Confession – I am a bitter Christmas baby. My birthday isn’t on Christmas Day but close enough to receive birthday gifts in Christmas wrapping paper.
Not sure if that’s the reason but I’ve have never been much of a Christmas person and with all the ridiculous commercialization of the season (really, who buys anyone a car for Christmas?) and the fact that in some stores the decorations come out in the summer, I could take it or leave it.
But in recent years, I’ve warmed up to the festive season a bit more. I think it’s because I’ve created some coping mechanisms to make the holidays more fun for me. Read More→
If you’re just starting out in your career or perhaps continuing your career in a new company, meetings can be the cause of stress and nervousness. Below are some tips to help you decrease your stress and impress your co-workers (and hopefully your managers): Read More→
Mental health is becoming a more important factor in overall health. Previously, workplace wellness focused on physical wellness with fitness challenges and blood pressure clinics. Studies are now showing that the key to workplace wellness is mental health. Give a read to the following article, that outlines some of the issues around mental health in the workplace and offers suggestions on how helping employees with mental health issues can benefit not just the individual but your business. This post was written by Jordan Cieciwa and re-posted from www.huffingtonpost.ca.
The benefits of exercise, active living and healthy eating are no longer debatable. There are dozens of preventable diseases that we die from, simply because we do not properly take care of ourselves. Disease prevention is a key reason organizations like the Heart and Stroke Foundation exist, they’ve even started a blog to get your the best info to live heart-healthy.
So, let me ask you this: Why are there so many people living sedentary lives and allowing disease to take root, if it is so good for us to be active and eat healthy?
Here is my theory after a career that spans more than a decade in the fitness industry.
Exercise, active living and healthy eating are not the first step in living a healthy lifestyle. The base needs to be set before anyone can live a healthy lifestyle. This is the problem — most people are not equipped to live healthy. Education is important to health, and more than anything, mental health is critical.
First, in order to build a solid foundation, we need education on how the body works — we are cellular beings. Our health depends on taking care of our body at its basic level. Your food and exercise habits affect your cells. Your cells build your organs and your organs create the systems in the body — the cardiovascular, nervous and digestive systems.
The systems show the failures at the cellular level. Those failures are what we call disease. Once we see those failures at the system level, our organs and cells are in dire straits.
Mental health is the most critical part of this whole health transaction. If I look at someone and tell them, you will die young if you do not eat properly and exercise, and they don’t change their life, something must be deeply wrong. What we miss in the promotion of health and wellness is empathy.
We tell people they need to work out — it will make them sexy, help them live longer and fix aches and pains. We show them pictures of what they could look like, and before and after images of people who have done it before them.
We never ask how their marriage is, or how their kids are, or if work is OK. We don’t talk about depression, anxiety or their mental state. Instead, we bombard them with more success from other people who “look good.”
As health, fitness and exercise is promoted, we forget one important piece. Health and fitness is easy if you are healthy and fit. Take away your mental health base, and your passion for the way your body works and whether you ask yourself, “Should I go to the gym? Would I look to be active today?”
If we focus on the workplace, I think this will make the most sense. The buzz words are flying around “wellness teams,” “wellness initiative boards,” “health spending accounts,” “health credits” — I could go on and on. And if your company has spent time and money on these with very little return, let me tell you why.
Every board I have consulted with puts their plans and spending together and “accidentally” creates a plan that amounts to getting healthy people cheaper gym memberships. Healthy people staff these boards, and they do things that make their healthy lifestyle easier and more cost-effective to maintain. The CEO or CFO signs off on it because they have solved a buzz word problem, or at least put a Band-Aid on it.
A business’s bottom line is not affected positively by this scenario, yet this is most company’s approach to wellness.
Magazines do the same thing with their workouts and menu plans. Our fitness world is designed to connect with those who are already healthy, inspire those who are already working out, and unfortunately it brings shame to those who don’t. EVEN IF THAT SHAME IS NOT INTENTIONAL.
To effectively change the health of a workplace takes something completely unique. HR can’t spend enough time, and a board of healthy people won’t be able to do it, either. In large corporations, there is a small percentage of the population incurring the greatest time and productivity losses, and increase spending on short-term and long-term disability. It is these people that need empathy, support and an unwavering commitment.
I firmly believe that all people want to work, be productive members of teams and positively interact with others. That said, without the proper tools and supports, not everyone can. Mental health can take us out of a happy state in an instant. We become difficult to work with and, without explanation, less productive and a burden to a team. That same person stops caring for their health, develops issues and can’t stop the downward spiral by themselves.
That downward spiral could have started because of:
Work related stress
Relationship stress at home
Death in the family
Undiagnosed or diagnosed mental health disorders
The point is very simply this: our push towards getting people healthy and creating workplace wellness programs won’t affect the bottom line or get a return on investment until we acknowledge the human factor.
You can’t put a blanket health program in and expect unhealthy people to simply pick it up, and get involved. My job as a workplace wellness consultant is to identify the employees with attendance issues, or on long term/short term disabilities and help them engage programs that are available.
It’s something I firmly believe HR can’t do alone. They can’t ask the questions about home life, current health issues, addiction issues, diagnosed mental health issues — the list goes on as to the cause of unhealthy lifestyles. I’ve found a solution for this part of the equation: empathy, counseling and focused attention.
If you want someone at the gym, living healthy or changing their eating habits so they “get on your workplace wellness plan,” you have to be willing and able to put the time in. A foundation needs to be created. Educate, and make the person understand they are supported. Then help them engage with your amazing wellness board initiatives..
Without identifying the target for employees, helping them to get grounded and giving them the face-to-face support they need, your workplace wellness program will not positively affect your bottom line. This is where I come in to play. Programs, third-party case management and goal-setting help ensure the employee spending your sick time, over time and disability money is truly cared for and brought back stronger to the work force.
Jordan Cieciwa has a degree in Kinesology and Applied Health and has worked with everything from couch potatoes to pro Athletes over the past decade is my key to battling obesity and inactivity.
September is Arthritis Awareness month in Canada. It’s also a subject dear to my heart, as my mom and aunt had rheumatoid and I have 4 osteo-arthritic discs in my back due to a fall when I was younger. For more information on arthritis, go to The Arthritis Society.
Think arthritis is just for the old? Half of those who get it are under age 65. One in five adults — 50 million Americans — has been diagnosed with arthritis. Most wait to see a doctor until pain interferes with daily life — but pain isn’t the only sign of trouble. Read More→
OK, September is here and the kids are back at school, you’re back at work and you’re asking yourself “What happened to my New Year’s Resolutions?”. Maybe they’ve fallen by the wayside because you didn’t take time to look at the big picture while creating smaller, shorter-term goals that are easier to achieve.
Take a look at the following article on SMART goal setting – to succeed, your goals need to be:
Specific or Significant
Measurable or Meaningful
Attainable or Action-Oriented
Relevant or Rewarding
Time-bound or Trackable
More on these in the article. Enjoy!
Personal Goal Setting
Many people feel as if they’re adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don’t seem to get anywhere worthwhile. A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven’t spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven’t set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not! Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You’ll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray. Why Set Goals? Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life. By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you’ll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self-confidence , as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you’ve set.
Starting to Set Personal Goals
You set your goals on a number of levels:
First you create your “big picture” of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals. Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals. This is why we start the process of goal setting by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.
Step 1: Setting Lifetime Goals
The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making. To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you):
Career – What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
Financial – How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
Education – Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
Family – Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
Artistic – Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
Attitude – Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
Physical – Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
Pleasure – How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
Public Service – Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how? Spend some time brainstorming these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals that you can focus on. As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants – however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)
Step 2: Setting Smaller Goals
Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.
Then create a daily To-Do List of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting. Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life. Staying on Course Once you’ve decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis. Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.)
SMART Goals
A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants (some of which we’ve included in parenthesis),
When we think of airplane safety, we think of the big picture – plane crashes or emergency landings. But flying also has smaller health risks. Take a look at the following article for the some tips for staying healthy if you have plane travel as part of your summer vacation. Enjoy!
Staying healthy when you fly starts with being well prepared. Here are ten preboarding secrets, culled from frequent fliers, on what to do to protect yourself from colds, flu, and other ills.
1. Carry an empty water bottle through security.
The chances of reliable, frequent beverage service aren’t high these days, unless you’re lucky enough to fly business class. Yet getting and staying hydrated before and during your flight is the best way to protect yourself against getting sick. That’s because lack of humidity in the pressurized cabin dries out mucous membranes, making it harder for your system to flush out germs.
What to do: Although you can’t bring liquids through security, you can bring an empty bottle. Fill it at the water fountain as soon as you’re through, and then drink up and hydrate before you fly — and during the flight. Once on the plane, don’t be shy about asking the attendant to fill your bottle for you. Even if they’re not coming through often with the cart, there’s water in the back.
2. Use the restroom before boarding — with caution.
Most people know not to touch a public toilet seat any more than necessary, but it’s less well known that flushing also transmits germs. And the closer you stand to the toilet, the more you’re in the “line of fire.” Researchers studying this problem measured the microorganisms in the air and on nearby surfaces after the first and subsequent flushes and found that “large numbers of microorganisms persisted on the toilet bowl surface and in the bowl water, which were disseminated into the air by further flushes.”
What to do: Use a public restroom before you board and onboard restrooms as infrequently as possible, since it’s impossible to stand more than a couple of feet away. Close the lid before flushing, using a paper towel between your hand and the lid and handle. And wash your hands thoroughly after flushing, using a paper towel to turn off the faucet.
3. Prevent dry eyes.
Studies show that lack of humidity in the enclosed space of the airplane cabin is one of the primary reasons for the higher risk of getting sick while flying. When your eyes are dry, it’s more tempting to rub them, but touching your eyes is one of the primary means of transmitting cold and flu viruses. If you have germs on your hands, they can travel through the tear ducts to the nasopharynx at the back of the throat, where cold viruses do their damage.
What to do: Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly and avoid touching your eyes. If you wear contact lenses, remove them before boarding (after washing your hands) and wear your glasses on the plane. Never let yourself fall asleep with your lenses in, as your eyes will become even drier that way.
4. Pack a blanket and pillow.
Few airlines provide blankets anymore, and the ones they do offer can harbor germs. In fact, during the H1N1 flu scare, several airlines removed all blankets and pillows from flights as a precaution against cold and flu transmission.
Most of us don’t want to focus on summer safety: we want to go out and have fun with our families or friends. But as the article below states, if you’re prepared, a small issue can stay small and not result in a time-consuming (and sometimes expensive if you’re out of the country) ordeal. Give it a read!
BY BEST HEALTH
Summer is a great time to get outside, have fun and enjoy a wide range of activities, whether you’re camping, cottaging or hanging out by the pool. However, it’s also a time for prevention ‘staying safe and protecting your family from summer-related injuries.
“In summer, we tend to let our guard down,” says Shannon Koppenhoefer, an Ontario-based paramedic, who specializes in wilderness first-aid. “But the biggest way to stay safe is preparation.” Read More→
Because June is Father’s Day, we wanted to include an article on men’s health. Traditionally, men have been raised to be the strong, silent type when it comes to their health. Hopefully, this is changing.
This is a very interesting list of things you might not know about mental illness in men – although this could apply to anyone.
Openly discussing mental illness can be a tough battle for anyone — but for men, the cultural baggage of traditional masculinity may make it particularly challenging.
“It’s OK to have those feelings and wanting to talk about it is natural and healthy.”
3. Men with anxiety are seen as “weak” — and that’s a problem.
“We, men, don’t share any problems that we face because we think it makes us vulnerable and weak. Some have been taught to show that we are tough since childhood.”
4. Lifestyle changes can help.
“Get out of it as soon as possible. Change your habits … go on a vacation, movies, blind dates. Make new friends. Be positive.”
5. Insensitive comments can sometimes stand in the way of support.
“Pretending to sympathize and saying things like ‘toughen up,’ ‘it’ll get better,’ ‘grow up, you are acting so immature,’ ‘grow a pair’ are all not as helpful as [people] like to think it is. Perhaps they should consider observing people a little more before commenting like that.”
6. If you want to know more about what they’re dealing with, ask thoughtful questions.
“[A]sk questions that are not judgmental in nature. Rather than asking ‘how did you screw this up?’ consider how could this have gone better … no need to repeatedly bring up past failures.”
7. Mental health issues can be all-consuming.
“It always hurts 24/7 when you are experiencing anxiety and depression.”
8. Anxiety and depression don’t discriminate.
“It’s very real. It can happen to anyone, any age and any gender. There is no switch to turn it off. There is help you can give and receive.”
9. The conditions can cause poor thoughts.
“It’s a vicious cycle. When you’re suffering from it, one bad thought, event or interaction can be enough to send you into destructive thinking patterns.”
10. Treatment can make anxiety and depression manageable.
“These are natural human conditions, but it’s better looking for professional help in case you can’t control them.”
11. Mental illness is not just “all in your head.”
“[I]t’s not something for weak people, you can’t just ‘cheer up!’ and it’s okay and normal to talk about.”
12. It’s important to identify — and speak out — about the symptoms.
“How you deal with it is what matters. Usually the ones who undergo stress but don’t show it in public suffer the most. One should definitely see a [doctor if they] have trouble with sleep, lack in focus, increased/decreased appetite as these are the initial signs.”
13. Anxiety and depression should never make you feel ashamed.
“Depression and anxiety put you in a position where you have no control and feel very open, helpless and vulnerable. As [men], we are constantly being told we have to be strong and in control when we can barely get out of bed in the morning and every decision takes all the focus and energy we have. It can add to the downward spiral. Learn to ask for help and have someone to lean on, it will make your journey out of that black place a little easier.”
The survey was conducted on AskMen.com from August 20-29, 2015 and there were 73 total respondents. Each response was confidential.
This post is part of ShameOver: It’s Time To Talk About Men’s Mental Health, a HuffPost Healthy Living editorial initiative that aims reclaim what it means to “be strong” by addressing the stigma men face in disclosing and seeking support for mental health issues. Each week we’ll share features and personal stories about men and their caregivers as it relates to suicide, mental illness and emotional well-being. If you have a story you’d like to share, email us atstrongertogether@huffingtonpost.com.
Curtis Health Is Partnering With Kintec: Footwear + Orthotics
Kintec is offering all Curtis clients (including friends and family) expert shoe fitting to best suit your needs at a 15% discount on regular price footwear.
