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Tag Archive for 'wellness'

ggoffe

New Year, New You, New Fave Brand

Published by Gretchen Goffe on January 25, 2012.

January is notorious as the time when people make healthy New Year’s resolutions. Places and times when health is top of mind are opportunities for brands to solve Wellness Dilemmas for consumers. Brands win big by finding a pain point—and providing a way out. The rewards are loyalty and a place as their go-to brand. The dilemma is a straightforward identification of a problem that resonates with consumers and interferes with turning intentions into actions. The brand provides a solution as the counterpoint. And here’s the fun part – it’s not just what your brand says (“We’re healthy!”), but the actions of the brand that matter (“Here’s a plan to make this happen”). Let’s take a look at a few initiatives and the Wellness Dilemmas they solve across categories such as meat, breakfast, weight loss, and workout gear that venture into new venues and programs.

Tyson Grilled and Ready chicken breast strips. Wellness Dilemma – you promised you would eat right but you’re so busy with work, friends and family, it’s hard to stay on track. Tyson introduces a program that solves the dilemma with 30 Days, 30 Ways, and 30 Rewards.

Slimfast. One of the original meal replacement weight loss plans, Slimfast has refreshed the brand with new packaging and formulations to go with their plan of a shake or bar at breakfast and lunch, followed by a 500 calorie dinner. Slimfast continues to solve the same Wellness Dilemma – that weight loss programs require time-consuming preparation of new recipes 3 times a day.

Egg Beaters. Wellness Dilemma – you want to eat more protein to support your healthy lifestyle and build muscles, but worry about too much fat, cholesterol and calories. Egg Beaters muscle supporting protein helps individuals meet fitness goals. It’s interesting to see the print campaign move from magazines to featured posters inside mega-gyms. Why not extend the promotion to trial, including breakfast choices made with Eggbeaters at the gym’s cafes?

Victorias Secret Sport VSX. Wellness Dilemma – Individuals want to look good at the gym even before the results of their new resolutions shows. VSX combines VS figure enhancing designs with performance workout gear, and introduces it via the Get a Runway Body promotion. Promotional posters have a lot less category noise to compete with at mega-gyms and boost visibility as fitness Instructors hand out scratch off  discount cards for VSX stores.

If your brand competes in those categories and you haven’t developed a clear strategy to connect your brand with the health and wellness opportunity, now is a good time to think about the role you can play for consumers looking for help turning healthy intentions into actions. Brands that haven’t developed a clear strategy and plan to execute it risk dropping off consumer’s radar as they discover new brands in the New Year.

*For more information on health and wellness visit thewellatgsw.com.

Categories: Health and wellness marketing
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mnelson

Every time an Rx is written, it’s another New Year’s Day.

Published by Marcee Nelson on January 3, 2012.

Right now we’re all thinking about starting a brand new year, ready to put our good intentions into action—you know, our plans to work out more, eat less.  Form new good habits.  Break the bad ones.  It seems to be human nature to need—or at least like—a trigger point for change.  So every January 1, we declare our intentions to make daily wellness choices in the new year.  And we all know what happens next.  By June a few of us are still at it, but many of us are back where we started.

That 6-month mark is a familiar theme for pharmaceutical marketers.  Because that’s the time the average persistence curve takes a dramatic dive south, especially for chronic conditions. If we think like Advertisers, we rely on mass media DTC campaigns to tell people “ask your doctor” and we consider the box checked. But when our consumers walk out of the doctor’s office with a new Rx and some good intentions in hand, it’s like another New Year’s Day.  Six months later, where will they be?

Advocate brand-builders understand that ROI for long term commitment is return on involvement. So they focus more of their time, attention and investment post-script—they ask themselves not “how can we get consumers to adhere?” but “how can we stick with our consumers?”  The Advocate definition of DTC is Do, Teach, Connect.

Here’s why:

1) Because mass media offers no utility to us as consumers except to make us aware, and awareness is the most superficial level of involvement.

Do means taking action vs. sending messages:

  • Adding utility to media –making it somehow useful, not just interruptive
  • Creating tools and personalized support systems
  • Showing up to solve problems where and when it matters most
  • Using mass media instead as a mass invitation to an involving, personalized experience

2) Because, as we learned in Pink Tank’s 2010 She Says Survey of 1300 women, consumers want more transparency from pharma companies when it comes to risks and benefits.

Teach means empowering choice, not preaching information:

  • Improving their “health literacy” about therapies and procedures
  • Tying rewards and risks together in a complete, logical and honest story
  • Giving them ways to visualize what’s happening inside, especially in chronic and preventive conditions where they may feel no cause/effect

3) Because now a physician’s opinion is a lesser part of the equation.  Over 40% of She Says Survey respondents told us that before filling a prescription they gather consensus through their Circle of Influencers both online and off.  Consumers are now taking a bigger role in their own care and self-navigating their way, armed with knowledge and community.

Connect means finding new ways to bridge disconnects and dead-ends healthcare consumers meet as they try to self-navigate:

  • Correcting misalignments or gaps in their Circle of Influencers
  • Helping to start or facilitate conversations between influencers
  • Thinking outside the industry for innovative partnerships to form new continuums of self-care

So how about this:  On January 1, 2012, let’s resolve to involve healthcare consumers more by redefining and redesigning our DTC efforts with the goals of Do, Teach, Connect.  The result could be a happier and more involving New Year for all of us.

*For more information on health and wellness visit thewellatgsw.com

Categories: Health and wellness marketing and New ideas and approaches
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dmarinacci

The Well @GSW named as New Venture to Watch

Published by Dawn Marinacci on December 14, 2011.

Health and wellness is quickly becoming one of the most prevalent and hot topics facing healthcare marketers, DTC/OTC, and consumer packaged goods retailers. Med Ad News (MAN) recently named our health and wellness group, The Well @GSW, one of three pharmaceutical marketing ventures to watch that could change the way pharmaceutical products are marketed and sold. Josh Slatko of MAN asked several of our leaders about the impact health and wellness will have on the future of pharma marketing. Marcee Nelson, Chief Creative/Content Officer for The Well @GSW had this to say:

“Our industry thinks in terms of ‘patients’ versus ‘consumers,’” Ms. Nelson told Med Ad News. “The distinction seems inconsequential, but has huge implications in how we feel and approach our audiences. When we think ‘patient,’ we picture a person in a gown being shepherded through the system by healthcare authority figures. Newsflash: Patients are consumers – more demanding, more informed, more unified than ever before. Today, the physician’s opinion is only part of the decision. Due to knowledge-as-commodity and global community, each consumer has a ‘circle of influence’ she/he consults, a phenomenon we call ‘composite decision making.’ With less authority, we must find new ways to influence.”


To read more, click here.

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brizzo

Is your body trying to tell you something? Are you listening?

Published by Brenda Rizzo on December 5, 2011.

Many of us deal with stressors every day. Stressors are confirmation that we are alive! There is no such thing as a stress-free life, but being able to integrate or adapt to stress can help us to reduce the damage that stress can exert on our health. And your body often tries to tell you when you are experiencing too much stress but we often ignore it. Let me explain.

Dr. Hans Selye, an endocrinologist, first began to describe stress in 1936. His observations led to a three-stage model of the body’s response to stress. He called his theory the general adaptation syndrome (GAS). The first phase is an alarm reaction, the second stage is one of resistance or adaptation, and the final stage is one of exhaustion.

  • In the alarm stage the body responds to a stressor, which could be physical or psychological. With the release of adrenaline your heart could begin to beat fast, or you might include butterflies in your stomach, a rise in your blood pressure, heavy breathing, dilation of your eyes, dry mouth, and the hair on your arms might even stand on end.
  • During the resistance stage of a stress reaction, your body remains on alert for danger. When this part of the GAS is prolonged, your immune system may become compromised and you may become susceptible to illness. And with prolonged stress changes take place that weaken your body’s ability to fight off disease.
  • The final stage of Selye’s GAS is the exhaustion stage. As your body readjusts during this period, hormones are released to help bring your body back to normal, to the state of balance called homeostasis. Until balance is reached, the body continues to release hormones, ultimately suppressing your immune system, contributing to illness.

Over time, these hormonal changes can lead to ulcers, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, arthritis, kidney disease, and allergic reactions. His seminal work “A Syndrome Produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents” was published in 1936 in Nature.

He described two different kinds of stress, eustress or “happy stress” and distress or “disturbing stress.” We have to integrate and respond to that stress in our lives, we have no choice.  However Selye noticed that changes we feel upset about (distress) cause much more biological damage than changes we feel good about (eustress).

How does stress affect health?

In the short term stress can affect your health by disturbing your digestion (desire to eat more than usual, or eat less, diarrhea or constipation) or affect your immune system (ever notice how you get a cold after a stressful period in your life?). But there can be some not so obvious deleterious health consequences. You may have a rise in blood pressure (which can affect your kidneys, cause a stroke, or contribute to heart disease) or you could have an increase in acid secretion in your stomach (which can cause irritation, or lead to gastroesophageal reflux disease or ulcers). These are just a few examples.

Short-term, the stress response can be normal – the body does this for survival. However a chronic or habitual stress response can lead to a “weak organ response”. For example, some of us have recurrent chronic back pain, while others may notice they go through periods of intestinal discomfort. Chronic hypertension can be your body’s response to long term stress, chest pain, leading to heart disease. Some people get asthma, or are susceptible to lung infections. Everyone has a body system or organ that responds to too much stress over an extended period of time.

What can you do about it?

Start to pay attention to your body. What is your weak organ that always responds to too much stress? When do you know you have had enough? Here are some tips to help you adapt to stress:

  • Journal, this will help you clearly identify your stressors and how your body responds.
  • Exercise increases your ability to handle stress and boost your immune system.
  • Eating healthy can maintain energy and reduce digestive disorders.
  • Keep good sleep hygiene, maintain the same bedtime, the same amount of sleep, and keep your sleep routine calm and similar.
  • Just say “no” when people ask you to do more than you know you can take on, say, “I am flattered that you thought of me, but no I can’t right now.”
  • Identify your support system and use it. Do you have friends or families that can help you out? Sometimes they just need to know.
  • Talk about the stressor, either with a counselor, minister, or close friend that can help you get perspective.
  • Know your limitations, listen to your body and slow down.
  • Set aside time for yourself for a warm bath, or a good book, or whatever helps you escape for a moment.

So what do I do over the holidays?

  • Avoid unnecessary stress, like people who stress you, or unrealistic expectations you set on yourself.
  • Avoid hot button topics that you know could upset you (politics, religion, economy).
  • Be willing to compromise to get along.
  • Don’t try to control the uncontrollable.
  • Try to forgive, long-term grudges can waste a lot of energy.
  • Look for humor, maintain perspective, shrug it off.

Remember stress may be not only having a psychological affect but also a weak organ response that could be even more damaging.

Categories: Health and wellness marketing
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mhallett

The Art of Mindfulness

Published by Maggie Hallett on September 23, 2011.

There has been a lot of talk recently about information overload, the downsides to multitasking, and how focus and concentration have become novel ideas. In earlier posts, Dawn shared suggestions about dealing with distractions at work, and Bob talked about the hazards of being too connected and the negative effects of not being able to remain focused. At the end of his post, Bob asked for solutions. I have a suggestion…

It’s called being mindful.

On Tuesdays, my work is very different from the Account Service work I do the rest of the week, because I work as a therapist specializing in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) for the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. DBT is a wonderful mixture of traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (recognizing unhealthy thought patterns and working to change them, thus changing responses to them) and Mindfulness (living in the present moment with awareness). Mindfulness is the basis and foundation of DBT skills. The other skills—interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation—are difficult to master without the ability to be mindful.

So what exactly is mindfulness, and how do we become more mindful? I think the easiest way to explain mindfulness is through examples of when we are not being mindful (which is most of the time).

Example 1

You are driving home after work and you are replaying the last conversation you had with a client or co-worker. You felt it was unfinished, so you are planning how you’d like to continue it tomorrow, and you actually preview how the conversation will go in your mind. Meanwhile, you’ve pulled into your driveway, having no recollection of the actual drive home because you were so wrapped up in your thoughts about the past and the future.

Example 2

You’re having a good day. It’s nice outside and you actually get to go out to lunch. Right before lunch, you are emptying out some old personal e-mails and you come across one from a family member with whom you’ve been having some issues. It immediately stirs up all of the feelings of anger, hurt, and anxiety that surround the relationship, even though nothing in the moment has happened or changed. Your fine day just became a lot darker because you can’t stop thinking about that e-mail and the issues you are having.

Example 3

You are reading this blog, listening to your co-worker’s conversation next to you, designing a Web site, and thinking about dinner.

Mindfulness involves conscious awareness of your current thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. Raising awareness of the present can ultimately help to control concentration and impulses. So when you are driving, you are focused only on driving, and when you are building a Web site, you are focused only on building a Web site. And when a thought comes into your mind that triggers a negative emotion, you are aware of the thought (and the feelings that come with it) but let it pass without holding on to it and allowing it to spiral into unhealthy rumination. This last example is probably the most difficult to master.

In DBT, we teach mindfulness in two parts: the “what” skills and the “how” skills. The “what” skills are what to do to become mindful, and the “how” skills are how to do it.

What Skills

Observe your thoughts and feelings: Notice what you are experiencing without getting caught up in the experience. Step inside yourself and watch your thoughts coming and going, but do not hold on to any of them. Notice what comes through your senses—sight, smell, taste, etc. Notice the actions and expressions of others.

Describe your thoughts and feelings: Put words on experiences; this tends to keep you honest. Name your feelings. Make sure to call a thought a thought and a feeling a feeling. “I feel like no one listens to me” is NOT a feeling. “I feel lonely” or “I feel ignored” are feelings.

Participate in each moment: Enter into your experiences, forgetting yourself. Attempt to lose self-consciousness. Act intuitively, trust yourself, and accept both yourself and the situation as they are.

How Skills

Non-Judgmentally: See, but do not evaluate. Focus on “just the facts” and attempt to unglue your opinions from the facts. Acknowledge the good and the bad, but don’t judge any of it.

One-Mindfully: Do one thing at a time. If you find yourself distracted (either by others or your own mind), go back to what you are doing again and again and again.

Effectively: Focus on what works. Attempt to stay away from right or wrong, fair and unfair, etc. Play by the rules; try not to cut off your nose to spite your face. Act as best as you can to meet the needs of the real situation you are in. Keep an eye on your objectives, and do your best to let go of anger, vengeance, and righteousness.

Mindfulness, in concept, seems pretty simple. But it’s one of the hardest things to do in practice, especially in recent times.  Like any other skill you are trying to master, mindfulness takes practice, practice, and more practice. And the best way to practice mindfulness is to become aware of when you are not being mindful and bring yourself back to the present moment.

I could write forever about mindfulness–the benefits are endless. However, since good blog etiquette doesn’t recommend that, I’ll leave you with this:

Mindfulness can be life-altering because it gives you the opportunity to control your thoughts instead of allowing your thoughts to control you.

*For more information on health and wellness visit thewellatgsw.com

Categories: New ideas and approaches
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brizzo

Disclosure of calorie content–can you trust it?

Published by Brenda Rizzo on September 6, 2011.

The passage of the US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires that restaurants and food vendors with more than 20 locations publish caloric content. This has made calorie counting easier than ever for those who are trying to reduce their weight. But what are the pitfalls to watch out for:

1. Look at the serving size. You may think that one bag of almonds would be one serving size. But actually the label states there are 4 servings, so you have to multiply by 4 if you eat the whole bag.

2. Omitting ingredients that are commonly used is another way for a food item to appear to be fewer calories than it is. For example the calorie content of a salad does not include dressing. Or the calorie content of a sandwich does not include mayonnaise.

3. Fat free does not mean lower calories. In fact many times ingredients that have less fat have higher carbohydrates as a trade off.

4. Less calories are often touted on the labels. But you have to ask yourself less than what? Many times it is just less than what they used to do. So a potato chip that is lower in fat just means that it is lower than the potato chip they used to make, not that it has a healthy amount of fat.

In the July issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Urban, et al, randomly selected low- and high-energy content foods from 7 quick-serve restaurants and 7 sit-down chain-type restaurants across 3 states. Of the 269 foods collected from 42 restaurants:

  • 40% were found to have at least 10 cal/portion higher than the stated amounts
  • 52% were found to have at least 10 cal/portions lower than the stated amounts
  • 19% contained at least a 100 cal/portion higher than the stated amounts

These discrepancies were greater and more frequent in sit-down restaurants that featured foods with lower stated calorie contents.

So who can you trust? Until there is regular monitoring of calorie contents, accuracy will be less than ideal. However, publishing the calorie content is the first step in helping consumers of food become more informed. Tools to help health care providers teach their patients about improving their health with weight loss can be directed toward understanding and interpreting calorie counts and content of food.

I applaud these efforts for full disclosure. But food packages need to be more transparent about the serving size or specific when it comes to “less”, less than what. There needs to be regular monitoring of restaurants reported calorie contents with consequences if the information is not accurate, as well as all restaurants regardless of size should be publishing this information. But this is a good first step.

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jtown

Stand up for your health

Published by Jennifer Town on August 1, 2011.

GSW’s The Well has started a new initiative at GSW Columbus to help employees get and stay healthy. We all know how important health is and also what a challenge staying healthy is in our modern age. I can attest to this. When I was a student I walked everywhere and ate out far less. Now, I drive to work and find myself grabbing lunch and dinner on the go way more than I should. But I’m making an effort to change, to go to the gym more and eat out less.

Part of my effort to change is this:

It started with two things: a pain in my neck (of the literal and not figurative kind) and a mashable.com infographic one of my co-workers sent out to the department about how sitting so much is killing us.

I think the graphic of the Grim Reaper looming over some poor unsuspecting guy sitting at his desk really brings it home.

So, harnessing the magical powers of the Internet, I did a search for “standing desk.” I had heard of standing desks, of course, but had assumed they would cost a lot of money and/or require me to learn how to use a table saw. Since I was the one in shop class that had enlisted others in class to do her sawing for her, I figured that would be a recipe for disaster

Then I found this. Using some commonly available household items, your current desk as a base, and a measuring tape, you could have a standing desk of your very own for $20 or less!

Feeling inspired, I brought a laundry basket and some heavy books to work as a prototype. I wanted to see what height would be ideal before I went out and spent any money. It did look a little silly for a while—a white laundry basket balanced on top of some old textbooks and a dictionary, but I figured out that I needed a container or shelf of about 14 inches. I found my current standing desk—part of a shelving unit that was on clearance at The Container Store—for $9. I lucked out in this, but there were plenty of other options in the store that would have worked as well.

I’m reading Be Excellent at Anything by Tony Swartz and there’s a whole chapter devoted to the relationship between health and productivity at work and in life. It’s pretty simple: people who feel good physically work better and get more done both at work and home. Generally, I have found when I stand up at my desk I feel more awake, more alert, have a little bit more energy. I don’t stand 8 hours a day, but I do alternate between standing and sitting most of the week. Every little bit helps.

Categories: New ideas and approaches
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bheffernan

Wellness is a choice we make in any state of health

Published by Brian Heffernan on May 9, 2011.

I recently typed the words “health and wellness” into my favorite search engine and about 91 million results appeared. No exaggeration. These famous words– health and wellness– are hitched at the hip and travel everywhere together. Yet, if you ask people to define the meaning of this linked linguistic staple, the responses always vary:

“It’s all about fitness, popping vitamins, exercising and taking care of yourself.”

“It’s a lifestyle.”

“It means you are trying to keep away from the doctor –health and wellness is better than sick and ornery and high medical bills.”

Interpretations of the phrase “health and wellness” ping back and forth as people reconcile the distinct meanings of two different words, while the diminutive “and” ducks for cover in the middle. We sense that health and wellness don’t mean the same thing and that both words are not equally at fault. If you ask someone, “How’s your health?”, they will almost always get your meaning and quickly oblige with an inventory of their personal afflictions. If you ask people, “How’s your wellness?”, they will ask you to repeat the question.

Our research shows clients and consumers alike lack a fundamental understanding of what “wellness” means. In our work, which included both secondary research as well as primary research with consumers and professionals, we discovered a simple way to help people better understand how the concept of wellness relates to personal health. Most people (and it turns out most formal definitions) describe health as an outcome. For example, The American Heritage Dictionary defines health as “the overall condition of an organism at a given time.” This helps explain why most people have a reasonably good understanding of what health is and can describe the condition of their “personal organism” when asked, “How’s it going?” On the other hand, wellness is not an outcome. It is a way of being that involves choices we make. We can choose to live “well”, regardless of the specific state of health we experience at any one time.

We discovered this notion resonates with people across a wide spectrum of self-described physical health. The idea that “wellness is a choice we make in any state of health” is as true for athletic people in their 20s as it is for people seeking to live “well into” their 80s. When we begin to understand wellness as a choice that is relevant to a large swath of the population, it opens up exciting, new possibilities.

Interviews with patients across a variety of illnesses demonstrate that people become increasingly aware of their wellness choices as they cope with ill health and are interested in wellness support as they manage everything from rheumatoid arthritis to diabetes to cancer. Of course, there are many dimensions to wellness and the type of support required, and it varies across conditions and patient types. However, as the population ages, there is a growing need to take wellness seriously and to pursue new approaches. Why?

  • As health care reform advances and focuses on improving outcomes (the health part), it is not surprising that key initiatives include affecting better wellness choices for all.
  • As new technology and media enable truly interactive educational forums and personalized content, our ability to affect wellness choices has never been greater.
  • As health care professionals, employers, insurers, government and other stakeholders come together to address the needs of society, our understanding of wellness and its profound impact in our lives will only increase.

For all of these reasons, this is an exciting time to be working in the two, connected worlds of health and wellness. It is important work, even if we succeed in only small ways to help people aspire and choose to live as well as is humanly possible.

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brizzo

Could a health advocate help you?

Published by Brenda Rizzo on March 18, 2011.

What is a health advocate?

A health advocate is someone who believes in a cause or action that improves health. For example a health advocate could be someone who takes action to improve her own health or someone else’s health, who they care for.  Advocates just don’t make claims like, if you would exercise more you would feel better. They say, “Want to take a hike with me at the park?”

A health advocate would ask what challenges you face and what has worked for you to improve your health. In other words, she would have a conversation with you about your health, not just a monologue telling you what steps to take. Because every person is unique, a prescribed action plan is doomed for failure where enlisting the input of the individual for whom the plan is designed has a greater chance of success. instead of developing a plan with participation of the individual ,is doomed for failure. But a plan of action that is developed and agreed upon by the health advocate and the health seeker has greater chances of being successful.

The health advocate could be your ambassador, guiding you in the right direction to get the help you need. Our current health care delivery system is overwhelming at best. Having someone help to navigate that system when you are in a crisis is a valuable asset. They offer support and advice just when you need it most.

Who is your health advocate?

Is it a friend, a co-worker, a family member? It could be a professional, a counselor, a fitness trainer or primary care provider. Anyone can be your health advocate. Approach them and ask them to help, ask them to share your goals of a healthier lifestyle. Ask them to enquire about your successes and challenges in a non-judgmental manner. Ask them to be authentic realizing that even with the best intentions you may fail, but your health advocate will help you refocus, and can be the one who helps you get back on track.

If you have a health advocate will you be completely free of any health issues? Is there a guarantee you will reach your goals? No, but it means that there is always someone you can turn to when you need to talk, to refocus, or to share frustrations. You don’t have to be a super athlete or the most physically fit person to seek out healthier goals. There are degrees of wellness. Some have chronic illnesses  but that doesn’t mean they can’t be healthy, they too can reach health goals within the parameters of their current health condition.  Some struggle with health issues that are completely self -induced, and yet can’t seem to gain control. But they too can reach higher levels of wellness within the confines of their struggles.

My own experience with a health coach

I have been seeing a counselor that specializes in caring for people with obesity. I have struggled with obesity my whole life. Together we are trying to establish goals that contribute to a healthier lifestyle, with the hopes that I will gain control over my eating and improve my health. Has it worked? Well I am still obese, but is that the measure of my success? I am not exercising enough, but is that a measure of my success? Do I need a measureable outcome?  What I can tell you is I have examined the emotional components of my life that lead to lack of control. I can tell you that I am examining my food intake and what are the triggers that lead to poor eating habits. I am writing down everything I am eating. I have not gained weight, which is a new trend. But I have someone who I can share my frustrations with; I have someone who has the same goals in mind for me. She is non-judgmental, acknowledges my challenges and frustrations and continues to encourage me to face those challenges realistically. Has all of my health challenges related to obesity gone away? No, but I am in a better state of health than I was when I was just ignoring what was going on. My health coach is what is right for me right now. So I plan to continue to work with her, as long as I need to, and continue to strive for an improved state of health.

I encourage everyone to consider who their health coach can be. Who knows, maybe you can choose a partner and you can both encourage each other. It is always better to work with someone else, the commitment to each other is harder to ignore. Or you may choose an on-line health partner, programs like Lose-it.com® or Weight Watchers®. As long as you make a commitment to using it every day, there are lots of helpful apps for making a commitment to your health. But set realistic goals and break down your journey into small steps so you can celebrate the successes along the way.

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