Anybody who has ever made an effort to be healthier knows that “health” is an elusive concept that isn’t easily achieved. Unhealthy habits and routines are hard to break.
Our consumer innovation team has been focused for the last two years on “making fun healthy.” The most successful “changes” are ones that fit naturally into a person’s life. They’re fun. They incorporate health into something people already enjoy doing. You can read more about our wellness philosophy here. Even in our own lives, we look for ways to take our normal “life-flow” and inject some health into it (like having walkstations on the floor, and having bikesharing to get from place to place downtown). I like to think about health-injected lifeflows as “micro-enablers” of good health.
But everyone’s lives have obstacles to health, too. For example, it tends to be both difficult and expensive to buy healthy food and prepare it. It is cheaper and easier to eat unhealthy food.
There are a lot of companies that have recognized the value of a healthier work force (Pitney Bowes is a great example), and are trying to make it easier for their employees to be healthy. Humana has an on-site health club that offers cheaper membership for people that go a lot (but not free – that’s another premise that’s worthy of a separate blog post). Our cafeteria always offers healthy choices, and sometimes they’re subsidized.
But in addition to enabling good health, lots of companies put up obstacles, too. I’m co-leading a “tweetchat” focused on workplace wellness, and it’s caused me to want to find a way to shine a light on the obstacles companies put up – and to tear them down.
A lot of corporate cultures frown on taking time out to do ANYTHING – even exercise, except maybe at lunch. A lot of corporate cultures emphasize clock-punching. Employees are expected to come in early, stay late and be on call at all times.
A lot of times the salad bar is one of the most expensive ways to eat in the cafeteria. That makes sense because fresh fruit and vegetables are expensive and perishable. But if you really want to encourage employees to eat better, you have to tip the scales financially in favor of veggies.
There are wellness programs, but they are almost always uninspired (payroll stuffers, anyone?) and difficult to find and use.
Wellness programs and incentives often aren’t connected to one another.
None of these problems are insurmountable. But they can aggregate into some pretty serious obstacles. I’m convinced that if companies got really serious about identifying and obliterating their micro-obstacles, they’d make giant strides in enabling – and even encouraging – a healthier and more engaged work force. The first step is identification. I’ve thought of a few things that I consider to be micro-obstacles to workplace wellness. What did I miss? What are the obstacles you’ve seen in your own work force? And what innovative things have you seen that overcome the obstacles? What would you like to see?
Photo by sokisoy
[Editor's note: The concept of "Micro-Obstacles" will be one of the topics on this month's CoHealth tweetchat on Wednesday, February 17th. CoHealth is a "workplace wellness cooperative" focused on health at work.]
Popularity: 24% [?]
DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
In today’s challenging economy, it’s not unusual to know someone who’s facing tough times. I can think of at least three friends across the country who have either lost jobs due to downsizing or who are struggling with financial challenges.
When you add in financial worries to daily stress and family responsibilities, the potential for poor mental and physical health is even greater. For families, especially, it’s important to find strategies and activities that will help relieve stress before it leads to health problems.
According to Dr. Jon Crook, a licensed family therapist, there are key ways families can tackle financially challenging times:
Be Proactive: Start by acknowledging your financial situation clearly and truthfully to yourself. Do not dramatize, but do not minimize.
Identify What is Essential for Your Family: Be sure you define the “nice to haves” and “must haves.”
Identify Actions You Can Take: Focus on the things you can control, such as discretionary spending and your attitude.
Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle: Find activities that can help reduce stress and increase family interaction, like eating at home, hosting a family movie night, taking family hikes or playing board games.
Volunteer with Your Family: By learning about others’ struggles and seeing their gratitude, you help your family focus on the abundance of their lives and the importance of generosity and thankfulness in difficult times.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
Most importantly, there’s no shame in seeking help. Reach out to family and friends, local support groups and churches. Additionally, companies like LifeSynch offer confidential 24-hour crisis counseling services to help their members deal with mounting anxiety and stress. A service like this might be offered through your company’s employee assistance program (EAP) at no cost to you. Financial information is also available through free work/life services offered through many employers.
Read the Full Article
Read the full article by Dr. Crook, who serves as clinical director for LifeSynch’s employee assistance program (EAP). LifeSynch is a Humana subsidiary providing behavioral healthcare for 10 million members.
Tell Us What You Think!
We’re looking for feedback on this blog entry and future topics. Fill out this short four-question survey.
Popularity: 15% [?]
DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
In the world of fitness, you hear a lot of confusing terms being tossed around. One pair that gets used more than most is aerobic and anaerobic exercise. Trainers love to say them and health magazines drop little reminders of them everywhere. The truth of the matter is most people don’t really know the difference or how the difference affects their workout. Until now.
We’re going to give you a super basic primer on the differences, and a bit of insight on how the two can help you achieve your winter workout goals and keep them sailing smoothly into the spring, summer and onto next fall.
Aerobic exercise refers to any and all exercises that use oxygen to create the energy required to break down glucose to use as a fuel. Aerobic exercises help build endurance and strengthen your heart. Common examples of aerobic exercises are as follows:
- Dancing to music or step dancing (fast movements)
- Treadmills
- Exercise bicycles
- Ski machines
- Air gliders
- Jogging
- Sports such as racquetball and handball
On the other hand, anaerobic exercise refers to exercise where your body must create its own energy. Anaerobic exercises are usually things that can only be done in short bursts, and not maintained for longer than a minute or two. Because of the intensity, anaerobic exercise not only strengthens your heart, but also your muscles and bones much more so than aerobic. Some examples are:
- Weightlifting
- Resistance Machines
- Dumbbells
- Resistance Bands
So which do you do? Simple … both. By combining both into your workout routines, you’re ensuring that you get the best of both worlds when it comes to endurance, strength and muscle. You’re making sure that your cardiovascular system as well as your muscles reap the benefits of your hard work. How much of each should you do? Talk to your doctor or trainer first to make sure that whatever plan you follow is custom suited to you, and you alone. Get out there and start going!
Popularity: 20% [?]
DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
