I didn’t think that we could talk about weight loss in a corporate setting. But in fact, we’ve had weight management strategies and programs in place for the last five years. They’ve been very successful. We had the 10 pounds, 10 weeks weight-loss program. We had a weight-loss program in our Cedar Rapids, Iowa, facility. It’s a little like the television show Biggest Loser—188 employees competed on four-person teams that weighed in weekly on the factory’s giant product scale, kind of like th show. The members of the team that lost the highest percentage of weight in three months each won a $500 gift certificate. We’d put all the weight data together, and run the numbers and at the end of the week.
Increasing Well Being
The last piece we found is that mental health drives a lot of bad behavior. It’s stress, not enough sleep, and a whole lot of other things. We found that onsite meditation, yoga, breathing, and mindfulness have been quite popular. We have the usual employee assistance company resources, but we found that small groups did very well at supporting others.
This isn’t about knowledge. It’s not just giving them a pamphlet on how many calories in a burger; it really has got to be motivational and tailored to the individual. What works for that person? That’s the hard part—how to make it work for the individual.
It’s about creating a culture. As an American culture, we have to support this and enhance the health of our people. If your senior leaders are smoking and overweight and they have a three-martini lunch, this will be more difficult to do.
Find your sellers, find your cham-pions for work site wellness. Make it okay to be healthy. Sometimes people resent people who get up at 5:00 in the morning and go for a jog. Grant permission to be healthy.
Wellness Starts Tomorrow |
| Have a yoga instructor come in for 15 minutes and have everyone do standing or chair yoga. People don't remember what I say in my speeches, but they always say, "I love the yoga!" |
| For snacks, provide fruits, vegetables, string cheese, water, and granola. People really appreciate having a free breakfast, and it's not that expensive. We did swap out all our vending-machine snacks for healthy choices, and we learned you need to keep some chocolate in the vending machine. |
| If it's just myself and one other person, I'll go on a walking meeting. |
