Health Promotion Affiliates

This program is designed to help individuals make lifestyle changes to achieve safe weight loss and become healthier. The program is designed to be fun and utilize the strong support of being part of a team. We want people to be successful, not just for 10 weeks but for life,

1. To be successful a person must have a positive mindset and a willingness to implement all the program components.
2. Make a commitment to healthy eating for life.
3. Make a commitment to regular exercise.
4. Have support and encouragement from co-workers, friends and family.
5. Learn how to cook nutritious meals and make healthy choices when eating at restaurants.
6. Make a commitment to learn basic nutrition; i.e. calories, fats, fiber, vitamins, reading labels.
7. Self discovery: what you do to sabotage your program, stress eating, giving up.

This program is designed to provide all those components primarily at the workplace but also to carry it home.

Structure of the 10 Week Program:

•Eligible employees are those with a BMI above 25 willing to commit to all components of the program. A survey will be made available to help individuals assess their level of commitment and readiness.
•Employees will form teams of 4 and choose a team name and captain.
•Two or more competing teams can be formed at the company.
•Employees weigh in once a week and record weights. Waist measurement will be taken at sessions 1, 5 and 10.
•A body fat measurement will be taken at first and last session. The team with the greatest percentage of body fat loss will be declared the winner.
•Each employee pays $40.00 to join the program and will receive a pedometer and a healthy diet/ recipe book.
•Employees meet once a week for an hour with a nutrition/exercise facilitator.
•Team members will make an effort to eat lunch together, share recipes, and support each other through phone calls and even exercise together.
•Team members keep both daily food records and exercise logs.
•The facilitator will provide motivational tips along with nutrition and exercise tips. Setbacks and obstacles will be discussed.
•The facilitator will be available by e-mail for personal counseling/problem solving.
•The facilitator will meet with each team for ten consecutive weeks collecting the weights and logs.
•The company will pay for the time of the facilitator and will make company time available for the program.
•The company will provide a scale for weigh-ins.
•The company will decide on offering a prize to the winning team, (greatest percentage of body fat loss).

Program goals and themes: The facilitator’s primary focus with the team is to be a positive and motivational expert who can guide and support the team on a weekly basis. The facilitator will spend a portion of the hour weighing each team member, collecting the exercise and nutrition logs, and reviewing any problems and obstacles that team members are encountering. The facilitator will cover important nutrition and exercise topics at each of the 10 sessions. The topics and the sequence may change based on the facilitator’s judgment on what the team needs.

Session: 1. Setting Goals and attitudes for Success. Use of pedometer and nutrition and exercise logs

Session: 2. Basics of a Healthy weight loss program.

Session: 3. Identifying reasons for weight gain and develop action plan

Session: 4. Shopping, healthy cooking, and recipes.

Session: 5. Sticking to your exercise plan.

Session: 6. How stress can sabotage your program.

Session: 7. Dealing with parties, eating out and other challenges.

Session: 8. Rebooting your goals, motivation, and action plans.

Session: 9. Staying with the program after the 10 weeks is over.

Session; 10. Summary of what was learned and how to apply it for the future.