs available to them, are so appreciative and grateful for the opportunity to learn ways to take better care of themselves.  It is a joyful experience to make so many people’s day and get to experience the transformation in someone learning (many for the first time) how they can stretch at work so they don’t go home with aches and pains, help relieve back tension, learn how to do exercises anywhere without needing equipment…etc.  I will have this group’s happy, smiling faces in my mind for quite a few days.  I know they felt like I had given them a gift by being there providing this event but it was actually me who got the gift, the gift of experiencing once again the powerful impact the health and wellness field has on those we touch.  Thanks to all of you in the NY office for reminding me how lucky I am.

To Your Health,

Iris

Wellness Watch Blog May 2010

Last week I attended the New England Health Institutes’s Forum on Employee Health Promotion. It was an executive roundtable discussion and one of the critical  issues discussed was whether health promotion programs improve employee health and hold down health care costs — the question many employers ask as they wrestle with what to do about health care spending. The opening presenter was Ron Goetzel, PhD, who is Research Professor at Emory University. I was really excited to hear what Dr. Goetzel had to say because he is a widely published expert in health and productivity management (HPM), return-on-investment (ROI), program evaluation and outcomes research.

In his presentation, he highlighted research studies where companies such as Johnson and Johnson, Highmark and Citibank have shown ROI for their worksite wellness programs. It was impressive. However, the research and parameters for these types of programs are difficult if not impossible to administer in most companies that do not have the money to support the implementation and research needed to show results. But it was gratifying to know that targeted health promotion practices do make a difference and can be documented. I did take away one simple statement from Dr Goetzel — providing individual health promotion counseling to high risk employees in a healthy culture can be the magic bullet for successful worksite wellness efforts.

What is a healthy corporate environment with regard to worksite wellness? I see it as twofold —environmentally healthy and culturally healthy. Here are some components of both:

• Environmentally healthy– healthy food choices in the cafeteria and vending machines, offering a smoke-free environment, indoor and outdoor spaces for healthy activities and opportunities to take part in a wide variety of health and fitness programs.
• Culturally healthy–Support and visible participation from senior management in healthy activities, aligning employee wellness with company goals and policies, giving employees time and encouragement from managers to take part in health and fitness activities and offering incentives to participate.

If you are interested in reading the review of the results of worksite health promotion studies, check out the February supplement to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine “What Works in Worksite Health Promotion”. Ron Goetzel is one of the authors.

Wellness Watch Blog April 2010

Here in Massachusetts March ended with torrential, flood-causing rain and April came in with record warm temperatures that reminded most of us of June. The jury is still out on whether this weather pattern is attributed to global warming or just an unusual weather occurrence. At any rate it does lead us to think about our environment and how we are taking care of it or abusing it.

April 22, 2010 is the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day which was started in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson. Its purpose is to promote ecology and respect for life on earth and to encourage awareness of the growing problems of air, water and soil pollution. Today many individuals and corporations are taking on Senator Nelson’s cause. Although conserving, recycling and reusing don’t seem to fit into a traditional corporate wellness program, they rightfully belong there because of how they impact our health and that of generations to come.  Many organizations have sustainability committees that are looking for ways to put into practice these efforts.  Some examples of activities already underway in our client organizations are:

• Genzyme and National Grid have award-winning green buildings
• Millennium Pharmaceuticals:  A Takeda Company has a “Think before You Print” campaign and has all biodegradable cups and packaging in its cafeteria and company-wide to reduce waste
• Haemonetics recycled 20 tons of paper in 2009
• WR Grace has black and white and double printing default settings on all its printers
• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is composting food waste and most of its cafeteria paper products in the cafeteria kitchen and dining area which is taken away and used by local farms

During the week of April 19-23, in honor of Earth Day, Fitness Works at Work is working with Soles4Souls, an organization that takes new and gently used shoes and donates them to people all over the world who desperately need footwear.  Our on-site fitness leaders and health promotion specialists will be staffing tables in our client companies and taking shoe donations from employees. We thank our clients Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Art Technology Group, Fresenius Medical Care North American, Smith & Nephew, Ocean Spray, Dunkin Brands, Flir Systems, The MathWorks, and W.  R. Grace for partnering with us in this effort.

Consider celebrating Earth Day this year. Organize a community clean-up, host a company-wide recycling drive, and sponsor an eco-friendly information fair with agencies and vendors who support sustainability. What can you and your organization do to conserve, reduce and reuse?

Wellness Watch March 2010

March marks the launch of our new Fitness Works at Work website and with it I will be contributing a monthly blog on ideas and comments on research findings and other health promotion issues. Since March is our first issue and also the American Dietetic Association’s National Nutrition Month^© it is an appropriate time to discuss a topic that comes up in discussions with human resource professionals – how can I get my food service on board the health promotion efforts of my organization?

Walking through a company cafeteria at lunch time, you can see the full spectrum of employee food choices –some good, some not so good.  I suspect though, that you will see a fair number of employees consuming hamburgers, french fries, chips, sodas, cookies and other not terribly nutritious foods. Understandably from a food service perspective, these foods make money and if you took out all the unhealthy foods, you would probably have an employee rebellion. However, your food service is your vendor and you have a right and, frankly, an obligation to talk with your chef and see where you can make inroads into providing and promoting healthy choices.

Vanessa Cavallaro, RD, President of the Massachusetts Dietetic Association and Fitness Works at Work presenter says “Compliment, don’t criticize and approach your food service vendor in a collaborative way. Making changes is a long term process and isn’t going to happen in a month.”  She suggests that small consistent healthy changes over time make the most sense and are the easiest way for employees to accept change.

Here are some other suggestions to get the conversation going:

• Make an appointment with the head chef. Have him or her pick a down time so you can have their full attention. Usually meeting later in the week and later is the day is better timing.
• Before meeting, make sure you are familiar with all the food offerings in the cafeteria.
• Look over your food service consumer website as there usually is lots of information and helpful bells and whistles. For example, on Sodexho’s Wellness and You! website, you can find a nutrition calculator for all of the items in their cafeteria, a weight management program, BMI calculator and other helpful links. Then you can explore ways to publicize the website to employees.
• Do some background reading ahead of time. Here are two helpful articles:  Healthy Eats: How to Overhaul the Worksite Cafeteria and Cafeteria and Vending Machine Guidelines: Implementing Healthier Options
• Start the discussion with what your food service is doing well –whether it is providing a regular healthy entre, a good salad bar, less sodium items, more broth-based soups and then brainstorm ways to promote these healthy items with employees. If these choices are selling, your food vendor will be more likely to make more healthy improvements.
• Consider tackling one area of the cafeteria first – soups, snacks, deli, grill, entrée, etc…. Get employees used to seeing new “healthy” items and let them build trust that the offerings will be tasty.  It will leave them wanting more.
• Plan advertising strategies well.  If you are working with a company that does not have an existing “healthy option” cafeteria program, how will you announce new items?
  • What “health” claims will you post on either the menu or cafeteria station signage?
  • Will you offer nutrition facts or more generalized statements (i.e., lower sugar, higher fiber, healthy fats, healthy proteins, lower sodium)?
  • Will you offer any “start up” incentives to boost employee participation?

In most cases chefs are eager to showcase healthy items and help in wellness efforts but remember their main job is to provide breakfast and lunch for your employees with choices that employees like to eat.  What you want to do is establish a positive working relationship where you meet monthly or quarterly so that all food service topics can be discussed –vending machine choices, food for office meetings as well as cafeteria options. Some of these issues require corporate policy decisions but if you have a positive working relationship with your food service vendor, you are heading in the right direction in establishing a corporate culture of health.

Iris' Eye Blog

In launching our new website, I have reflected on the amazing journey of not only Fitness Works at Work but on the evolution of the whole corporate health and wellness industry and the culture changes companies experience when they bring wellness to the workplace.  This March, we will be celebrating our 28^th year, quite an amazing feat for a company that began with just me teaching group exercise in a small high-tech company in Cambridge.

I started teaching corporate fitness in 1982 (hence the name Fitness Works at Work) and had a passion and gift for teaching a unique type of class which gave participants a good work out but also focused on body alignment and provided cautions and options for those with body problems, all of which made me sound like a freak in the 80’s.  Think back to that time of do-it till-you-die, body pounding aerobics, Jane Fonda and leg warmers.  Ok, I did wear the leg warmers (and matching leotards), but I had a very different approach to teaching that really spoke to people and was a perfect match for the corporate world.

Teaching these classes in that organization then led to my offering other wellness programs to all of its employees, not just those who took my classes. From this high-tech company our client list grew and I got to experience firsthand the transformation that occurred by bringing employees the opportunity to improve their health and fitness, right at the workplace.  Companies’ cultures changed, the employees who participated in the programs lives changed and with each new client we got to witness this wonderful transformation and how the program became such an important, highly regarded and indespensible benefit.

So back to the launching of this new website 28 years later. We have stayed firm in our roots and belief in the importance of bringing health and wellness to the workplace.  It is more than just a way to help contain health care costs.  It is how you change the culture of your company, one employee at a time.

To Your Health,

Iris

Wellness Watch January 2010

Resolve to Help Employees Kick the Tobacco Habit in 2010

The first of January comes along every year and with it usually comes resolve for many of us to adopt a new healthy behavior or to stop an unhealthy habit. For a smoker, kicking a tobacco habit is a resolution that has the most impact on living a healthy life. It is estimated that over 34 million people want to stop smoking. Most people who quit smoking for good have tried several times before they are successful.

As an employer, lowering the incident of tobacco use among employees is a resolution to keep throughout the year. It is estimated that a smoker costs $3,561 a year in direct medical costs and lost productivity due to smoking-related illness, according to the Center for Disease Control¹. Making sure that your organization has a comprehensive, on-going smoking cessation program that address smokers at all levels of their readiness to stop is an important goal. Here are some implementation ideas:

• Make your workplace smoke-free and offer programs that support good nutrition and exercise.
• Communicate to employees the importance of quitting and your organization’s support in their quitting.
• Make sure your health plan offers effective treatment for smoking cessation including online and telephonic support, and covers pharmacotherapy.
• Disseminate the American Lung Association and American Cancer Society smoking cessation information on a regular basis.
• Offer a quarterly “Are you Thinking of Quitting” information session led by a trained tobacco cessation specialist who outlines the latest pharmacotherapy, nicotine replacement aids and support ideas.
• Offer a variety of on-site programs such as hypnosis, meditation and stress workshops that help people to quit.
• Run on-site smoking cessation clinics periodically and allow relapsed smokers to join the group again.
• Publicize local hospital and clinic programs.
• Offer incentives for healthy behaviors.

Taking steps to good health shouldn’t be something to focus on solely in January but an ongoing process over the course of the year. As an employer, when employees successfully make healthy behavioral changes, whatever time of year, it is good for business. They lead to lower health care costs, better on-the-job-performance and less absenteeism. Helping employees who smoke to quit is one of the biggest bangs for your wellness bucks.

Wellness Watch December 2009

It’s the Most Wonderful… and Stressful Time of the Year!

The holidays are upon us with family gatherings, gift giving, work parties, and for many of us, high expectations of grand celebrations. That coupled with the effects of the economy can motivate some of us to pull the covers over our head and reemerge sometime in January. Before the grandeur begins to numb your senses, think about how you can keep a season of holiday cheer in perspective for yourself and for your employees. Here are some ideas:

Give to yourself: To stay stress-resilient, be sure to continue your exercise routine and make healthy eating choices. Having a strong foundation of healthy habits will help you rebound from a stressful situation, and will remind you that moderation is the key.

Give to others: If your budget allows, onsite chair massage is a stress reducing gift that can be given to staff to show appreciation for hard work, and at the same time benefit the organization with more productive employees.

Reduce the hustle and bustle: Allow flextime for employees to do their holiday shopping during non-peak shopping hours. Organize a small craft/vendor fair at the workplace so holiday shopping can be done with ease. At the same time, raise money for a good cause by donating vendor fees to a charitable organization.

Stay within your budget: Financial worries can be a stressor throughout the year and particularly during the current economic climate. Create a holiday gift budget and stick to it.

Check your list: Organization and good planning will help reduce the last minute runs to the store. If you are hosting a gathering, plan your menu and create a shopping list. Write down your gift list and don’t forget to include your spending limit.

A long winter’s nap: Get 7-8 hours of sleep daily. If you are having trouble falling asleep, create your “to do list” for the next day and allow for some downtime before bed. To help you relax, listen to music or try meditation, visualization or progressive muscle relaxation. Avoid caffeine and alcohol six hours before bedtime.

Forget about perfection. If you’re beginning to feel overwhelmed ask for help. This is a time for giving and sharing. A gathering can be made easy by asking your guests to bring a dish to pass. Have family members help with baking and chores around the house.

Keep this as your holiday mantra

Good food, good friends, good times…in moderation!

The Fitness Works at Work team wishes you a happy holiday season and a healthy 2010

Wellness Watch September 2009

In Search of ROI

As a health promotion program provider, we are sometimes asked by clients what will be my return on investment from my wellness program? It is a fair question with a complicated answer. There have been many studies over the years which have documented the effectiveness of wellness programs, some saying that for every one dollar of investment, an organization can realize up to $5 in return in future heath care costs.^{1, 2} These studies are usually meta-reviews of a number of smaller studies or a study with a large employee population based over a series of years. Most organizations which are running wellness programs aren’t at a point where they are willing to invest the time, money and effort into that kind of study.

There has been some research in two areas where an ROI on projected future use of the health care and pharmaceutical benefit may be realized – in smoking cessation and obesity reduction measured by BMI.^{3, 4} This is not surprising since most know the impact of smoking and obesity on disease prevention.

However, a study published in the April 2009 Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine suggests that poor health among workers is far costlier that just medical costs because poor health impacts productivity. In a recent Employee Benefit News podcast, the lead researcher of the study, Ronald Loeppke, MD, MPH, stated that the full cost of poor health is 30% medical and pharmaceutical costs and 70% health-related productivity costs shown by absenteeism and presenteeism (an employee is at work but not working up to full capacity because of medical considerations.) He suggests that instead of focusing exclusively on ROI, employers should consider VOI – value of investment. The health of a workforce is a performance driver and enhanced productivity is of great value and leads to a greater bottom line. To quote Dr Loeppke: “Enlightened employers are increasingly looking to the benefits of good health as an investment to be leverage rather than just looking at the health care benefit that has to be managed.”

So how does this relate to on-site wellness programs? It means that a company which is working to provide a culture of wellness by offering a variety of health promotion events and activities in areas of weight management, increased physical activity, smoking cessation, stress management, for example, is on the right track. The more in-depth and consistent the programs can be directed to behavior change, the higher probability that an ROI will be realized down the road in health care costs. But keep in mind that the true value of your wellness program investment is likely to show up in increased productivity and performance and that is what really affects the bottom line.