Wellness In The Workplace
January 2012
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Help Us Make Wellness Viral
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It's That Time Again!
It's the first of a brand new year, a time for plans, goals and resolutions. This is also an optimal time to look at what can be accomplished by creating a culture of wellness within your organization. Since 2005, LoneStart Wellness has demonstrated to employers, employees, communities and individuals that modest, meaningful and mindful changes in daily behaviors produce significant and sustainable results. And, that is just the beginning. So, to help with your wellness decisions and plans, this January issue is devoted to getting that process started. 
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Making Wellness Work
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To Start-off the New Year ...
There is widespread agreement that the many challenges we faced in 2011 to improve employee health, reduce demand for care and maintain viability will continue, if not accelerate this coming year. The challenges are numerous 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. Improving employee wellness is on everyone's radar because it's simply an issue that can no longer be avoided or deferred.
Our finite health care resources (individual, organizational and societal) have been severely strained. We all bear those increased costs. 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 more than 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. And, employees are finding that unhealthy lifestyle choices come with ever steeper price tags.
Organizations that maintain wellness and health promotion programs understand that through those programs they have the ability to achieve lower health care and disability costs, and less absenteeism than organizations that don't offer, or don't engage their employees in an effective wellness program. These are challenging times - and those employers most effective at immediately engaging their employees in wellness will find it to be at a significant competitive advantage.
Traditional "diet and exercise" programs chronically under-perform, and when organizations and employees feel they have failed at attaining wellness, they develop a kind of wellness fatigue. This can only be overcome by creating a new set expectations and successfully proving that they can be exceeded.
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. Our experience tells us that this is also the time that many organizations tend to move employee wellness up their list of priorities. We can help you do just that.
Best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year of positive new beginnings.
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Creating a Culture of Wellness
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Motivation is Key to Successful Resolutions
(Including the one where you're going to implement an employee wellness initiative.)
Get yourself healthy. Get your employees healthy. Improve your bottom line. Good Resolutions. Easy to make, but harder to keep.
Much of it comes down to motivation. Whether for yourself or your employees, changing behavior is a challenge. You have to be ready to make the change - and willing to stay at it. And, you must believe that the costs will be more than offset by the rewards you expect to realize. It's a process that develops over time, and one that, once the commitment is made, goes through a series of stages.
- Pre-Contemplation. You know you need to make a change, but don't plan to do so anytime soon. There's always tomorrow. and, you're not sure it will really make a difference or if your employees want to participate.
- Contemplation. You're weighing the costs, effort, time commitment and benefits.
- Preparation. You decide to go for it.
- Action. You have a wellness plan in place and are following it. Employees are involved, excited about the changes they are making, and finding ways to work the wellness strategy into their lifestyles at work - and home. This is also the stage most at risk for relapse, which is why the LoneStart Team Esteem Challenge is an essential part of our wellness program.
- Maintenance. Your wellness plan is working. Your employees are making and sustaining lifestyle modification choices and are actively finding ways to maintain their new health and wellness. This is where employers and employees really start to appreciate the benefits of a working wellness initiative.
Generating enthusiasm for a wellness program will drive the interest and motivation your employees need to stay with their challenge long-term. And, achieving their goals - and keeping their resolutions - results in exactly what you hope to attain - long term change, reduced health care costs, and at the same time, improved communication, morale and productivity. Convert those resolutions into reality and imagine what can be accomplished through an established culture of wellness within your organization a year from now.
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Share the Health
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From Pre-holiday Stress to Post-holiday Stress . . . and  Beyond
Most of us feel it, and many of us have trouble knowing exactly how to deal with it . . . Stress. We hope you'll share the following "stress-busters" with your employees!
Here we are. The holidays are over. We ate too much. We spent too much, 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, and bloating or fatigue from too much sodium, fat and sugar, as well as the guilt we feel for our over-indulgences.
Consider the following ideas as LoneStart jumpstarts, to help you and your employees conquer post-holiday stress with a fresh start in 2012:
- 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 10 minutes of any activity will boost your mood and energy level.
- Drink Water - Bloating can be an overload of salt which can cause water retention. Most holiday favorites contain much more sodium than our bodies need, and extra water can help cleanse the body of this extra salt, thereby lowering blood pressure. It also aids circulation and digestion.
- Sleep - A good night's sleep help's you tackle the day's stressors. It also aids learning and memory, metabolism and weight loss, mood, cardiovascular health, and the immune system. Most adults need between 7 and 8 hours of sleep per night.
- Eat lightly - You may think, "I'll never eat again," but you know you will. Simply choosing 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 - not just during the holidays, but as a way to reinforce healthy behaviors year round.
Statistics show that as many as 85 percent of all physician visits now involve a lifestyle / behavioral component, and stress-related issues account for up to 90 percent of those visits. In addition, 55 to 75 percent of all illnesses are thought to be stress-related. This is why the third module of our Team Esteem Challenge is "Stress Less."
Stress is a part of our lives, but there are preventive actions we can all take to reduce it. Let's all take those positive steps to stress less in 2012.
For additional interesting, thought-provoking ideas, check out our "Wellness & Well-being" Blog. You can also "Like" LoneStart Wellness on Facebook (just click the icon).  You'll find links to our Blog posts and many other wellness-related articles.
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If your organization is ready to take responsibility for promoting healthy lifestyles and a healthy work environment, and if you are ready to create the foundation for a sustainable Culture of Wellness, 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.
Please share Wellness in the Workplace with colleagues and employees.
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 Wellness Initiative
phone: 512.894.3440
Editor's Note: The information contained in this newsletter is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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