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!

Comments(1)

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?

Comments(2)

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.

Comments(0)

I’m just happy to finally have some consistancy now in my exercise. You can click the graph to see my profile.

Comments(0)

We are within days of rolling out the new site! I’m so excited that I wanted to post a little screen shot for ya! If you click on it you can view some of my notes regarding a few of the features.

Comments(0)

Fatblogging isn’t new. There are a number of communities out there that promote just what Jason Calacanis has recently begun doing. There are even more individual bloggers out there who write to their small audiences and receive the support that they need to stick to their goals.

That being said, it is interesting to note that we have devoted a big part of our second version of WeightLossWars to journaling / blogging. Once we roll it out (shortly) users will be able to, among other things, chronicle their weight loss or fitness journey in a personal journal. We are expecting to roll the new version out this weekend (fingers crossed), maybe I’ll send Calacanis an invite

Comments(0)

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

Comments(0)

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.

Comments(2)

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.

Comments(0)

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?

Comments(1)

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?

Comments(1)

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.

Comments(2)

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

Comments(2)

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.

Comments(4)

Little kids and parents must wait in the lobby, this new gym in Silicon Valley is for teens, 13 – 18.

The gym, called OverTime Fitness is banking on teens love of technology and video games to encourage workouts and membership.

What kind of technology? Well, for starters teens enter the gym only after they scan their thumb print through a biometric reader which pulls up an image and unlocks the door. Pretty cool.

Teens can then proceed to workout on virtual bike machines, “Dance, Dance Revolution,” boxing games, or cardio machines that have MTV or ESPN playing on individual screens. CNET reports…

“The “Flex Arcade” is where, among other offerings, kids can play a virtual-reality boxing game called “MoCap Boxing,” in which they take swings at a 3D image of a trash-talking opponent. Or they can play an Xbox 360 game where they use their abdominal muscles and upper body to manipulate a player.”

There are even several HD TV’s and even a rock climbing wall.

“Overtime is attempting to carve out yet another piece of the multibillion-dollar fitness market, much like Curves did for women and My Little Gym did for 2- to 8-year-olds. Its target is a portion of the population that’s become much more inactive, thanks to cuts in physical education programs and an affinity for engaging in activities like playing video games and surfing the Internet.

With the gym, Ferrell says he’s combining fitness and games, while creating a private place for teens.

“None of these games can be played without moving,” said Ferrell. “It adds some fun into fitness.””

I’m all for it! Anything that helps get America more active is great? Will it work as a business? Or are teens to fickle? I’m undecided on this. What are your thoughts?

Comments(2)