logo
Wellness In The Workplace
January 2008
More In This Issue
Sign Up
Quick Links
Workplace Wellness Challenges
Jay

A Healthy and Happy New Year from LoneStart

Jay Seifert, LoneStart co-founder

Happy 2008 everyone. It's a brand new year, a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. This is the time to reflect on the events of 2007, celebrate the arrival of its newly-minted replacement and look ahead to the challenges and opportunities of the next twelve months.

Those of us concerned with the health and wellness of ourselves, our families, our friends, our employees and our communities would probably agree that the challenges we faced in 2007 will continue, if not accelerate, this coming year. Our finite health care resources (individual, organizational and societal) will be severely strained and the increased costs will be born by all stakeholders. And despite all the attention now being paid to wellness, our current behaviors (poor nutritional choices and inactivity) will continue to result in a growing epidemic of preventable and expensive to treat chronic conditions. With 50 percent of corporate profit now going to employee and retiree health care, employers will continue to seek opportunities to relieve the burden of an unhealthy workforce. (See costs of overweight and obesity.) Some suggested strategies that seem extreme today may be commonplace in a few years. Employees are finding that unhealthy lifestyle choices come with ever steeper price tags.

The challenges we'll face this coming year are many and self-evident. We believe the opportunities are as well. Healthcare is consistently at or near the top of our list of concerns and our awareness of the need for effective wellness initiatives has never been greater. Wellness is on everyone's radar screen because it's simply no longer avoidable. We all recognize the problem. The encouraging news is that virtually all thinking beings also know the answer to that problem: We all must take personal responsibility for our health, challenge ourselves to make better nutritional choices and find ways to overcome the inertia of inactivity. Fundamental behavior change is necessary if we are to achieve sustainable individual, organizational and societal health and wellness.

This will be the busiest month in LoneStart's history with every indication that the opportunities to tell our story and share our strategy will continue to expand throughout the year. LoneStart was founded on the premise that people would respond to an opportunity to take charge of their personal health if (and only if) they believed they had a realistic expectation of success. As much as we want to be healthy, we don't want to try and fail once again. By offering a realistic, positive, intuitive opportunity to make modest but meaningful lifestyle improvements, achieve some immediate success and then build on that success, people respond positively and enthusiastically. We simply need to give them a little credit, create a real opportunity that works within the context of their lives and let them discover that they have more power than they realize if they will use it.

This is a great time to tap into that power. Best wishes for a healthy, happy and productive 2008.

Stress
From Pre - Holiday Stress to Post - Holiday Stress -- and Beyond

We ate too much. We spent too much. The holidays are over, and many of us feel let-down, depressed, stressed-out and guilty. There's no way to un-eat, un-drink or un-spend what we ate, drank and spent. Now it's time for damage control -- time to get on-track for the New Year.

Experts say it's a combination of many factors that results in both pre- and post-holiday stress: unrealistic expectations, over-commercialization and financial constraints as well as the demands of shopping, parties, family reunions, house guests, and too much joy and cheer. We experience stress in the form of headaches, over-eating, difficulty sleeping, muscle tension, bloating or fatigue from too much fat or sugar, and the guilt from eating, drinking and spending too much. In fact, it's a little too much of everything, even the good times with family and friends.

We offer the following ideas to help you and your employees deal with post-holiday stress:

  • Get Moving - Getting the blood flowing is the perfect remedy for a "food hangover." Think simple, such as walking and stretching, and pay attention to posture. Even 15 minutes will boost your mood and energy level.
  • Drink Water - Bloating can be an overload of salt which can cause water retention. Many holiday favorites contain much more salt than our body's need, and extra water can help rid the body of this extra salt.
  • Eat lightly - You may think, "I'll never eat again," but you will get hungry. Nibbling on lighter fare for awhile, such as salad, soup, fruit, grilled fish, or sandwiches on whole grain bread will provide nutrients without overloading your body with calories and fat.
  • Make a Plan - Of all the side-effects that come from eating too much, guilt is one of the worst. But we can use it to move us on to something better. Start with a plan for just the "next few days" to get back on track. Even the act of planning is productive-the follow-through the reward. Plan to increase your level of physical activity, and plan healthy nutritious choices.
  • Look to the Future - We shouldn't just write off the mistakes we made during the holiday season. We should learn from them, and use them to make positive choices in the future.

So, we overindulged. As we begin the New Year, we need to be mindful that each healthy choice we make now is a reminder of our commitment to a healthy and fit 2008 - and beyond.
2008
How to Start a Workplace Resolution Revolution

Here we are, new month, new year. This means your employees are newly resolved (once again) to take charge of their health and wellness. There's more lunch-talk about calories, good carbs, meal plans and the latest celebrity, can't-miss diet strategy. Some have bought exercise equipment or joined health clubs. And since it's still the first week of January, there's a pretty good chance they're actually using that treadmill or going to that club. Anything that gets us thinking about the effect of our lifestyle choices on our health and wellness is a good thing. The bad news is that all these good intentions have a pretty short life expectancy. Still, this is a great time to take advantage of the fact that wellness is (at least momentarily) high on everyone's list of personal priorities. So let's make the most of this opportunity.

We've prepared a list of eight easy-to-accomplish, highly effective actions all of us can do to dramatically improve our personal health and wellness. They can all be done within the context of our lives. They don't take time and they don't cost money. But they do deliver real-world benefits and do so dramatically and, in some cases, almost immediately. We've prepared this list, "Do These Eight To Be Great in 08" as a down-loadable page that can be printed and distributed to your employees.

If you like, send us your logo and we'll incorporate it in the page and send the file back to you. There's no charge. It's our way to help you get your employees off to a good start this year. It's up to all of us to take the initiative to be Great in 2008!

Help us be sure this e-mail newsletter isn't filtered as spam. Please add our return address (info@lonestartnow.com) to your address book. That may 'whitelist' us with your filter-and ensure that future issues get through. Thanks!

If your organization is ready to take responsibility for promoting healthy lifestyles and a healthy work environment, LoneStart is an effective, low-cost and easy-to-administer employee wellness program, which functions equally well as a stand-alone initiative or as a high-impact jump-start to existing or proposed employee wellness strategies.

Contact us today to find out how the LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative will change your workplace.

Please share Wellness in the Workplace with colleagues.

Please forward this newsletter to friends and associates who will benefit from a workplace wellness strategy such as the LoneStart Wellness Initiative.

A Challenge. An Opportunity. A Solution.
The LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative
phone: 512.894.3440