Corporate Fitness and Active Aging

People always ask me, "what's your secret?" and I laugh and tell the it's no secret.  Thanks to a huge lifestyle change and the wonderful support system of work buddies, friends, and The Body Shop (worksite fitness center) and it's staff (NIFS) I have lost almost 100 pounds, maybe more!

A couple of years ago, the girls I ate lunch with every day decided to lose weight.  I had been down the path before and was not excited.  I hadn't weighed myself in well over a year and had no intention of starting.  Because my friends were doing it, and I didn't want to eat lunch alone, I gave a half hearted effort.  I decided to stop drinking regular soda and participate in whatever physical activity they did.  And that is exactly what I did, and miraculously my clothes started getting bigger.  We were just walking on the treadmill or outside at our lunch time and giving up soda and I could see results. 

As the initial loss, whatever it was, had slowed because the changes I made were only mild, and as I saw my friends who were already participating in Weight Watchers begin to lose more rapidly, I wanted to make bigger changes too.  So I had to finally weigh myself.  By this time, I had started at a size 24 and was now in a 22, and some 20's, but still hadn't stepped on a scale.  When I finally did I weighed 238 lbs.  I cried the entire day, and thought how did I let myself go this far?  And so I began to count calories, and changing everything about my life.  Eventually through regular physical activity, tracking what I ate and counting calories, I have made huge changes.  It's still a struggle every single day, but when I fall off the wagon, I started again immediately and you know what, the struggle is worth it.  I have zero health issues and I can keep up with my kids.  I look like a different person and I feel like a different person, a happier, much healthier person.

Do you have a support system at work to motivate each other to reach your weight loss and health goals?

This blog was written by Mechelle Meadows. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

As corporate health and fitness professionals, we are often the first people our members come to with questions about new diets they come across. We all know that fad diets don’t work, plain and simple, but sometimes these new diet trends are disguised just enough to be appealing to even the most health-conscious people.

Recently, a corporate fitness center member asked for my thoughts on the Paleo Diet. While this is not a brand new diet, it has recently become more trendy. The basis of the Paleo Diet (also referred to as the Caveman Diet) is that the most beneficial foods for the human body are the ones that our Stone Age ancestors would have hunted and gathered. Vegetables, fruits, meat, and seafood are the staples of this eating regimen.

At first glance, it looks okay. It includes all-natural foods rather than pushing any premade meal plans or supplements. However, this program recommends a much different meat-to-plant ratio than what we’ve all been taught in our basic nutrition classes. It suggests that up to 68 percent of our diets should be meat, or calories from animals.

Many metabolic functions can be compromised with an extremely high protein intake. A diet consisting of more than 30 percent protein can be linked to kidney problems and dehydration.

Remind your corporate fitness center members that the word “diet” usually indicates that there is some form of restriction. The healthiest mindset towards food is one that acknowledges all foods are permissible. Our main priority should be filling our bodies with nutrients while leaving room to enjoy treats in moderation. When an eating plan makes claims like “Lose weight!,” or the “World’s Healthiest Diet!,” chances are, it isn’t a lifestyle plan that will stick.

This blog was written by Anna Hiple. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Snacking before bedtime has long been a hotly debated subject. Although we’ve learned that weight control is largely dependent on the balance between calorie consumption and calorie expenditure, late-night eating must be done with care. Otherwise it may damage your weight loss or maintenance efforts. Follow these simple tips for nighttime eating.

Nighttime eating is a DON’T if…

• You eat out of boredom or habit; not because you are hungry.
• It leads to mindless consumption of excessive calories, especially of foods void of nutritional value such as potato chips, candy, cookies, ice cream, etc.
• You tend to suffer from nighttime heartburn, indigestion, or acid reflux.
• You tend to reach for foods that contain caffeine, such as chocolate.
• You wake up feeling too full in the morning to eat breakfast.

Nighttime eating can be a DO if…

• Heavy, greasy foods with a high fat content are avoided.
• It has been several hours since your last meal.
• The snack is light and nutritious and contains a mix of carbs and protein (examples: whole-grain cereal and milk, a piece of fruit with cottage cheese, low- or non-fat dairy, popcorn, a small turkey sandwich, whole-grain crackers and cheese or hummus, etc.).

Another new year is here, and with that come high fitness expectations that your corporate wellness participants place upon themselves. When members come to us with New Year’s resolutions, our first step is to teach them how to set appropriate goals that will lead to success. Once you have the general picture of what your clients are hoping to achieve as well as why it’s important to them, you can help in fine-tuning their goals.

Let’s use the SMART acronym model to walk through goal-setting for the typical New Year’s client who says, “I want to lose weight.”

S = Specific

Steer away from vague goals. Not only will it help keep your client focused and on track, but it will help you, as the professional, create an appropriate exercise program for them. In our example, since the client’s goal is weight loss, she could say, “I want to lose 50 pounds.”

M = Measureable

You can’t set a goal without knowing how to measure success. Preferably, you’ll use numerical data. In our example, we can measure pounds. If a client has a goal of “getting in shape,” have him or her choose once specific item that can be measured, such as blood pressure or minutes spent walking.

A = Attainable

Setting a goal that can’t be attained in the first place is bound to fail and lead to discouragement. Tell clients when certain goals may not be possible or healthy for their bodies. Let’s pretend that for our fictitious client, a weight loss of 50 pounds would be a stretch, at best, and possibly put her in an underweight category for her body frame. We could suggest that a different amount might be more attainable, so her new goal is, “I want to lose 30 pounds.”

R = Realistic

Here is where you can help your clients evaluate whether their goals are realistic for their individual lifestyles. If other priorities or any other issues might get in the way of achieving a goal, you could scale down the goal into smaller mini-goals in the beginning.

T = Time-bound

There must be an end date to the goal; otherwise members can easily get distracted and push aside the goal until before they know it, another New Year’s is here. Set a date and mark it on the calendar to keep a constant focus on progress. The more lofty the goal, the longer the timeframe that should be dedicated to accomplishing it. Our client’s complete goal is now, “I want to lose 30 pounds by July 30, 2012.”

Smart goals = success!

Want to find out how NIFS staff in your corporate fitness can make a difference for your employees?  Check out our case studies.

This blog was written by Lisa Larkin. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Working at a corporate fitness center, I get a lot of questions on how to shrink the waistline. You may or may not have heard the phrase “you can’t spot reduce,” and it’s true. For example, performing stomach exercises alone won’t decrease the size of your stomach. There are, however, a couple of different things to consider when wanting to lose weight or tone up.

Cardio Burns Fat

You must do cardio; if you already do cardiovascular exercise four or five days a week, kick up the intensity of your cardio sessions. For example, add an incline while walking or jogging on the treadmill. Increase your resistance level on the bike or elliptical. If you aren’t currently involved in regular cardio exercise, that’s a good place to start. Spiking up your heart rate and oxygen consumption will help to burn fat.

Strength Training Builds Muscle and Bone Strength

Strength training is just as important as cardio. Performing strength training exercises can get your heart rate up, too, along with building muscle and bone strength. This will also help you to burn more calories while at rest. If you aren’t familiar with how to safely perform strength training exercises, schedule an appointment with your corporate fitness center staff.

Planks Strengthen Your Core

My last suggestion would be planks―and a variety of them! Planks help to strengthen your core (abdominals and lower back). I feel they are more effective than abdominal crunches. To perform a basic plank, you are on your elbows and toes. Keep your shoulders above your elbows and push your weight back toward your feet, as opposed to hovering over your shoulders. Start holding it for as long as you can and progressively add seconds onto your time. Ready, set, up!

This blog was written by Lisa Larkin. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Reaching a plateau in weight loss or your fitness level can be very frustrating. It’s a common concern I hear about working at a corporate fitness center. It’s actually natural for your body to reach a plateau during weight loss. The body will usually work itself through the plateau on its own after about three weeks. But there are several ways to kick-start your body back into quick metabolism mode.

Eat Healthy Calories

Make sure you’re eating enough calories, but healthy calories. If you give the body a little more to work with, it can speed up and burn those calories faster.

Drink Plenty of Water

Don’t forget about drinking water, and lots of it. See these guidelines from the Mayo Clinic to help determine how much water you need to drink on a daily basis.

Mix Up Your Workouts

You also need to mix up your workouts. When I say mix it up, I mean mix up everything! Some days do fewer reps, and then the next time you do strength training do more reps. Some weeks lift heavier weight and others lift lighter. Usually, the amount of weight you're lifting will go hand in hand with the amount of reps you can perform. You can mix it up by doing cardio before strength and vice-versa the next day. This will also help with boredom. Go beyond that and one day do a longer bout of cardio, and the next day focus on full-body strength training.

Mixing up the exercises can make a big difference in your results. For example, mix in dumbbells, machines, band, kettlebells, etc. This may be hard for those of you that are very regimented and don’t like change, but it’s the best way to improve your fitness level.

Increase Workout Intensity

Another great way to get over the hump is to increase the intensity of your workouts. You would be amazed at what the body can do, so push yourself harder! Of course, you need to listen to your body and not push yourself too hard, but harder than you normally do.

Visit Your Corporate Fitness Center

Check out the group fitness classes offered at your corporate fitness center or onsite wellness center. If you don’t prefer group classes, schedule a one-on-one appointment with your corporate wellness staff for new exercise ideas.

This blog was written by Penny Pohlmann, MS. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

For many years statements like “a calorie is a calorie” and “everything in moderation” were uttered by many health professionals to explain that in regard to weight loss, controlling total calories consumed is the most important factor. That is to say, it does not matter what you eat; whether it be a salad or a fried chicken leg, as long as your total calories remain below a certain number, you will lose unwanted pounds.

Research now suggests that this is not necessarily true. All calories are not equal, and the source of calories does much to help or hinder our weight loss efforts.

Data from a study that surveyed 122,000 men and women for 20 years found that more significant weight gain was linked to the consumption of potatoes (chips, baked, fried, or mashed), sugar-containing soft drinks, butter, refined grains, desserts, processed red meats, and fruit juices. In fact “a single-serving bag of potato chips added to one’s daily intake tacked on 1.69 pounds over 4 years.” Additionally, the study participants who experienced weight loss reportedly ate more yogurt, fruit, nuts, whole grains, and vegetables.  The reason for this is simple...the body uses more energy to break down nutrient dense foods than it does to metabolize processed items.

It is becoming more and more apparent that what we eat is just as important as how much we eat. What can you do to help your employees make the most nutritious food choices? Adding healthy vending options and cafeteria discounts on fresh fruits and vegetables is one option. Implementing a well-rounded workplace wellness program can be a great resource for educating your employees about making the best choices when it comes to mealtime and incorporating exercise for weight loss and preventing weight gain.

This blog was written by Jenna Pearson. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

In 2010, the average American consumed over 44 gallons of carbonated soft drinks! While this number does include diet beverages, it does not take into account the number of non-carbonated, sugared soft drinks (such as lemonade, iced tea, juice, sports drinks, etc.), which tally up to about 17 gallons per person per year!

Looking at those numbers from a nutritional standpoint is eye-opening to say the least. Here are the facts, according to CalorieKing:

• A single, 20-ounce bottle of regular soda contains about 250 calories and 17 teaspoons of sugar (70.9 grams).
• An 8-ounce serving of apple juice contains about 120 calories and more than 6 teaspoons of sugar (26 grams).
• A 32-ounce sports drink contains 200 calories and nearly 14 teaspoons of sugar (56 grams).
• A 12-ounce glass of sweet iced tea contains 130 calories and more than 8 teaspoons of sugar (35 grams).
• A 12-ounce glass of lemonade contains 150 calories and almost 10 teaspoons of sugar (40 grams).

For those keeping track, these numbers show that the average non-diet soda contains about 12.5 calories and .85 teaspoons of sugar per ounce, while an average non-diet, non-carbonated soft drink contains about 9 calories and .6 teaspoons of sugar per ounce. This means that if the average American did not consume diet beverages in the figures above, he or she would have consumed roughly 70,400 calories and 4,787 teaspoons of sugar from carbonated beverages AND 19,584 calories and 1,306 teaspoons of sugar from non-carbonated beverages. That’s a total of 89,984 calories and 6,093 teaspoons of sugar!

Do you see yourself in these numbers? Are you trying to lose weight? If so, think about this: If you were to ditch your sugar and calorie-laden drinks for water—and make absolutely no other changes to your diet or physical activity level—you could lose up to 26 pounds in a year.

Yup, that’s right, 26 pounds.

This blog was written by Jenna Pearson. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

We all know that emotional eating can sabotage even the greatest of weight-loss efforts. Typically we envision emotions that coincide with emotional eating to be primarily negative. New research, however, shows that positive emotions can also have an influence on what we choose to eat.

The Journal of Consumer Research recently published findings in an article titled “Helpful Hopefulness: The Effect of Future Positive Emotions on Consumption” that suggest happy people are more likely to snack on candy bars, whereas hopeful people choose more often to snack on fruit.

Personality Traits and Their Impact on Food Choices

To fully understand the relationships that exist between positive emotions and food choices, researchers dissected the traits that classify personalities as happy and/or hopeful. They found that those with hopeful personality traits focus mainly on the future, while people with happy personalities tend to beam from past achievements. In looking toward the future, hopeful people choose more health-conscious snacks, and also exhibit greater levels of self-control than their happy, prideful counterparts who are simply “living for the moment.”

Adjusting Your Attitude Will Improve Your Choices

The relationship between happiness and food choices literally creates an emotional rollercoaster. In addition to the preceding research, scientists have studied the emotional side-effects of food, and have found intriguing results: Participants who consumed apples reported feelings of satisfaction, happiness, and heightened energy, while individuals who ate chocolate cited the same joyous feelings; however, they were closely followed by feelings of guilt.

So what do we make of this? Karen Page Winterich and Kelly L. Haws, the authors of the “Helpful Hopefulness” study offer this conclusion: “The next time you’re feeling well, don’t focus too much on all the good things in the past. Instead, keep that positive glow and focus on your future, especially all the good things you imagine to come. Your waistline will thank you!” Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Many corporations, spurred by corporate wellness initiatives, are going with healthier cafeteria and vending options. What does your workplace offer, candy bar or fruit bar?

This blog was written by Mechelle Meadows. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

There is truly something for everyone in the world of fitness. Case in point, hula hooping is starting to make its mark in group fitness settings. A study found this activity to use the same amount of energy as walking at a speed of 4 to 4.5 miles per hour—which is a pretty quick pace!

Hula hooping for fitness is not as brand new as you might think. When I attended the 2007 National Wellness Conference in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, one session featured hula hoops, where participants were encouraged to try them out and see that they aren’t just for those under the age of 10.

While many of your corporate wellness members may not gain the same fitness benefits from hula hooping as with a higher-impact activity like running or cardio intervals, this can be a good activity to draw in seniors, children, or even those who dread the idea of traditional exercise machines.

Here are a few ideas of how to use hula hoops in your corporate fitness center:

• During a group fitness class, set up an obstacle course (outdoors is better, if facilities are available). Many of the stations can be standard workouts, but make one a hula hoop station where participants must keep the hoop up for 10 spins before moving on to the next one!
• Host a family fun night where corporate fitness center members can bring their spouses and children for a night of recreational activities, including hula hoop, jump rope, football toss, etc.
• Hold a hula hoop contest to see who can hoop the longest. Sometimes all it takes is friendly competition to encourage people to try new activities!