Our First Frisbee Golf Tournament

We held our first Frisbee Golf Tournament after work on June 23, 2010 as part of our Biggest Mover Campaign. 25 staff members participated.  It was hot and humid, but there was lots of laughing and even a little singing. We worked with TrueFT to plan the event. They came up with an ingenious, cost-effective design for the baskets and laid out a challenging yet approachable course.

We plan to play again in the fall. This time we'll order some pizzas and plan a tailgate for after the event.

(The handsome, young man in the white shirt at the beginning of the video is my son, Ian.)

New Pricing Structure for Fitness Classes -- Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

We've been offering exercise classes as part of our wellness program since the beginning of 2008. We typically have three classes per day -- 7:30 a.m., 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Staff members have been signing up for 8 week sessions and paying $5.00 per class. The $5.00 covers a significant portion of the cost of offering the classes and it helps to make people feel committed to attending. Twenty-five percent of our staff have been taking at least one exercise class per week. Ten staff members take three or more classes per week.

We recently sat down and brain stormed various pricing models with goals to (1) encouarge people to make a long term commitment to exercising, (2) make our classes more affordable, and (3) increase enrollment. We also thought it would be nice to ease the administrative burden if we could do so without compromising any of our other stated goals.

We decided to try a 12 week session instead of the 8 week session we had been offering. This flier describes what we came up with.

This new 12 week session starts today, July 26, and runs through October 10th. Our enrollment actually decreased by three people (5%) which is disappointing. We lost our step instructor for the month of August and a couple of these folks are waiting for the next session of our step class to start in September. In the meantime, we plan to offer a kettlebell class for the month of August. Hopefully that will attract a few more people. Sign-ups for that start tomorrow.

The average number of classes taken increased from 1.8 to 2.02 -- 12%, so we met this goal. The feedback from people on the new pricing structure has been positive with only one exception, so I think we also succeeded in making the classes more affordable. So, we met two of our three goals. Enrolling people for 12 weeks and eliminating credits for the first canceled class definitely eases the administrative, so we accomplished that too. 

We are always listening to the feedback we get from the staff and making adjustments, so we'll see how this goes and decide how to proceed for our next session in October. If you have any suggestions, please share them.

Get Fit with Fitbit

I had coffee with Jennifer Benz of Benz Communications in April and she showed me her Fitbit. I ordered one the minute I got back to my office. The Fitbit was developed by a San Francisco based startup by the same name. It does much more than a traditional pedometer. It tracks calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled, and even your sleep quality if you wear it on a wristband at night. The Fitbit uses a 3D motion sensor similar to what’s used in the Nintendo Wii, so it tracks your motion pretty accurately and can distinguish when you are sedentary, lightly active, fairly active and very active. It automatically uploads data from your Fitbit to the Fitbit website every time you get within 15 feet of your computer via a wireless base station that you plug into your USB drive.

The Fitbit is a small plastic clip that attaches easily to your waist band. You can also keep it in your pocket and I’ve heard that women often wear it on their bras. This is somewhat appealing because it should keep it out of sight and minimize the risk of losing it (at $99 I don’t want to lose it.) 

I wore mine religiously for a month. I even committed to logging all my activities, the food I consumed and my weight on the Fitbit site. The home screen on the Fitbit website is a dashboard that shows your calories burned with a graph of how active you are throughout the day. Below that is an activity chart that shows your steps taken, miles traveled and an activity score. It displays a pie chart of your level of activity that looks like this: 

This could be a very useful tool for people that want to be more active, but don’t want to exercise or go to the gym. You could easily set a goal to reduce the amount of time you are sedentary and then just make a conscious effort to move around more.

I think the impact of sleep on health is undervalued, so I love that Fitbit incorporated the sleep tracker. I don’t know how exactly it works, but it seems pretty accurate. Yes, I usually fall asleep in less than 10 minutes and wake up a few times during the night. If you saw a pattern that was troublesome, it would be easy enough to use Snag It to capture the graphs and put them in a document that you could print out and take to your doctor. Unfortunately, there are currently no print options available on the Fitbit website. I contacted the folks at Fitbit with a number of questions. A lot of what I was looking for was in development, but it seems a print feature has been overlooked.

I’ve been logging all of my workouts in the activity section. Once you enter the data, it adjusts your calories burned and active score accordingly. The choices of activities that you can enter are frustratingly limited at this time. For example, Pilates is not included. We’re using the President’s Challenge site to track our activities as part of our Biggest Mover Campaign at work right now and their list is far more exhaustive. I understand that the folks at Fitbit are working on adding more options though.

I’ve also been logging what I eat. Keeping a food journal when you assign calories to everything you eat is always a pain in the rear. It’s not different using the Fitbit website. You can add foods and enter the nutritional information for them and there are a lot already included. It’s a little clunky though. When I add a food, I have to go in and edit it to enter the nutritional information. Then, the nutritional information I entered doesn’t show up in my log unless I delete the original entry and select it again. You can easily view your calories, fat, fiber, carbs, sodium and protein. I haven’t found a way to view your calcium intake even though it’s something you enter when you put in the nutritional information. Like I said, keeping a food diary is always inconvenient, but I do believe it’s extremely helpful when you are trying to lose weight and it’s just good to do from time to time to inform your decision making. I saw quickly that I’m not always eating enough protein and I was reminded that there are 620 calories in a serving of Five Guys fries which quickly undoes an hour of kickboxing.

I wish the site allowed you to record your body fat along with your weight. I’ve been particularly interested in looking at essential fat, reserve fat and excess fat lately. These are all formula driven calculations after you have height, weight and percent of body fat, so it seems it would be an easy feature to add. The Fitbit representative I corresponded with said he would forward this request to the Fitbit technical team for assessment.

You can view your data over a 30 day period of time. I understand that Fitbit is working on allowing the user to select a date range and view data over shorter or longer periods. The graphs often disappear on me. I can’t figure out why. It’s annoying, but eventually they reappear.

Fitbit is in desperate need of an iPhone app. I asked if they’re working on developing one, but that is the one question that Fitbit didn’t answer. It would make it much easier to keep the food and activity log up-to-date when you are on the go.

The Fitbit is still new. The first ones were available in September 2009 and demand immediately exceeded supply. People waited six months for their orders to be fulfilled. I waited two months. The website says a Fitbit ordered today will ship in four weeks. There is no monthly fee for using the Fitbit website so the $99 cost of the device is all inclusive. I think it’s perfect for data junkies and people that want to be more active without “exercising.”

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Update 10/4/2011: The new Fitbit Ultra was introduced yesterday. Here is a thorough review published by engadget.

The Magic of Hula Hooping -- Guest Post by Maddy Thom

When we kicked off our Biggest Mover campaign, I decided to look for someone who could do a hooping demonstration for us. (I got the idea a year ago when Matt Hirn from TrueAP posted a link on Twitter to a video of Fatboy Slim's That Old Pair of Jeans. I watched and thought, I wish I could do that.) Ten minutes on Google and I'd found Maddy Thom and connected with her on LinkedIn. This is Maddy and she's amazing.





Maddy did a hooping class for us at ASHA on June 8th and it was great fun. We looked nothing like Maddy, but we learned a few tricks and laughed. Incidently, we've had a few hula hoops in the HR area for a month or so now and I have yet to see someone pick one up and not smile.

We wanted to schedule some more lessons, but Maddy just accepted a job as a Production Coordinator. I am happy for Maddy, but disappointed that she doesn't have her days free to teach here. Maddy does still teach evenings and weekends and I plan to have her do some lessons for me and my friends. She also makes and sells hula hoops. I am fascinated by Maddy's talent and story, so I asked her to write a guest blog post. I hope she inspires you to pick up a hula hoop.

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After ten years devoted to basketball, I first picked up a hula hoop two years ago, when I *sigh* finally accepted that at 5’5” tall, playing in the WNBA was just not in my future.

I was first exposed to hoop dance in March of 2008 during my spring break. I attended Langerado—an annual music festival that was held in South Florida. I was, as always, enchanted by the scene, though particularly with my hula hooper extraordinaire friend, Allie. Throughout the weekend I found myself often staring her direction instead of toward the music that I paid well over $200 to see, mesmerized both by her hoop skills and the joy hooping seemed to generate in her and among onlookers. I’m telling you, it was MAGICAL. [Insert shower of fairy dust here.] I promised myself standing there, bubbles in hand that I too would learn to hoop.

While technically my hoop journey started that day, it wasn’t for a few more months that I actually gave it a whirl. It was May 2008 and I was suffering through a miserable mess of exams. Lacking the time for a full-fledged trip to the gym, I was questing some physical activity when a colorful, glittery, fabulous idea floated through my overworked brain.

I had spent the time since Langerado debating how teaching myself hoop dance would go, wondering if I had mentally committed to undertake this challenge when I was in a particularly euphoric mood…the sunshine, music, and beer all providing a burst of confidence. I’ve never been a dancer, unless you consider the year of tap/ballet/tumbling in Kindergarten. What I mean to say is that my forte has always been in team sports—basketball, field hockey, and lacrosse. I worried that while I was certainly coordinated, I had also spent the past ten years developing skills that involved throwing elbows using my body as an instrument to knock people around, skills that I feared might shadow any graceful movements that I might have hidden somewhere inside of me.

So there I was, standing in my cleared out living room, holding my 40” diameter, 1” 160 psi tubing, water-filled hoop, ready to go. (These specs probably mean nothing to you right now, but should you choose to pursue hooping you will realize what a monster of a hoop I was using.) During my first practice, I think I figured out waist hooping (a big step for me, who as a child stuck to the Skip-It), but I only got better from there. Being unfamiliar with “hoop communities”, particularly my Charlottesville hoop community, I relied on YouTube for instruction, seeking out random tutorials on beginning moves that looked impressive.

I quickly became addicted—there is a feeling associated with being inside a hoop that is really difficult to explain; it’s something you have to experience. It made me truly and wonderfully happy. In fact, I’d venture to say it’s nearly impossible to be unhappy when you have a hoop swinging around your waist while your dancing to your favorite band with one of your friends. I was able to laugh at myself trying to learn new tricks and combinations while also developing an awesome new sense of self-confidence. The more that I hooped, the more I decided I liked—dare I say LOVED?—my body.

Part of why hooping is so fabulous is because it’s so versatile—it’s a great workout, a form of dance, a high-energy performance art, and a Saturday afternoon activity you can share with your kids. (Not to mention, it’s inexpensive and accessible—no costly gym memberships required!)

While everyone’s hooping takes on a different form, some graceful and dramatic, others resembling break-dancing or hip-hop, rest assured that you will quickly discover what works for you as you “find your flow” (as we hoopers call it) inside the hoop. So give it a try next time you see some hoopers at the park or at your town’s summer fair. Hula hooping will leave you inspired, revitalized, and with a smile on your face—take it from a self-proclaimed hoopaholic.

If you're interested in hula hooping as a form of exercise, check out these articles.

• Hula Hoops: From Child's Play to Real Exercise from Time
• In Hula Hoop Rebirth, A Fad Comes Full Circle from The Washington Post
• Hooping Already Has Its Own Jane Fonda from the New York Times

First Impressions -- Guest Post by Diana Levin

We got very lucky! Lifework Strategies has an intern, Diana Levin, working with them this summer and they offered to let her spend Tuesdays with us at ASHA. Diana is studying health promotion at American University and she started with us last Tuesday. I asked her share her first impressions with you.

From the moment I came into the building, the friendly and inviting culture was clear. Throughout my first day, a number of employees came through the HR office to either sign up for a class or find out how their team was doing. Besides the impressive facilities and overall robust wellness program, what really came through was the enthusiasm shared by employees. They seem empowered to take ownership over their health, as well as, encourage other employees to do the same. Their "Biggest Movers" program clearly has created competition that encourages employees to either remain active or become active. Each stage of change is addressed in this program, which is also clear from the percentage of participants (about half). I look forward to gaining more insight from a well-established wellness program. On another note, the innovative ideas that Janet has really brings excitement to the office and program. Her newest idea is to possibly start a hula hooping class. Throughout the day employees that dropped by were encouraged to try hula hooping and almost all of them did. Where else can you hula hoop in the office? I will be interested to see if this childhood pastime catches on as a form of exercise for the employees.



As for my first impressions, Diana is a quick study, a pleasure to be around, and a pretty good hula hooper. I'm going to be looking forward to Tuesdays all summer.

Follow Diana on Twitter @DianaMLevin

Eat Like an Athlete - 6 Tips to Get Stronger, Faster and Leaner

One of the rules in our home is that you eat a combination of protein and carbs within 45 minutes of working out. I take five exercise classes a week at work with my colleagues; and I noticed a lot of folks weren't eating after they exercised. We've offered a number of educational programs focused on nutrition, but none that were geared toward optimizing athletic performance. (I'm using the term athlete loosely here, but what's the point working out day after day if you are not getting stronger, faster or leaner.)

We worked with Matt Diener from TrueFT to bring Kristin Wood from Max Muscle in to talk with interested staff. Not surprisingly, this presentation attracted different people then most of our lunch and learn sessions. Most of the staff that attended are active and exercise regularly. 

Kristin offered the following suggestions for improving our health and performance.

1. Eat smaller meals 5 or 6 times a day.
2. Incorporate weight training into your workout routine.
3. Consume adequate protein at regular intervals to rebuild and repair muscle tissue.
4. Focus on eating low glycemic carbohydrates.
5. Follow the 20% rule when eating foods that are processed -- 20% or less of total carbohydrates should come from sugar.
6. Always eat a protein with a carbohydrate. 

Protein is stored within the body as lean muscle mass. When your body needs protein to support vital functions, it relies on immediate protein from your diet (eaten within the past 3-4 hours) or it will break down lean muscle mass. When protein is ingested, you elevate the nitrogen balance within your bloodstream. Elevated nitrogen puts your body in an optimal state for building and repairing muscle tissue. With little or no level of nitrogen in your blood, your body will begin to break down lean muscle mass. If you continuously put your body in this state, your performance will plateau and your metabolism will slow down. Put more simply, if you want to get stronger and faster, you better eat adequate protein to ensure proper recovery. 

Kristin talked a bit about a study by Chesley that suggests you need to consume almost 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight each day to maintain a positive nitrogen balance. She told us that all proteins are not the same. Many of us found it interesting that soy is not easily digested and that you have to consume 10 ounces of soy to obtain the same amount of protein you get from 1 ounce of meat. 

By consuming small meals frequently, you can minimize the number of hours your body is in a catabolic state when muscle wasting occurs. Kristin showed two charts, one where an individual ate six times over the course of a day and was in a catabolic state for 3 1/2 hours and a second where an individual only ate lunch and dinner over the course of a day and was in a catabolic state for 17 hours. Carefully timing your meals also helps maintain ideal blood sugar levels.

Relative to my observation about people eating after working out, Kristin said that our muscles are "more" insulin sensitive and ready to absorb nutrients for repair for approximately one hour after working out. She shared this chart that shows how the metabolic window begins to close within 45 minutes following exercise.

Some other takeaways -- Bananas are fine if you just finished a marathon, but not good with a cup of coffee and a yogurt for breakfast. (I know some of you heard Kristin say a Snickers Bar is a better choice than a banana because at least the Snickers Bar has some protein in it from the nuts, but I don't think she really meant for us to have a Snickers Bar for breakfast.) You can substitute 1/4 cup of carbs for a glass of red wine at dinner. It's better to use half and half then skim milk in your coffee. 2% cottage cheese and plain Greek yogurt are good. Other types of yogurt are not good. (Not good for you that is. I know they may taste good to you.)

People are still talking about the session and a number of folks have told me that they are paying more attention to when they eat and how much protein they consume. Although I've always tried to follow our house rule that we eat within 45 minutes of working out, I'm taking it a bit more seriously now. I used Health Txts to send myself text messages after each of my scheduled exercise classes reminding myself to eat. (Health Txts is a free service that allows you to receive self improvement text messages that you write and/or you choose from their expert library to help you meet your physical and mental health goals.)

* Kristin Wood is a ENW Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist for Adults and Children and a Co-Active Life Coach.  She works with clients to help them achieve their health and fitness goals.  Ms. Wood is the owner and regional director for Max Muscle Sports Nutrition of Manassas.  She also served on the New Product Development team and regularly writes columns and articles on nutrition for Max Sports & Fitness magazine.  Ms. Wood lives in Vienna, VA and has two teenaged sons. With a little luck, Kristin will read this post and correct me if I got anything wrong.

Biggest Loser -- Feedback from the Follow-Up Survey

We reviewed all the survey results and debriefed from our Biggest Loser campaign. Here is what we learned. First, the program really fostered a sense of community. I don't think we talk about this aspect of workplace wellness programs enough. I've been struggling with how to describe what I observed. Someone that completed the survey said it well. 

"The community spirit that permeated office-wide was fantastic. Inadvertently, this program managed to create the sense of community that many complained was lost when we moved to this new building. I really enjoyed geting to know the team members better and enjoyed the opportunity to talk with those I'd encountered in the lunch room (or elsewhere) given that we all had a topic of mutual interest. The fact that it was a team effort actually helped me to stay on track with my dietary goals and I am very grateful for having had this program as I really wanted to lose weight but without the structure, may not have been quite so commited. Thanks so much HR for doing this program!!!!"

I found it interesting that people wanted more one-on-one coaching and time with a nutritionist, yet only six individuals took advantage of the one-on-one wellness coaching we made available through our EAP. People really liked, Meilissa, the nutritionist that did a Weight Management presentation for us. We explained that if they called the EAP they could meet individually with her, but only six people did. I think one of the reasons workplace wellness programs are so effective is that they make classes and services so easily available. If we bring someone into the office and schedule the appointments, people participate, if they need to make the contact on their own, they just don't get around to it.

If we do this again, we'll probably keep the screenings simpler -- just weight, body fat, and maybe cholesterol and blood glucose. We'll save the fitness related assessments for other programs. Based on the feedback from our participants we might also suggest or require that participants have a BMI of 25 or higher. 

A huge thank you to Cyndi at Lifeworks Strategies and all their staff that helped us in this endeavor. Here's a summary of the survey results.
 
Results Summary

• The majority (97%) of participants were motivated to join the program for their desire to lose weight or achieve a personal goal. Some employees were motivated by others, such as a family member, co-worker or doctor.
• Regarding specific program goals, more than half (54%) stated that weight loss was their primary goal. Other top goals included improving fitness (11%), eating a healthier diet (9%) and weight maintenance (7%). A handful of participants wanted to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol or control diabetes.
• Nearly 90% of participants felt they made progress towards their primary goal; about 45% of participants felt they achieved half or three-quarters of their goal. More than a quarter of participants (27%) felt they fully achieved or exceeded their primary goal.
• The weekly weigh-ins (82%), initial screenings (78%), seminars (68%), and team support (64%), were most commonly reported to have high or very high impact on helping participants reach their goal. These components were followed by mid-point screenings (57%) and on-site fitness classes (53%). More than half of the participants reported that the potential for prizes had no impact. About one-third of participants felt the team challenges had no impact on helping them reach their goals.
• Most all participants positively changed eating or fitness habits as a result of the program. More than 80% are eating appropriate portions of food, more than three-quarters are making healthier food choices when eating out, and 64% have increased the amount of fruits and vegetables in their diet. Three-quarters of participants are exercising more during the week, and about 67% are taking the stairs more often.
• The program seemed to have less impact on the participants’ water intake, where half reported about the same level as before. The majority of participants (67%) reported no change in the amount of restful sleep, yet the same number (67%) of people also reported increased energy.
• Eight employees (11%) were able to decrease or eliminate the use of OTC medications and one participant has eliminated the use of prescription medication. Six employees reported that their doctor had increased their prescription medication; it is unknown if the program had an impact on uncovering new conditions that required medication.
• It is encouraging that nearly all of employees (99%) have made healthy lifestyle changes as a result of the program which they plan to continue in addition to continuing to work towards a weight loss goal.
• An additional benefit of this program was improved co-worker relationships. Most participants (84%) felt that the Biggest Loser Program enhanced their relationship with their co-workers.
• If this program were offered again, 87% said they would be likely to participate; 54% said they would be very likely to participate. 

Feedback Summary

Two questions asked participants about what they enjoyed most about the Biggest Loser campaign and suggestions to improve the Biggest Loser campaign, respectively. The feedback was both positive and constructive.

Some common positive themes include:

• Participants felt the tone of the program was upbeat and most felt incredibly supported by coworkers and HR.
• Participants seemed to learn a lot about proper diet and exercise through a variety of program activities, including seminar, screenings and coaching support.
• Many employees felt that being part of a team was helpful (helped hold them accountable) and enjoyable.
• Many enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment and being able to track results throughout the program.
• Most participants were able to apply at least “some” of the information from all seminars to their efforts. Participants seemed to have gained the most information from the initial Weight Management seminar.

Some common areas of concern include:

• Participants would have liked a kick-off session or more detailed introduction to the program at the beginning.
• It was concerning to some participants that there were people in the program who did not appear to need to loose weight. (I blogged about this before.)
• On the other hand, a few participants suggested the program have a broader focus beyond weight loss.
• Some employees felt that the team challenges did not accommodate all types of participants and could be improved. (You can read about each of the three team callenges and view pictures in previous posts.)
• Some participants recognized that a team does not work well for everyone; some were frustrated with their specific team or other individuals lack of commitment to the program.
• Participants would like more time to meet one-on-one with a Coach.
• Some participants would prefer less email reminders during the program.
• Participants suggested that we improve the fitness related assessments. (I blogged about this too.)