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Wellness In The Workplace
January 2010
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To Start-off the New Year . . .

It's the beginning of a brand new year, the time when we have the most optimistic expectations for our organizations, our employees and ourselves. Our experience tells us that this is also the time that many organizations tend to move employee wellness up their list of priorities. So, to help with those decisions and plans, we're using this January issue to help familiarize you with exactly what LoneStart Wellness offers (Do Wellness Programs Work? Well Some Do and Some Don't) and how it differs from the "traditional" wellness programs with which you may already be familiar. We're also including useful information we hope you will distribute to your employees (By the Numbers), and proven actions (Sewing the Seeds of Success) that offer specific steps your employees can take to begin to achieve their health goals for 2010-and beyond. And, please refer too, to our most recent blog post, "Goals . . . Why they're elusive-and why they don't have to be."

Best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year of positive new beginnings.

employees or customers
Do Wellness Programs Work? Well, Some Do and Some Don't.

What sets LoneStart Wellness apart from "traditional" wellness programs?

Imagine this. You walk into a company where employees appear happy, healthy, fit, are fully engaged and enjoy their work. Imagine too, that it is a successful company-people working to their optimum capacity, no presenteeism, and low absenteeism. Sound too good to be true? It doesn't have to. In the simplest of terms, this is a company that values its human capital and has developed a true culture of wellness. There is a well-established link between wellness, productivity, reduced stress, lower incidence of chronic illness, lower health care costs and higher bottom line profit. On both organizational and human levels, wellness matters to this company.

Wellness is a powerful concept-it is also an achievable reality. Wikipedia defines wellness as "a healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit that results in a central feeling of being well." Who can argue with this? But with traditional (diet and exercise) employee wellness programs, too often the life goes right out of the concept. Health assessments, disease management, on-line logs to fill out, and gym memberships your employees don't want to use do not inspire the very employees you need to engage if you are to create a sustainable culture of wellness. These traditional programs seem to assume that sickness is here to stay and needs to be discovered, managed and controlled. And, they make the unwarranted assumption that just because information is offered, it will be used. For the most part, they fail to account for what drives behavior change, or how to effectively motivate that change so that it becomes lasting and sustainable, shifting the focus from illness to wellness.

This is the start of a New Year, and we believe it can be the beginning of a better way to look at what can be accomplished by creating a culture of wellness, one that actually focuses on wellness and prevention. Since 2005, LoneStart Wellness has demonstrated to employers, employees, communities and individual participants that modest, meaningful and mindful changes produce big results. And, that is just the beginning.

If you are not already familiar with how LoneStart Wellness differs from traditional wellness programs, please take a look at the following links, and CONTACT US for more information.

When "traditional programs" don't work, and when organizations and employees feel they have failed at attaining wellness, it may be time to try a fresh approach. Wellness does indeed matter (now more than ever), and going from concept to reality means moving closer to creating a lasting culture of wellness-one that delivers real benefits to your organization and your employees.
Blood Pressure
By The Numbers

Vital health numbers = lower cost numbers.

We all deal with numbers every day-from phone numbers to access numbers to the numbers that tell us what time it is. But the numbers used to determine key indicators for at-risk employees, "health numbers," are often unknown and sometimes ignored. Knowing these numbers raises awareness of associated health risks for major illness and chronic diseases (heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and it means putting "real" numbers on the benefits of wellness for your organization and your employees.

(19 - 25) Body mass index - A measurement of weight in relation to height. While it doesn't accurately measure the percentage of body fat, it is still considered the best predictor of future health care costs. A BMI between 19 and 25 is considered a desirable range. A BMI between 26 and 30 is considered overweight. BMI greater than 30 is considered obese, and greater than 35, morbidly obese. This extra weight increases chances for high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and a wide range of chronic illnesses. In fact, obesity is associated with 53 known diseases, including some cancers, and is considered the equivalent of 20 years of aging. The cost of obesity to private employers is conservatively estimated at $13 billion per year. Obesity and overweight are responsible for an estimated 27 percent of the annual upward trend in medical premiums paid by private employers. (National Business Group on Health) In medical costs alone, employers can expect to pay an extra $51,019 per 100 employees annually.

(Below 200) Cholesterol - There are no clear symptoms of high cholesterol, yet it is associated with both heart attack and stroke risk. Total cholesterol (HDL, good cholesterol and LDL, bad cholesterol) should be below 200. Obviously, you want to have lower LDL and higher HDL to make up the total number. For every point you raise your HDL you reduce your risk of coronary disease by 2 percent.

(80 to 120) Blood sugar (Glucose) - If glucose is too high - or too low, it could be an indication of diabetes, the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. Type 2 diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions and is associated with heart disease, kidney disease and a number of other chronic illnesses. The risk of death for those with diabetes is twice that of people without the disease. (Centers for Disease Control) Annually, health care costs for an employee with diabetes are 13-times higher than for a "healthy" employee. (Diabetes America)

(120 over 80) Blood Pressure - Blood pressure is a measure of the force of blood as it gets pushed along the walls of your arteries. High blood pressure (hypertension) increases the risk of stroke, kidney disease, and heart attack. Because there are often no associated symptoms, it has earned the nickname "the silent killer." Of the 50 million US adults with high blood pressure, 70 percent do not have their blood pressure under control.

No matter what your and your employees' numbers are now, they can all be improved by healthy lifestyle choices. Even small changes in nutritional behavior and physical activity can have a major impact on overall health. Knowing the numbers is a start, but it's what you and your employees do with them that will make a difference - in both their individual and your organization's health and wellness.
Seeds of Success
Sewing the Seeds of Success

We all start each New Year with the hope and expectation that it will be better than the last and that we will be more (or perhaps in some ways, less) than we were the previous year.

Surely by now we all know that fundamental behavior change is necessary if we are to achieve sustainable individual, organizational and societal health and wellness. And, as much as we want to be healthy, we don't want to try and fail once again. To this end, we've put together a few simple ways to help you and your employees get off on the right foot (literally) in 2010.

Be mindful of nutritional choices. It takes a 3,500 calorie deficit to lose one pound-and it's a lot easier to avoid those calories than it is to work them off. You would have to walk 5 miles a day to lose the same weight you could by reducing your food intake by 500 calories a day.
  • By reducing your portion size by only 15 percent (as few as 3 or 4 bites) for only one meal a day, you can save between 100 to 200 calories per meal. This can result in more than a 10 pound annual weight loss. (Imagine what you can accomplish if you do this at every meal!)

Look for simple opportunities to put your body in motion. Walking only 20 minutes each day will burn off 10 pounds of body fat in one year.
  • Short bursts of activity (for as few as 10 minutes at a time) can affect how your body metabolizes blood sugar for up to 72 hours.
  • Taking the stairs for a total of 2 minutes, five days a week burns 100 to 140 calories, as many as in a 20- minute walk.

Watch liquid calories. Liquids make up about 22 percent of our daily calories - but they don't satisfy our hunger like solid foods do.
  • Most caloric drinks consumed before or during a meal are not satiating and have little or no effect on how much you eat in one sitting or over the course of several meals. Because liquids travel more quickly than food through the intestinal tract, they alter the rate of nutrient absorption, which can affect satiety hormones and signals.
  • A 12 oz. can of sweetened soda contains 150 calories and 10 teaspoons of sugar that do nothing at all to satisfy hunger-and just one can a day can result in an annual weight gain of 15 pounds.

By being mindful of nutritional and activity choices, and making these small changes, can get you started on the road to sustainable wellness - and that's what a New Year is all about.

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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 Wellness Initiative will change your workplace.

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