Lose Weight. Eat Healthy. What's Your Why?

Since 2009 C2 Your Health LLC has sponsored the Michiana American Heart Association Go Red for Women BetterU Luncheon held each May.  Each year for the 12 weeks previous to the luncheon   BetterU Challengers (12 women) follow the recipe for better health to reduce their heart disease risk (blood pressure, cholesterol, weight) along with reducing their risks of all chronic diseases through lifestyle modification. C2 Your Health LLC engages the participants in the same wellness programing they provide to worksites resulting in consistent improve lasting health and wellness. This year the BetterU Challengers are from Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center, South Bend, IN. 

This weeks blog is from the Michiana BetterU Blog - Enjoy!

No matter what it is you want to achieve, there is one question you can ask yourself to get to the core fundamentals of your goal and massively increase your motivation.
That question is simply, “Why?”

 Glen Allsopp, How One Little Word Improve Your Motivation

Here we are at the midpoint of the Better U Challenge, 6 weeks in and 6 to go. Now is the time for a little reflection; as the famous statement goes from the movie Mission Impossible, "Your mission, should you choose to accept it" is to put into one single word what success means to you, or in other words "your why?"  

Just one word, not an essay, a paragraph, or even a sentence, just one word.  One word that's personal for you. One word with meaning and depth that goes to the core of answering the question of "why be healthy and fit for the rest of my life? One word to motivate, inspire and direct your actions as you move forward. One word that's bigger than you, and temptation to lose direction. One word to hold you accountable.  

To read the rest to the BetterU Blogspot click here 

Your partner in health,

 

Cindy Cohen, RN 

Wellness Consultant

C2 Your Health LLC

Challenge Yourself to Get Healthy It’s a Win Win - Northern Indiana Community KENKO Challenge adds Competition to Health and Wellness

PRESS RELEASE

South Bend, IN March 16, 2013: C2 Your Health LLC of South Bend, Indiana is partnering with Columbus Chamber of Commerce and joining Shelby County Chamber of Commerce KENKO Challenge of Ohio to bring a spring community KENKO Challenge to Northern Indiana. The Community Spring Northern Indiana KENKO Challenge will help our community by increasing awareness of healthy behaviors, eating healthy to lose weight, what to eat that’s healthy, exercise to be fit, exercise to lose weight and reduce stress in the workplace.

The KENKO Challenge was developed by the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and explains “KENKO, as meaning “health” in Japanese, it is a workplace wellness team-based challenge with the objective of implementing a fun and engaging approach to creating healthy changes in behaviors and the workplace. KENKO combines mobile, online, print, and social media.”

The Northern Indiana KENKO Challenge is a 9-week worksite wellness program that promotes competition among the participating teams to create healthy changes in their lifestyle. The challenge is available to all interested small businesses, organizations, large companies, and individuals. Each team must be composed of 2-10 members. Team members will participate in various challenges that focus on increasing their personal health awareness, improving their nutrition, promoting a healthy work environment, and increasing awareness about their personal health. Registration ends April 9th, 2013 the challenge begins just after spring break, runs between April 15th – June 15th  2013  just in time for summer.

According to Corporate Wellness Magazine Workplace Wellness  ““Challenges” - activities that engage people in becoming happier, healthier, and more energetic at work - are gaining popularity and changing lives at work.  The purpose of Challenges is to encourage healthier lifestyle behaviors.  Challenges are successful when a supportive, positive climate of fun and camaraderie helps people to adopt or maintain a healthy way of living.  With little or no investment in creating a company challenge, the net result is an engaged and productive workforce that performs at a higher level – everybody wins!”

Cindy Cohen RN, health consultant and owner of C2 Your Health LLC says “creating teams that compete against each other fuels excitement, provides people with like interests support each other, increases success and is loads of fun!”

click here to read the rest of the press release

Worksite Wellness Who Pays?

Here's an article from Prevention Benefits Work Healthy Employees Cost Less ....

No matter how you design your wellness plan, who you ask to help you and how you decide to pay for it, one thing is for sure; wellness programs are here to stay and are critical to the survival of your company.  Here are a few ways of paying for a wellness program:

1. Employer Pay

To attract new employees, employers will want to show new hires the great benefit package they offer. Most employers who offer a full benefit package offer the PPO plan type (55%).  The most common is the HMO plan (17%).₃ The benefit package includes workman compensation, tuition reimbursement, health insurance, life insurance, paid time off, and vacation and employee assistance programs. Along with preventative care, wellness benefits include gym memberships, discount coupons, and other services. Employers will reap the rewards because they will be able to hire and retain highly qualified workers.

2. Employer - Employee Pay (Cost Sharing)

Cost sharing is now a norm on health insurance premiums. Most employers share the cost of health insurance premiums with their employees through managing deductibles ranging from $600 to $1,900+, co-pays and hospital admissions. ₃  Cost sharing is here to stay and as health insurance costs increase you will see an increase in cost sharing to reduce employer costs. Employees are more aware than ever before of their role in controlling health care premiums. Cost sharing is available for wellness benefits too. Just like the employee shares in the cost of their health insurance they share in their wellness benefit package too. Cost sharing helps employees to be more accountable and encourages the employee to take a more active role in their health.

3. Employee Pay – Voluntary (Employee Pays)

One way to tailor a benefit package to a wide range of employees with different needs, employers offer voluntary programs. In other words, if the employee wants the coverage, the employee pays for the entire premium.  This voluntary insurance might include bundling of long term disability coverage for critical illnesses, accident insurance, additional life insurance, and health insurance. ₄  Wellness program benefit options are being offered as employee pay enrollment. This type is gaining popularity and most employers are offering these packages in order to accommodate the ever increasing needs of the employee and offset the rising cost of healthcare. ₅ Employers look like heroes in the community because they appear to be offering these programs themselves yet it is fully funded by the employee through payroll deductions.

Health Care Reform

One thing is for sure, no one really knows what is happening with the health care legislation. It’s important to follow the happenings for what’s next. Many provisions have been implemented since 2010 and many more are on the way. What we do know is the cost of health care will continue to be shifted to the employer, so stay tuned.

You can no longer sit back to “wait and see” what happens because it’s happening to your company right now. If you already have a wellness program and it’s not saving you money, then re-evaluate your wellness program and begin to ask those critical questions which will help improve the health of your employees and your company.

Health and Happiness in the new year,

Ibett

Ibett Giannone, MBA

Coldwell Banker

Ibett earned her Master’s in Business Administration from Bethel College, Mishawaka, IN. She has worked for profit and non-profit organizations as Controller reviewing financial statements, budget analysis, financial statement and reports for over 20 years. She has also worked closely with top administration on financial strategies, budgeting and reporting.  Currently, Ibett is a Broker Associate, Realtor, CDPE affiliated with Coldwell Banker.  You can contact Ibett on LinkedIN  http://www.linkedin.com/in/ibettgiannone or by email igbrightstar@gmail.com.

1.  Don Hail, DrPH, CHES. How Much Does a Good Wellness Program Cost? Wellsource.Inc., 2011. 

2. Utah Department of Health Bureau of Promotion. Building a Healthy Worksite, A Guide to Lower Health Care Costs and More Productive Employees.  P. 8-9 www.health.utah.gov/worksitewellness

3.  Employer Health Benefits – 2011 Annual Survey. The Kaiser Family Foundation Summary Report # 8226 www.kff.org.

4. Mark Roberts. 2012 The Year of Voluntary Benefits. Preventure Wellness Blog, January 6 2012. www.preventure.com.

5. Jessica Messenger. Voluntary Benefits to Spike in 2012 – Wellness Program Increase?  Preventure Wellness Blog, January 13 2012. www.preventure.com

Not Happy at the Workite - Make Friends

No friends at work? It may be costing you your health and your company's bottom line.

If you have friends at work you might be thinking how weird is that?  Not as weird as you think. You may not even think about how having those friends at work impacts your day or how the work gets done.  If this is you then you are in the 20% - 30% who like their job.  Work is a pleasant activity, an opportunity to see those you like and care about; your friends there waiting for you. You may even look forward to going to work to be surrounded by this positive work environment.

For most people this is not the case.  Research shows 60% - 80% are unhappy with where they work.  If you are in this group, you may be wondering what it's like to have friends at work.  Or if not friends to just like those your spend most of your waking hours with. You dread getting up in the morning to go to work. You would rather do pretty much anything else than to have to go into where you work one more day. You may even be thinking if a better job with nicer people came along you would take it. This thinking is not just bad, it's toxix for you and your company.

Why is this important?


Research done during the Blue Zone Project demonstrates one of the keys to longevity and vitality is having close social contacts ie. friends.  The value of friends included in strong social network can not be underestimated in impacting your personal health and wellness. If you are wondering where you stand on vitality and what else you can do check out the Vitality Compass on the Blue Zone Project website. These days people are working longer hours, skipping vacations and working during personal time making it harder and harder to establish social connections outside the workplace.

Harvard Business Review in Why Friends Matter at Work and Life  reported "once you're on the job, having a best friend at work is a strong predictor of success. People might define "best" loosely (think of this as kindergarten where you can have more than one "best" friend), but according to a Gallup Organization study of more than 5 million workers over 35, 56% of the people who say they have a best friend at work are engaged, productive, and successful while only 8% of the ones who don't are."

Financial Times online in  Friendship in the Workplace sited Jessica Pryce-Jones, author of Happiness at Work, says: “Friends can help you be more productive because people tend to achieve more when they feel supported.”

To have someone at work you feel comfortable in sharing your frustrations, disappointments and problem solve difficult situations with your co-workers and even your boss minimizes feelings of disappointment, sadness and isolation in the work place.

Having friends at work, fuels job satisfaction, knowing you make a difference in the success of your company. In short, people who have friends at work, want to go to work, are committed the quality of their work, engaged in the company goals and are loyal.

As an employer your goal of creating a culture of wellness for your employees includes fostering healthy supportive friendships at work. It will not only produce healthy, product employees, it will positively impact your companies bottom line.

Your partner in health,

 

Health Consultant

C2 Your Health LLC

Stressed Out? Balance Work and Live

 

Just turn on the news and you'll be hearing about the latest company down-sizing, right-sizing, slow down, re-organizing, down economy or as the financial advisers say, “economic winter.”  What about you?   With all this bad news and the demand of work, you may be burned out –possibly physically and mentally exhausted.  With constant worry, increased responsibilities and more work - life becomes frantic.   Our minds become heavy with fatigue and dizziness.  This is enough not only to make you feel tired, but make you sick…really sick.

The connection between your perception of stress and your body's ability to fight off disease is so strong; some experts think stress can be "deadly".  So you're right, your job is “killing you” and now we can prove it!  Feel better? 

Stress can be different things to different people.  For most of us stress is commonly caused by a feeling of too much work, too little time, financial loss, and feeling out of control all of which contribute to thoughts which can make you feel depressed.  Everyone suffers from stress at some point in his or her life, but the real challenge is to overcome and defeat the stress developing inside you, and not let it kill you.

Stress is connected to chronic ailments such as back pain, headaches, and fatigue.  Chronic diseases such as the flu, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, Crohn's Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, GERD just to name a few, are all impacted by long-term stress. 

This is what stress feels like when it's developing inside you:

Anxiety - Gives you a feeling of nervousness often causing tension, like the fear something serious is going to happen. A feeling if impending doom. Anxiety over time can cause headaches, muscle stiffness, upset stomach, eating disorders, and constipation or diarrhea.

Fatigue - A feeling of extreme physical or emotional tiredness. This is the “sick and tired” feeling and “too tired” to get things done. Extreme fatigue can cause mental fog, preoccupation, sleepiness, a feeling of not being “100 percent”.

Depression – Mild depression is a mental or emotional mindset of perpetual hopelessness and unhappiness.   When feeling depressed it’s hard to get up in the morning, trouble sleeping or too much sleeping, muscle and joint pain, headaches, fatigue, sadness, lethargy, feelings of worthlessness, a loss of interest in work and social activities.Helpguide.org has great information on understanding depression. 

Stress - Stress impacts your ability to work too.  When you are stressed, you may be less productive, more accident prone, make more mistakes, get sick, or miss work.  Remember the last time you worried about that big project?  Your head was pounding, back aching, and then developed a cold due to all the stress?  Well here are six tips you can implement in your life to reduce stress and consequently, avoid those sick days. Check out this stress calculator to rate your stress level.

In fact depression which is an extreme form of stress and fatigue including work - life imbalance significantly impacts your health, your employees health and the health of your company. When considering a worksite wellness or corporate wellness program for your employees be sure to address this issue. 

6 Tips to Reduce Stress and Live Better

1. Modify your work pattern.

Take breaks, volunteer more and reduce the hours you work. 

2. Change what you're thinking. 

Change your attitude by adding exercise such as meditation or yoga. Evaluate what concerns you, ask for the help of your co-workers, and seek medical attention.

3.  Eat right.   

If bad foods give bad health, then good food gives good health.  Simple!  Good nutrition is vital for your mind and body.  Stay away from fatty foods and fast foods; instead try to eat whole foods in their natural form: fresh, raw, and organic whenever possible.  To maintain good health, avoid sugar, salt and processed foods. Take whole food supplements which are medically approved, clinically researched, and are healthy for the body.  Seek the help of a health coach, dietitian or other medical professional. We recommend Juice Plus+ Whole Food.

4. Add an activity. 

Money can buy fat, but can't burn it.  The minimum recommended amount is 30 minutes a day.  Start by increasing your time walking.  Exercise makes the body secrete the natural painkillers, endorphins; and also makes you feel better.  Increasing your activity helps keep you healthy and increases your body’s ability to combat diseases.Check out American Heart Association worksite START program.

5.  Get proper sleep.    

The National Sleep Foundation says when you sleep, your body heals itself.  Lack of sleep not only decreases concentration at work, it also reduces the ‘coping ability’ of your body and lowers immune function. 

6. Find someone to talk to.    

People who hold in their feelings are at higher risk of developing more ailments and diseases.  Find someone you can trust to share your feelings with; perhaps a co-worker, family member, friend or therapist. When you share how you're feeling with someone else, you create the opportunity to feel less alone.  You become more connected to others around you, consequently, becoming less stressed.

Your partner in health,

 

Cindy Cohen RN, Wellness Consultant

C2 Your Health LLC

The Process of Weight Loss - What Works

With the holidays here and all that goes with them weight loss is on everyone's mind.  If not weight loss then weight management and with the coming new year weight related resolutions. At work employers have or almost have completed their insurance benefit renewals and are gearing up for 2013 of which the obesity epidemic is in the for front due to the increase risk of multiple medical conditions that you gain with it.  If helping your employees lose weight is an objective of your company ... Bravo!  Your employees are lucky to have an employer who demonstrates a caring environment. Before you jump in with both feet you might want to consider what works and what does not. Following the correct process will save your money and your health.

There are two ways to think about losing weight:

1.  Focus on the end goal, the lost weight.

This is the “I’ll lose weight at any expense” program. This encourages starving, over exercising, increased personal and physical stress.  The weight is lost which is the goal; only to discover a few months later, more is weight gained than lost. With this type of wellness goal, there is an increased of physical stress, disease risk, and sense of failure.  In the end you’re back to where you started but worse, negatively affecting your work and personal life.

2.  Focus on the process.  A healthy lifestyle creates optimum weight-loss. 

We all know adopting healthy lifestyle habits of making healthy food choices, increasing activity, getting plenty of sleep and reducing stress will result in weight loss.  We know living a healthy life will create optimal health resulting in an increased sense of well-being and improved quality of life. We also know when overall health is improved we feel great at work, get more done and go to the doctor less.

Let’s take a look at what else we know about the process of creating wellness. We know if you follow a healthy diet, exercise, and reduce stress, you will reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases.  We know when it comes to your health it’s better to do something than nothing at all. So when choosing to do something how about doing what works.

Let's COMPARE to what we already know does not work with what works. 

What we know does NOT work:

1. Pressure to achieve unrealistic goals results in unhealthy behaviors. My favorite example of this are the "Biggest Loser" type weight loss competitions. On the surface this sounds like a great idea and lots of fun. However, after you think about it, not such a good idea. Anyone can lose weight. All you have to do is stop eating and the weight just falls off and fast too! This encourages unhealthy behaviors and almost universally those who lose weight just gain it back again plus some more. Research shows quick weight loss (fasting) increases stress, damages your muscles, slows down your metabolism, depresses the immune system and increases health problems. 

2. Focus only on weight loss excludes others. When the focus of health is primarily weight loss it excludes those who are not interested in losing weight. Many people are of normal weight but are extremely unhealthy eaters and if you do have members of the over weight population who do not join your weight loss program they are made to feel bad for their decision. This not only reduces the participation rate it also reduces morale. In fact, these weight loss programs do the opposite of what the intention was meant to be. In health you are either getting healthier or less health (sick). There is no middle ground. So if you are not eating healthy then you are eating unhealthy. This includes everyone.

3. Weight loss does not equal perminate healthy habits. The promotion reduction of calories at all costs is unfortunate. This propagates unhealthy choices in foods such as processed, diet and chemical ladened  "foods".  In general foods listed as "diet" are not synonymous with "nutritious" or "healthful". Not only does this focus of weight loss promote unhealthy behaviors it does not support healthy lasting behaviors.

4. We can do it ourselves. Many companies have employees interested in losing weight, or "healthy eaters" and believe they can spear head a weight loss program. After all how to lose weight is no secret. Or is it? What percent of dieters do you think have failed and gained the weight back? The National Diet Registry reports 80%. You might be asking yourself "what harm could come?" This type of weight loss program promotes the weight loss - weight gain cycle because perminate healthy eating strategies are not developed. 

Research shows this weight gain - weight loss cycling which is know as  "yo yo dieting" is not only unhealthy it's harmful to your overall health. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center reported in a study published in 2010 an interview in Today Health Online with Dr. Cornelia Ulrich MD who said  "yo you dieting depresses the immune system responsible for fighting off infection and the early stages of cancer".  In Fitness Magazine Andrea Pennington, MD author of The Pennington Plan for Weight Success said  "Repeated crash dieting increases metabolic hormones, such as insulin .... causing you to start putting on weight around your middle which research has linked to insulin resistance, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease." 

What DOES work:

1.  Provide education.  Do not assume everyone is knows what to do. There is no clear source for healthy eating. The information in the media creates confusion. Doctors don't teach it. Dietitians and Coaches are not easily assessable. 

 

2. Increase awareness. When something is in front of you, you pay more attention to it. With posters, emails, social media campaigns the message of healthy eating is right where you can see it and be reminded on a regular basis. 

3. Expect healthy eating.  Provide information on healthy eating strategies, healthy weight loss and include the families. 

4. Include everyone. It's easier to make changes in behavior in a group. Change your work environment by developing  policies, work spaces, community projects that support healthy eating.Belonging to a group increases engagement  resulting in group caring and buy in. Healthy behaviors then become the expected and the norm and unhealthy behaviors not supported.

5. Get the help of an expert. There are lots of good programs online and onsite on healthy weight loss and healthy eating some expensive some no so much. However, there are just as many that either will not include everyone in your work site, no available to everyone or are not results oriented. Because the road to wellness can be expensive and confusing and to ensure quality programs and services Wellness Councils of America recommends hiring a wellness expert.  

L

 Don’t think you can afford a wellness program?  For the first time in history, the majority of the work force is aging at the same time and more are sick and working longer.  It seems every other day we are hearing about the next chronic disease epidemic, rising health care costs and medical spending. Insurance companies are now refusing to provide insurance coverage for companies with a high claim rate for their sick employee population.  Without a wellness program, you could be spending more money on medical expenses, taking away from the profit margin.  

How about now?  If your company doesn’t have a wellness program it may already be paying the price.

Remember when it comes to being healthy, it’s better to do something than nothing at all.  Start small, get everyone on board and do what works!  Remember in just a few short weeks you will begin to develop healthy habits and a new excitement in your company.

Your partner in health, 

 Health Consultant

C2 Your Health LLC