Healthy Eating at Work

By Heidi Hayes, wellness account specialist

On-site Dietitian and Nutrition Services

Rachel Johnson is an Affinity Occupational Health wellness account specialist and registered dietitian with a special interest in nutrition coaching. She is passionate about helping others improve their health and well-being through sustained healthy lifestyle habits. Rachel works with employers throughout Northeast Wisconsin to develop and implement effective worksite wellness programs, and she is available to come on-site to work individually and collectively with your employees.

On-site dietitian services include helping individuals establish personal health goals and nutrition plans for improved health. Rachel will work with employees to develop weight management goals or work through special nutritional needs for medical conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, food intolerances, and diabetes. Rachel is also available to conduct testing for body fat, weight, and blood pressure.

Rachel earned her bachelor's degree in nutrition from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and completed an accredited dietetic internship program through the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Affinity Occupational Health offers a variety of programs to help encourage healthy eating among your workforce.

Eat Well, Be Well
Eat Well, Be Well is a 10-week nutrition and weight management program that invites your employees to learn about healthy habits in a group setting, as well as during one-on-one coaching sessions with a registered dietitian. Eat Well, Be Well covers healthy living tips including nutrition basics, mindful eating, fitness, and preventing relapse.

The program includes three group learning sessions and two nutrition journals with Eat Well, Be Well tips, journaling pages, and healthy recipes. Two full days of one-on-one on-site dietitian time is also included with the Eat Well, Be Well intervention. In addition, employees will receive supplemental program materials and exercise bands to keep motivation high!

On My Weigh
On My Weigh is a 10-week program that allows participants to gather for a confidential meeting led by an Affinity wellness specialist. The group learns how to create a 500 calorie daily deficit along with other important lessons to become an informed consumer and lead a healthier lifestyle. The wellness specialist keeps everyone motivated with regular group and personal e-mails.

On My Weigh holds participants accountable with weekly weigh-ins and offers three- and six-month post-program weigh-ins. Participation is a key element that separates this program from others. One of the greatest takeaways comes from participants sharing their successes and barriers with the rest of the group. The group works as a team to create lifestyle changes to live better!

Nutrition Presentations
Affinity Occupational Health also offers a variety of one-time nutrition presentations such as:

• Decoding Food Labels
• Hot Topics in Nutrition
• On My Way to a Healthy Weight
• Grocery Shopping Secrets
• Super Foods and Salads

For more information or to schedule services, contact Tammy or Cindy at 1-800-541-0351. 

What's Happening at Affinity? 

Emotions Lead to Lifestyle Choices           

Have you ever wondered why people overeat, smoke, or dabble in "recreational" drugs? "Many of these unhealthy behaviors stem from underlying emotional or mental health issues, which we develop in order to cope with stress or some other negative feeling," says Kadihjia Kelly, Affinity EAP counselor.

Food, smoking, risky sexual behavior, alcohol and many drugs (legal and illegal) affect our brain in such a way that the physiological symptoms of stress are reduced. For example, depression is lifted, anxiety is lowered, and mood is improved. "So basically," Kadihjia says, "these behaviors lead to feeling better."

Unfortunately, however, unhealthy behaviors do nothing to reduce the internal or external factors that actually cause the stress. And in some cases, the behaviors lead to more stress. Caught in a cycle, people can lose hope. "They tell themselves, 'I can't lose weight, so I might as well eat,' or 'I'll never be able to quit smoking,' so they continue the pattern of unhealthy habits in order to feel good in the short-term," Kadihjia says.

Next, people may begin to justify their choices. Have you ever heard someone say, "I know lots of people who smoke their whole lives and never get sick"? Their motivation to change is reduced as they deny they have a problem: "I only drink on the weekends," or "Pot is legal in Colorado so it must be okay to use. It's Wisconsin law that is the problem."

Not everyone who struggles with overeating, smoking or other substance abuse engages in these negative patterns of thinking or behavior, but in many cases emotions play an influential role in why we do things that are not good for us. If you suspect you or a loved one is dealing with underlying emotional or mental health issues that lead to unhealthy behaviors, see a qualified counselor or EAP professional for insight and help.

Top Three Strategies for Healthy Families   

By Julia Salomón, MS, RD, CD

If you want to improve your family's health and well-being, try these three key healthy habits.

1. Eat breakfast. No matter how rushed you are in the morning, try to eat something within an hour or so to jumpstart your metabolism. Breakfast gives you energy to start the day, but it does much more than that. Here are a few reasons why breakfast is so important:

Breakfast improves diet quality. Research shows that breakfast skippers are less likely to meet recommended levels for important nutrients like folic acid, calcium, etc. In addition, breakfast helps with glucose control by literally breaking the fast and providing your body with the fuel it needs to function properly.

Breakfast helps with weight control in both adolescents and adults, making it easier to maintain weight loss, and it decreases the risk of being overweight.

Breakfast improves behavior and increases the ability to learn and focus. It provides improved concentration in the classroom or board room. Studies show that students who eat breakfast perform better on tests of math, matching, memory and creativity. Children who eat breakfast experience less behavioral problems, report being in a better mood and tend to miss school less.

2. Make family meals a priority. Commit to sitting down to a family meal at least four times a week if not more. A family meal could be a dinner, breakfast or lunch. Families that eat together consume less fried foods, soda, fats and foods with added sugar. Families who eat together consume more fruits, vegetables and fiber and meet other nutrient needs. Indeed, studies show that children and adolescents who share family meals at least three times per week have healthier weights and eating patterns and are socially, emotionally and physically healthier.

Turn off all electronics at family meal times (no cells phones, iPads, e-readers, etc.)

3. Limit screen time. This means TV, computers, Wii games or other video or screen-based games. Health professionals recommend no more than one to two hours a day of screen time for children over the age of two (none for children under 2). Research shows that sedentary activities such as watching TV increase the risk of becoming obese and make it harder to fall asleep at night. In addition, TV commercials and other ads may not be appropriate for all audiences. Ads or commercials for food usually promote foods high in sugar, salt or fat, and some studies show that these do have an influence on our shopping and eating patterns.

Here are some ways to limit screen time:

Have a rule that there will be no TV watching on school days. Limit TV and other screen time to one to two hours on non-school days.

• Do not allow TV watching during meals or homework time.
• Remove TVs from all bedrooms.
• Do not eat while working on a computer or other similar device.
• Challenge your family to go one week without watching TV or doing other screen time activity.
• Find activities to do instead of engaging in TV or other screen-based activity. Go for a walk, play a board game, etc.

While there may be other behaviors that help families be healthy, these are a good start. Breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day and can motivate you to keep eating healthy throughout the day. Family meals provides an opportunity to reconnect with your family, and limiting screen time may serve as an impetus to discover new ways to have fun with the entire family.  

Breakfast on the Go

By Julia Salomón, MS, RD, CD

Mornings are rushed. You have to drop the kids at school and get to work on time. Often there seems to be no time for breakfast! Yet breakfast is, indeed, the most important meal of the day. So what can you do?

One strategy is to get the basics done the night before. Set the breakfast table the night before, have an idea of what you will eat for breakfast, and make sure you have the ingredients to make it.

Another strategy is to pack a to-go breakfast much like you would pack your lunch bag. Keep it in the fridge and simply grab it and enjoy it later that morning.

Consider these grab-and-go breakfast ideas:

• Fresh fruit
• Healthy breakfast bars
• Nuts
• Yogurt
• Sandwiches
• Smoothies
• String cheese with whole wheat crackers
• Hard-boiled egg
• Whole grain English muffin with peanut butter
• Single serving of cottage cheese; enjoy with fruit
• Bran muffins
• Breakfast trail mix: whole wheat cereal, nuts and dried fruit
• Bagel with hummus
• Whole wheat pita filled with cottage cheese and fruit like peaches or pears
• Instant oatmeal that you can prepare at work
• Pre-packaged servings of ready-to-eat cereal (you can get the milk at work)

Whatever your favorite breakfast-on-the-go items are, remember to eat your breakfast slowly and enjoy it. 

Tobacco never really leaves the news, considering that 18.5 percent of the population remains addicted to it, the leading preventable cause of death. But you need to know the latest about three hot tobacco topics--Obamacare's tobacco surcharge, electronic cigarettes, and dissolvable products--to further reduce its health and safety burden on your company. And, per Dr. Harrison, "what's old is new again" in terms of corporate tobacco's recycled lies about their latest products. With this awareness, you can help your employees from losing the ground they've gained in freeing themselves from tobacco addiction.

To register for this free seminar, please contact Stefanie Armstrong at starmstr@affinityhealth.org.