Can Facebook help you finally reach your goals?

Does posting an idea on Facebook or tweeting a resolution make it more likely to come true? I recently read an article in The New York Times that talked about people uploading New Year’s Resolution videos to YouTube and posting promises on social media sites in order to keep themselves accountable. A girl who goes by the name, Glamourista16, posted a video about her desire to stop eating so much at Chipotle, and it was viewed 38,000 times on YouTube! So, do you think it works? Will Glamourista16 eat fewer burritos because she vowed online to do so?

Economists say that people who make their promises public are much more inclined to fulfill them. The price of failure is different for everyone, but I think we can agree that no one wants to feel ashamed or embarrassed, and certainly don’t want to do so in front of all their friends and followers. SticK.com, a social media site for tracking personal goals, puts an actual price on failure. To use the site, the resolver logs on, puts in their goals and then puts their money on the line – literally. Users put in their credit card information and designate where the money will go if they don’t succeed. Users also pick a “referee” who can confirm or deny their successes, as well as some cheerleaders to keep up their motivation. As an example, Professor Karlan, a professor at Yale University and co-founder of sticK.com stands to lose $3,250 if he doesn’t reach his goal of editing his slides following each lecture. Is reaching your goal or keeping your resolution important enough to you that you are willing to pay if you don’t succeed?

In many ways, goals make you feel vulnerable. So, does an announcing your goal to the World Wide Web really help with success? Many social media users say yes, it does. Posting a message on sticK.com or other sites such as 43things.com  is a way of putting your goals out there, without admitting them to family and friends. The fear of failure is still there, but motivators for success are plenty as well. Not to mention that most sites help you find others who share your goal, so you automatically are a part of a community of like-minded people.  

But is putting money on the line upping the ante, or taking things too far? Gym-Pact offers motivational fees to gym members who agree to pay a fee for missing their workout (even as much as $10). The idea was born in a behavioral economics class at Harvard University and is still somewhat experimental, with pilot programs at Bally Total Fitness and Planet Fitness in Boston. Future changes to the pact may include incentives to work out, like lower membership fees, rather than just a penalty for not going to the gym.  

Goal setting is a very important part of changing unwanted behaviors and making that change a reality. From fear, to money, to the promise of a new wardrobe or car, to even the smallest of rewards – I say go for it. Do what works for you and helps you to stay on track with your own health and wellness goals. Feel free to share your goals or comments with me on Facebook.com/WellnessWorkdays, I’d “like” to hear them!

Nutrition Know-how. Do your employees really know how to eat well?

If your employees are like most Americans, they probably think they eat better than they actually do. A recent survey by Consumer Reports showed that 90 percent of Americans think their diet is healthy, yet according to a recent Centers for Disease Control report, less than one-third of Americans manage to consume even two servings of fruits and vegetables per day! The goal is 5-9 servings each day!


Do your employees claim to know everything they need to know about nutrition? Have them take the Consumer Reports quiz. If they do alright on that one, have them try this one from Center for Science in the Public Interest so they can rate their own diet.  If your employees are interested in nutrition, try a few of these ideas from some of our clients:
- Set up a pot-luck healthy lunch
- Organize a "Salad Spinner" where each employee chooses a different salad ingredient to bring in (i.e. baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, etc.)
- Invite a Registered Dietitian to present a "Super Foods" or "Diet Myths and Facts" seminar 
- Offer  the "Nutrition Price Is Right" or "Nutrition Jeopardy" game in your cafeteria
- Incorporate some healthy resources and links in your newsletters and on your intranet site
- Evaluate your cafeteria, vending and meeting options


Good luck! As a Registered Dietitian, this topic is near and dear to me. Let me know what you do to promote nutrition at your workplace.

Days off and massages, exotic trips, oh my! Worksite wellness incentives

It is always interesting to read about successful worksite wellness programs and so I found this article on incentives, "Gym facilities, rewards, trips 'perk up' workplaces" very interesting. The article talks about a number of different companies and what incentives they have used to motivate employees to adopt healthier lifestyle habits. Several of the companies offered incentives to employees for participating in wellness activities whereas others offered rewards for actual behavior change. The range of incentives offered include discounted gym memberships, lower co-pays, paid days off, trips to exotic locations, free massages and/ or personal training as well as discounts on insurance premiums.

In my experience, an incentive program must first consider the "personality" of the organization as well as the history of wellness at the organization. A well structured program starts out with rewards which are relatively easy to earn (i.e. an employee must attend a screening and/or complete a personal health assessment) and become more progressively difficult, yet still attainable, over time. For instance, some of our clients that offer our Olympic Circle program provide incentives for employees who participate in a combination of onsite or web-based programs, including our 12-week wellness challenges or our popular productivity seminars as well as those who achieve or strive for health related goals. For instance, those employees who are able to lose weight or complete a smoking cessation program earn similar rewards to those who maintain a healthy weight or are already non-smokers.

The overarching goal, of course, for any health professional managing a worksite wellness program, is to offer these extrinsic motivators or incentives to employees and then have these new behaviors (physical activity and healthy eating, for example) become intrinsic so that employees want to continue them regardless of whether there is an incentive.

When designing the program, be sure to use your needs and interest surveys and personal health assessments for specifics on what behaviors employees are looking to change or adopt. Good luck!

Does your company have the right plan for wellness? Follow these steps.

As wellness becomes more respected as a means of moderating health care costs, more and more employers are looking to develop, launch and execute wellness programs. As any wellness professional would agree, this is great news! A recent national survey conducted by The Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA) found than 90 percent of businesses they surveyed, currently offer some form of wellness programming. Hooray!

The not so great news, according to the survey, is that these programs are not as strong as they could be.  A strong and successful wellness program must be carefully planned before it is executed. Unfortunately, according to this survey, over 90 percent of these businesses are simply offering activity-centered programs with little thought to the strategy necessary to promote the right results. These programs typically involve interventions, such as yoga, or Weight Watchers@Work, with little planning, strategy or evaluation measures included. In my experience, some companies claiming to offer wellness programs have the right intentions but the execution is not complete. Furthermore, when companies say they are offering wellness but aren’t reaping the rewards, they incorrectly believe that wellness programs don’t work.

In addition to setting up a long- and short-term strategy, this plan MUST be supported by an innate culture of wellness in the workplace. A company, for instance, with a plethora of unhealthy food in the cafeteria or vending machines which provide options that are high in fat, salt and sugar may make it more difficult for employees to achieve true lifestyle changes. 

Another hallmark of a strong and a positive result-generating wellness program is that it is data driven. In this case, the rationale, activities and the benchmarks are all evidence based using data derived from health care costs and EAP utilization, for example. Furthermore, evaluation methods must be set up in the beginning stages to be sure that results are evaluated and measured.

Developing a strong wellness program is better for employees (and the employer!) than the sporadic plans that are offered at so many companies, but they require clear intention and planning.  To design strategic initiatives, which best enhance employees' health and help employers manage health care costs, consider utilizing the following 7 criteria, offered by WELCOA and supported by research as effective in promoting appropriate behavior change and cost avoidance: 

1. Capture senior level support

2. Create a cohesive wellness team

3. Collect data

4. Craft an operating plan

5. Choose appropriate interventions

6. Create supportive environments

7. Carefully evaluate outcomes

We've seen these steps work for our clients and we are sure they can work for you! For more information on WELCOA’s Seven Benchmarks of Success visit

http://www.welcoa.org/wellworkplace/index.php?category=16 or our website at www.wellnessworkdays.com . 

NYT: While Warning About Fat, U.S. Pushes Cheese Sales

Hello all!  I ran across this very interesting article and am just sorry that this appeared ONLY on page 11 of the NYT yesterday. It is really quite interesting.  The article describes an organization called Dairy Management, which "teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign." The problem?? "Dairy Management is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture — the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting".  HELP! This just doesn't seem appropriate. Remember, the USDA are the ones who publish the Dietary Guidelines for Americans as well! Please see the article below. 

The New York Times: While Warning About Fat, U.S. Pushes Cheese Sales, November 6, 2010, By MICHAEL MOSS

Domino’s Pizza was hurting early last year. Domestic sales had fallen, and a survey of big pizza chain customers left the company tied for the worst tasting pies. Then help arrived from an organization called Dairy Management. It teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign. Consumers devoured the cheesier pizza, and sales soared by double digits. “This partnership is clearly working,” Brandon Solano, the Domino’s vice president for brand innovation, said in a statement to The New York Times. But as healthy as this pizza has been for Domino’s, one slice contains as much as two-thirds of a day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat, which has been linked to heart disease and is high in calories.

And Dairy Management, which has made cheese its cause, is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture — the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting.

Urged on by government warnings about saturated fat, Americans have been moving toward low-fat milk for decades, leaving a surplus of whole milk and milk fat. Yet the government, through Dairy Management, is engaged in an effort to find ways to get dairy back into Americans’ diets, primarily through cheese.  Americans now eat an average of 33 pounds of cheese a year, nearly triple the 1970 rate. Cheese has become the largest source of saturated fat; an ounce of many cheeses contains as much saturated fat as a glass of whole milk.

To read the rest, click here:

NYT: While Warning About Fat, U.S. Pushes Cheese Sales

What Exactly Does a 6,190 Calorie Lunch Do to Your Body?

I came across this ABC story that ran a while ago but I just had to share it with you. It actually tells you what happens to your body FOR 6 HOURS after eating an unhealthy meal. Nothing good... and the results are immediate! Check out the 2 minute video. 

After reading a report by a consumer group about the effects of unhealthy food from popular chain restaurants, ABC's Yuji de Nies and Jon Garcia conducted a test to see how eating these foods for lunch would affect their bodies. 

Before they ate lunch, Yunji and Jon had blood samples drawn and an ultrasound done to test the health of their arteries.  They then sat down to a meal of 6,190 calories and 187 grams of saturated fat -- an appetizer, lunch and dessert from a popular chain restaurant. 

To see what happened to their blood and arteries immediately following the meal, watch the clip below.

click here to see the video news story

Wellness = Quality of Life

For those of us personally and professionally committed to wellness, we understand that a comprehensive definition of wellness includes fitness, nutrition, and healthy behaviors such as tobacco avoidance and stress reduction. But for so many others, until recently, wellness simply meant not being sick. 

According to a recent survey by The Hartman Group, wellness has now gone mainstream and is viewed as a marker for quality of life. Their results showed that the majority of consumers who responded included a range of components: physical fitness, stress management, and feeling good about themselves.  

While the definition of wellness will always be tailored to the individual, the good news is that more people are actively seeking wellness, including looking for information and how-to tips. Worksite wellness programs are the perfect opportunity to provide individuals with different levels of interest and participation in wellness behaviors with opportunities to learn about health-promoting behaviors and put them into practice.

Another encouraging finding of the survey was that consumers are more likely to seek foods to prevent disease rather than to treat it. This shows that consumers are focused on maintaining and improving their health, which is a key component of worksite wellness. Emphasizing prevention – taking healthy action to promote and preserve health rather than simply focus on fixing problems once they occur – is not only catering to what employees are looking for, but is also a great way to promote company health, including moral, increased productivity and reduced sick days and healthcare costs.

But while lots of good news was uncovered, the survey points out that not everyone is on board the wellness train. Twenty-five percent of respondents were categorized as being on the ‘periphery’ of wellness, meaning they are least likely to be involved in wellness. The ‘periphery’ approach tends to be more along the lines of avoiding ‘bad’ foods and behaviors as opposed to seeking out healthy choices. While the temptation of wellness enthusiasts and health-promoting products is often to bombard this audience with benefits and reasons why they should act, people don’t want to be ‘preached’ to. The power of worksite wellness programming is that by providing a variety of information and incentives through a range of medium, it provides equal opportunity and benefit to all individuals, no matter where they fall on the wellness spectrum.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS106164844120100824