Chad Blodgett

As you know, each year we host a Holiday Challenge where various companies compete agaist each other to lose weight. We love doing this challenge over the holiday season to help the thousands of employees maintain or lose weight during the most difficult time of year.

Each of the years we’ve been on the news for this great event. This year it was a live event and so they featured us several times during a two hour period. Utah County Government were the winners this year. They lost over 380 pounds!

Here is the video coverage…enjoy!

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I was in Idaho Falls on business last year and took the opportunity to visit Rexburg Idaho again. I went to school there for a year at Ricks College (now known as BYU-Idaho).

I took my wife and boys to one of the old Pizza joints that we loved, Craigo’s.

While there I read their “Pizza Trivia” table top display…

1. Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza a day, or 350 slices per second
2. The average American eats 46 slices of pizza a year

Craigo’s then asks, “Have you met your quota?”

Is there any wonder why we have an obesity epidemic?

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I was sent this Dilbert Cartoon by a friend. The sad part is that I have run into many senior level managers that have this attitude. Click on the image to read the comic.

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ABC channel 4 news did a follow up on our Holiday Challenge. I, like an idiot, had the trophy in between my face and the camera! Oh well, I’ll get it right one of these days.

You can follow this link for the article and then click on the “Watch Video” link.

http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=7c55fcba-2f69-4247-a033-2b983420704c

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Put yourself in the shoes of a CEO or CFO of a business (regardless of the size). What would you pay for programs that prevent injury or disease?

To give you some more info - lets say the average monthly premium that you are paying per employee per month (PEPM) for health insurance is $600. So, every month, as part of your benefits package, you pay $600 per employee toward their health insurance.

If you are on a self funded, or partially self funded plan, you still pay this in order to plan for catastrophic events, and you stand to win more if your prevention efforts work!

Of that $600 would you be willing to pay

• $500 PEPM toward disease and $100 PEPM toward prevention?
• $550 PEPM toward disease and $50 PEPM toward prevention?
• $590 PEPM toward disease and $10 PEPM toward prevention?

What if I told you that the dollars put toward prevention would be returned to the business $3 to $1? Would you do business with me if I said “you give me $1 and I’ll give you $3?”

In essence a well designed prevention program will cost between $4-$9 PEPM – which is .6 – 1.5% of what you are paying to treat disease.

This is a “no-brainer.” I still believe that CEO’s or CFO’s who do not implement a Health Promotion and Prevention program within their company should be held accountable for the profits that are lost to their investors due to unhealthy employees.

Either implement a strategy or don’t complain each year as rises in your health care premiums eat away at your company profits.

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60% of those polled said that they thought smokers should have to pay higher premiums while 30% were in favor for the obese to pay as well.

I totally agree – and this quote sums it up. “When it comes to personal responsibility, consumers increasingly support making people pay more for unhealthy behavior”

If you choose to live unhealthily, why should your group pay for your treatments? You should be the one to pay for those additional expenses needed to treat your illnesses.

At eHealthCompete we are working with groups where monthly premiums are increased for all employees, unless employees participate in our wellness campaigns AND take actionable steps toward lowering their risk factor(s) (i.e. smoking, high BMI, high cholesterol, etc).

If you don’t want to participate or take those steps, that is fine, but you will pay a higher premium. However, if you participate and work on your risk factors, your monthly rates don’t increase.

This is a real answer for businesses. In the end, their lower premiums and healthier lives will not only improve the company and its profits, but will improve the quality of life for participating employees.

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Dentist’s main mantra is: Prevention. They are always teaching us to brush, floss, and eat healthy foods. If we do that we can, for the most part, prevent oral disease.

Doctors main mantra is: Treatment. They know how, and are very good at, treating disease, prescribing medications, and performing procedures on those who are sick.

I go to my dentist when I am feeling well, in order to continue feeling well.

I ONLY go to my doctor when I am sick or hurt. Never when I am feeling well.

Why? Because doctors don’t advise, or teach about prevention. They also don’t get paid as much for teaching prevention.

So, have dentists, who teach prevention, made a difference with the American Public?

• 50 years ago tooth decay left 3 in 10 Americans - over the age of 45 - with none of their natural teeth!
• Brushing ones teeth on a daily basis was a new hygienic step forward in the last 50 years, reportedly made popular by the returning WWII soldiers.
• Floride has become a mainstay for water, toothpaste and other products
• It is estimated that in a ten year period (1979-1989) the American public saved more than $39 billion in dental expenditures.

If doctors and businesses would focus more on prevention, even to the point where the American Public went to their doctor when they were feeling well, the Health Care crisis that we are experiencing would be reduced to nothing – just like the oral epidemic 50 years ago.

Do you think we will ever reach that point? Or will we continue to treat the disease instead of the problem?

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We recently began playing flag football every Saturday morning. The first time we did this, by the end of the three hours, no one could walk.

The next day everyone was limping around like they just got out of the hospital and they looked like they got kicked where the sun don’t shine.

Backs were aching, hammy’s were sore, knee were tender, quads were weak.

And this is from a group of 23-27 year old men.

I was among the aching group and realized that the workouts that I have been doing were for different muscles then the ones I used for flag football.

So, I started doing strength training of the “Flag Football” muscles without weights. That’s right, just my own body weight. I use to think ONLY using your body weight was a workout for women or small boys. Not anymore.

My favorite has been squats. I just stand, free of weights, and do a ton of squats. My legs start burning – but the sheer number of squats helps my leg muscles build endurance for those long Saturday games.

There are other exercises I have been doing that I’ll post at a different time. But the question is: would a three hour flag football game kill you off?

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When you are as prominent as Senator John Kerry you get much more attention for saying stupid things, making mistakes, and being an idiot. I’m a little jealous.

I make so many mistakes its not even funny. In fact, I was presenting this years Holiday Weight Loss Challenge in front of a bunch of companies today and I tried to make a joke that just came out terrible! Because I have about zero prominence, the mistake I made has been forgotten and didn’t do too much damage.

Back to the Senator: I don’t agree with him on 95% of what he says, and I found myself enjoying the exposure he has received for this mistake. I’m sure that’s a flaw in my character.

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It seems that many Americans don’t know they are unhealthy. Is this a case of self denial, positive thinking or ignorance? How do you rate yourself in these categories?

This data was taken from that excellent Kelly Benefits wellness report

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The data speaks volumes! Companies either need to adopt effective employee wellness programs, or not offer medical benefits to their employees.

And, if they choose the latter, say good-bye to all of your talented employees.

CFO’s who do not implement or take employee wellness seriously should be held accountable for the loss of profits in their company. Profits are squeezed out of the company each year to cover the raising medical expenses. Yet a CFO could decide to implement a health promotion strategy that requires participation by all employees and reduce medical costs significantly in the first year.

What CFO would not want to do business with a company that says “You give me three dollars, and I will give you six?”

In essence that is what eHealthCompete can do for companies that want to finally take control of their number two cost – health insurance.

Kelly Benefits called today to dicuss our wellness programs. They pointed me to a recent report that they compiled. It is an excellent report and can be read here. I have listed my favorite findings from their report.

• The USA has the best health care system in the world, but is ranked 37th by the world health organization in the health of its population. These means we are great at treating sicknesses, but not great at keeping people from getting sick.

• 33% (or 880,000) of all deaths in America are attributed to Lack of Exercise, poor eating habits and tobacco use.

Smoking

• 46 million adults smoke

• Smoking costs $75.5 billion in medical expenses and $92 billion in lost productivity

• Each pack of cigarettes costs the nation $7.18 in medical expenses and lost productivity

Nutrition
• Average American consumes 54.5 gallons of soft drink per year

• Each 12 ounce serving of soft drinks contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar and 150 calories

• One 12 ounce sweetened soft drink per day increases a child’s risk of obesity by 60%

• The typical American consumes three hamburgers and four orders of fries per week

• Americans spend more money on fast food then on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos and recorded music COMBINED!

Obesity
• Obese people spend 36% more on Health Care and 77% more on medication

• Obesity is associated with 39 million lost work days each year

• 50% of Americans don’t get enough physical activity to derive any health benefit

• In a typical week (168 hours) the average American will spend 47 hours at work, 16.55 hours in front of the TV, 50.6 hours sleeping

• The above bullet point shows that Americans spend 113 hours a week – or 5 days – not moving!

• 7% of Americans have diabetes right now, 40% of Americans ages 40-74 are classified as pre-diabetic

Prevention
• The average cost of heart bypass surgery is $57,073

• The average cost of an MRI is $1,980

• Yet a $60 pair of walking shoes could drastically reduce or eliminate the need for either procedure

I would love to hear what you think of this report.

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We’ve all heard that your genetic makeup has something to do with your weight. Are people really “bigger boned?” What role do your genes play in determining your body weight?

I read the following from Dr. Steve Aldana’s book today…

The shape of your body, where you store fat in your body, your height and, to a small degree, your weight may be predetermined by the genes you inherit from your parents. If your parents store fat in and around the chest and abdomen, you will most likely store your fat in the same places…Fat deposition location is very much determined by genetics. However, the amount of fat you carry is more a result of your environment and lifestyle then genetics. There are some genes that can cause excessive weight gain, but these are very rare.

The increase in obesity in the United States has occurred in just two or three decades, with very little change in the genetic makeup of the U.S. population. Such a dramatic increase can not be due to genetics because the genetic pool of the entire population cannot change in 20 years. Only a change in food and physical activity behaviors can cause such a relatively rapid change in weight. It appears that our toxic food environment, not genetics, should bare much of the blame.

Further, he World Health Organization’s (WHO) report on Obesity (2000) concluded that: “while it is possible that single or multiple gene effects may cause overweight and obesity directly, and indeed do so in some individuals, this does not appear to be the case in the majority of people.”

While it appears that science seems to conclude that genes play a small role in most people there are a number of other things to consider that point to genes being a big culprit. These include:

• Genes determining your Basal Metabolic Rate. A lower BMR can lead to a tendency to gain weight.
• Genetics can affect the amount of fat and muscle in our body. This fat-muscle ratio has a direct effect on our BMR and thus on our weight
• Our Thermo genesis - the amount of energy we need to metabolize food - may be affected by genetics.

What is your opinon?

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Skipping breakfast: part of your weight loss woes
By Jennifer Jacobson RN, RD, MS

If you’re in the habit of skipping breakfast, you’re not alone. The number of Americans who regularly eat breakfast has been declining since the 1970’s. Don’t be too hasty in the morning though—it just might be “the most important meal of the day.”

According to the National Weight Control Registry, a study involving nearly 3000 individuals who have lost at least 30 pounds and maintained the loss for at least 5 years, breakfast is a common denominator among successful dieters. Seventy-eight percent of the participants reported eating breakfast daily, and only 4% reported never eating breakfast.

Interestingly, the total calories consumed over the entire day did not differ among breakfast versus non-breakfast eaters, suggesting skippers make up for the lost calories later in the day.

When you skip a meal, especially breakfast, your body can go into starvation mode—a.k.a. fat storage mode. It doesn’t know when you’re going to feed it again, so it holds onto whatever energy you give it, resulting in a slower metabolism. You may also get so hungry that you end up overeating at the next meal, or resorting to convenience foods that are often high in calories and not satisfying, like candy.

Start planning ahead in order to make time for breakfast – or if you need help planning, consult a dietitian. The main thing to remember is to include fiber and protein— these two nutrients will help keep you full until lunch. Try whole grain cereal with milk, whole wheat toast with peanut butter and fruit, an egg-white omelet with veggies and low-fat cheese, a whole grain toaster waffle and yogurt, oatmeal with fruit and nuts…there are endless possibilities.

You could even have leftovers from dinner! The important thing is to eat something to get your metabolism running for the day!

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I read a interesting article that was published 3 hours ago in the ScienceNow daily news. The article talks about a “Shot that fights fat” and references some pretty neat findings in rats. The scientists claim that the vaccine helps the rats stay svelte (meaning slender or graceful in figure or outline) regardless of what they eat.

The vaccine targets a certain hormone, ghrelin, found in the stomach. While there have been some interesting findings in rats the paper is quick to note that “obesity is probably far more complex in humans than in rats, so targeting just one molecule is “highly unlikely” to work in people. In addition, blocking ghrelin might cause side effects; Tschöp and others have found that the hormone may be involved in learning and memory.”

I’m in favor of anything that is healthy and helps with weight loss and obesity. Obviously, eating right and exercising daily should always be a part of everyones day, regardless of weight - but advances in medicine to help with obesity, in my opinion, is a worthy step for science to pursue. What do you think?

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The grueling weeks have ended and eHealthCompete just declared the latest company winner! In an 8 week battle to see which company could lose the highest percentage of their company weight, MyFamily.com came on top losing 1.45% of their company weight. It was a tight race where NuSkin came in second only .02% behind, losing 1.43% of their weight. NeWays holds the bronze metal for this challenge.

eHealthCompete will present the coveted “Summer Shape Up” crystal trophy to MyFamily.com that they will display at their worksite until next year when another company will have the opportunity to de-throne them.

The best part about this is that there were DOZENS of employees within each company that lost a significant amount of weight. People have changed their lives for the better and their health has improved. It is great to play a small part in that change.

Our company vs. company challenges create a lot of interest in the communities and receive great participation rates from the employees. Our employee health and wellness programs get results. If you want to learn more go here.

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