Print Email Write to the Editor Reprints Am I a Wellness Bully? Instilling shame and guilt when rolling out wellness initiatives — even if it’s unintended — won’t succeed as well as offering incentives, acceptance and an atmosphere of fun. Removing candy and doughnuts from work areas can’t hurt, either. This is how it played out. A colleague and I escaped the usual workplace interruptions After a former co-worker lamented her bag of chips, Jennifer looked at me and said, “I’m running through my head right now everything I ever ate in front of you.” Before I could respond, she added, “Why is everyone afraid of you?” I didn’t know what to say. Jennifer is a friend I met a year ago. How could I explain the countless presentations I gave over the last dozen years on Americans’ poor lifestyle choices? Is there a defense I could make for using guilt playfully? Does doing something to promote the greater good excuse how that action makes people feel? I only had one response, “I think I may be a recovering wellness bully.” Stories on bullying are everywhere. I researched various viewpoints and a statement on Wikipedia caught my eye. ” Bullying … involves repeated acts over time attempting to create or enforce one person’s (or group’s) power over another person (or group).” My experience at the cafe reinforced something for me. I, obviously, impacted the people who participated in my presentations. And the impact was long lasting. However, instead of facilitating life-long behavior change, I instilled shame. Is that the kind of power I want to wield? Life has a way of weaving a pattern. A few days after seeing my guilty friends, I caught myself dispensing advice I’ve received as well. “You can’t expect your boyfriend to change,” I said. “Accept him for who he is.” We can’t change the people in our most intimate relationships. Can you, as an HR executive, use your power to alter the people whose salaries you pay? In the spirit of the holidays and the upcoming pound or two of weight many of us will gain and never lose, I turned to Rebecca Regnier for advice. Rebecca is a humorist, former television reporter and anchor who writes a blog called, Does This Blog Make Us Look Fat? “You can’t take a macro-approach to a micro problem,” Rebecca counsels. “Your weight is so personal that, when an employer rolls out a big corporate effort, it feels monolithic instead of personal.” Rebecca lists five ways employers can help workers who are trying to lose weight. You can extend several of these strategies to employees trying to make other types of lifestyle changes. 1. Incentivize. Medical research and any season of The Biggest Loser demonstrate that rewards work when it comes to motivating people to lose weight. Companies can’t afford to give out thousands of dollars in fabulous prizes, but tangible rewards work. Weight Watchers gives out a gold sticker when you lose 10 percent of your body weight. You could buy your own sticker, but getting an external reward motivates people. 2. Get the candy bowl, free doughnuts and pizza out of the work area. Most dieters will tell you that their best efforts are easily thwarted 3. Acceptance is an important part of long-term success. Set up an environment where employees don’t quit on quitting. Encourage employees to start their diets every Monday. 4. Remember — this is personal. Each individual person has to decide why — and when — it is important to change his or her behavior. 5. Have fun. Work — and losing weight — is serious enough. Give your employees something light-hearted to read for support. Rebecca recommends her blog for that. She says it’s known to make you thin, happy and much better looking after each visit. Acceptance and fun sound more persuasive than power and guilt. Perhaps the next time I run into former audience members eating high-calorie foods I can say, “It gets better.” Carol Harnett is a widely respected consultant, speaker, writer and trendspotter in the fields of employee benefits, health and productivity management, health and performance innovation, and value-based health. Follow her on Twitter via @carolharnett and on her video blog, The Work.Love.Play.Daily .
Category Archives: Health
Wellness Minister Says Changing Bad Habits Critical
The New Brunswick Health Council released the dismal results of its latest population health snapshot last week – a broad survey that asked participants to rate their life satisfaction, their physical health, their mental health, and asked questions about a variety of health behaviours, socioeconomic factors and environmental situations.
The results detail many major challenges facing the province, including the high percentage of residents struggling with obesity and the lack of physical activity.
Holder said having the highest obesity rate in the country is not a record New Brunswick wants to maintain, so that’s why he believes it’s time to invest in quality wellness initiatives.
“What reports like this one do is tell us that now is the time,” he said.
“Everybody understands investment in health-care, but I’m not so sure they understand investments in wellness. And that’s the corner we have to turn here.”
Quakertown Wellness Offers Feng Shui Consultations
Covering Delaware’s Cape Region Lewes Rehoboth Beach Milton Dewey quakertownwellness.com Since 1995, Tower has been a pioneer in raising awareness about environments through her consulting, teaching and writing. She is an expert on how indoor environments affect spiritual, mental and physical health. Through consulting, Tower works with her clients to uncover and shape their life’s focus, regain their vitality and awaken the spirit of their homes. A consultation involves a visit to the home that lasts between 90 minutes and two hours. The time will be spent focusing on the major feng shui issues first and progressing from there. Some feng shui principles focused on when analyzing the space will be the flow of chi around and throughout the space, positioning of furniture, proper application of yin and yang, the five elements, the use of colors and lighting. Additional work with electromagnetic fields and overlaying the ba-gua – a tool used in feng shui – can also be implemented. Each home is uniquely analyzed to meet the client’s concerns.There are openings for a consultation the weekend of Friday and Saturday, Nov. 26-27.For more information on Tower see fengshuimagic.com. For questions, prices or to schedule a consult, contact Sally Laux, RN, L.Ac., founder and director of Quakertown Wellness, at 644-0130, Ext. 1. The business is at 1307 Savannah Road, Lewes. Visit quakertownwellness.com Current Advertisements The Cape Gazette on Facebook To top Cape Gazette. All rights reserved. Policy Statement
Sleep Program Needed For IT Engineers
Sleep Program Needed for IT Engineers ScienceDaily (Nov. 22, 2010) Insomnia is bad news for software engineers’ quality of life and deserves greater recognition and attention, according to new research See Also: Health & Medicine Insomnia Research Sleep Disorder Research Mind & Brain Sleep Disorders Insomnia Computers & Math Software Computer Programming Reference Insomnia Sleep deprivation Delayed sleep phase syndrome Fatigue (physical) The paper is published online in Springer’s journal Applied Research in Quality of Life .Insomnia, a disorder of insufficient or poor quality sleep, has been shown to have adverse daytime consequences ranging from fatigue, irritability and memory impairment to loss of productivity and relationship difficulties. Left untreated, it has also been linked to severe depression and coronary heart disease. Because the majority of insomniacs do not seek medical treatment, poor sleep is also thought to affect quality of life.Sarrafi Zadeh and Begum believe that a high incidence of insomnia, alongside minimal recognition of the problem They studied the relationship between the amount of sleep and the quality of life of 91 software engineers aged between 21 and 45, working for a software company in Mysore, in order to determine the prevalence of insomnia among this group particularly prone to job-related stress. The participants completed two questionnaires: The first looked at insomnia and sleep quality; the second assessed their quality of life.The authors found that 56 percent of the participants had mild (35 percent) or severe (21 percent) insomnia, compared to 23 percent in the general population. In contrast to what other studies have shown, younger engineers were more likely to be insomniacs than their older counterparts. In terms of gender differences, more women suffered from mild insomnia than men while more men suffered from severe insomnia than women.Quality of life in general, and mental and physical health in particular, were significantly lower in subjects with insomnia than in other participants. The association between insomnia and poor quality of life was particularly strong for mental health. There were no gender differences in the effects of poor sleep on quality of life.The authors conclude: “In view of the serious health consequences of insomnia in software engineers who are at high risk, suitable awareness programs should be developed as a preventative measure. Sleep assessment should be included as part of routine medical check-ups so that management of the problem is easier in the early stages. Lifestyle management programs which include sleep hygiene and care should be incorporated as a policy matter in the IT industry.” Editor’s Note : This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Email or share this story: More Story Source: The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations Journal Reference :Sara Sarrafi Zadeh, Khyrunnisa Begum. Association Between Insomnia and Quality of Life: An Exploratory Study Among Software Engineers . Applied Research in Quality of Life , 2010; DOI: 10.1007/s11482-010-9131-5 Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. Related Stories Similarity In Meaning Of Sleep Quality Between Insomniacs, Normal Sleepers (Mar. 1, 2008) Both insomnia patients and normal sleepers define sleep quality by tiredness upon waking and throughout the day, feeling rested and restored upon waking, and the number of awakenings they experienced … > Imagery Rehearsal Therapy Improves Sleep In Insomniacs (June 14, 2007) Imagery rehearsal therapy has been shown to subjectively improve their ability to get a good night’s … > Chronic Insomnia Can Lead To Anxiety And Depression, Study Suggests (July 6, 2007) Everyone has an occasional night of bad sleep. For most people, insomnia lasts only a few days and goes away without treatment. However, factors such as stress can cause a higher level of insomnia … > Meditation May Be An Effective Treatment For Insomnia (June 15, 2009) Meditation may be an effective behavioral intervention in the treatment of insomnia, according to new … > ‘Night Owls’ Report More Insomnia-Related Symptoms (Apr. 16, 2007) Those persons who are labeled a “night owl” report more pathological symptoms related to insomnia, despite many having the opportunity to compensate for their nocturnal sleeplessness by extending … > Search ScienceDaily Number of stories in archives: 94,555