“2009 was our first year of working with Advancing Wellness. Our business, like most other businesses, has seen consistently high increases in the cost of our employee health insurance plans. Since we are an employee owned business our intent was not to pass along all of these increased costs, but neither can the business continue to absorb them all either. So several years ago we began to explore alternatives to those options we had been living with and came upon the idea that the best alternative for everyone involved, the employees and the business, would be to eliminate the costs as much as possible and the main way to do that is to have healthier employees.
AdvancingWellness has provided us not only with the expertise we lack in this field but the focus, motivation and drive to make things improve. They not only know what they is doing, but are passionate about helping people find ways to live healthier lifestyles, which comes out in their dealings with people. AdvancingWellness helped us get off to a great start in our first year, and we are confident this same trend will continue into the future.”
- CFO Web Industries
“I want to thank you and your company for the leadership on Wellness. Since I began [weight management program] I have trained myself to eat properly and I now LOVE to eat all this healthy food. My wife and I have lost 10 pounds each. We feel better than we have in years. We have lots of energy and I have to give the credit to our Wellness effort.
Down to 208 pounds and plan on being to 200 by the end of July. When I reach that goal, I hope to stop taking my diabetes and blood pressure meds. “
- Employee Participant, May 2010
“When I was a young lad I refused to eat foods which I considered unhealthy. I worked out with 2.5 times my own weight on a daily basis, I ran several miles per week, and I vigorously studied and practiced martial arts with my comrades. When I was in my twenties I would often ride my bicycle to and from work, and when I didn’t ride my bicycle, I would run the Dallas Nature Trails before going home. Back then we worked 4:30 am till 4:30 pm, or later; but the energy I received from exercise gave me the ability to rise early, work hard, and go to bed late.
Sadly to say, somewhere through the years I lost my way. I stopped running as much, I stopped lifting weights, and I stopped eating as healthy.
Until I joined the wellness initiative around a year ago, I had become known as Fat B. Being of Scottish/Indian descent my size had become a disgrace to my people. No longer had I the agility nor the physic of Bruce Lee but rather I had become that which was repulsive to me in my youth.
Through rigorous dieting and exercise the wellness committee has led me, on the road, to recovering that pride I so enjoyed in my youth. Though the journey has just begun I have the vision, desire, attitude, confidence, determination, and spirit to reestablish myself among my people.
I now eat healthier, run longer, and just began lifting weights again. Just a couple of weeks ago, I even ran in an “off road” 5k race, something I wouldn’t have been able to do around a year ago. I plan to increase my ability and my ultimate goal is a marathon.
Is the wellness initiative my reason for this new determination? No, the wellness initiative is the spark that ignited an old flame. The sheer determination comes from within me. I have made up my mind to live better, eat healthier, play harder, and be happier until the day I die.
How will our company profit from it: with a more healthy, energetic, happier, and wiser me.
I believe everyone here has the ability to set a new course. Each one has the desire within you to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. I can’t guarantee you will live longer from it but I do believe you can live happier. And if your life is extended then consider it an earned bonus from your effort’s to live healthier. Not everyone can be expected to run a 5k after such a short period of wellness participation. Some may be able to run a 10k, a marathon, join a yoga class, or a softball team but perhaps, just hasn’t stepped up to the plate yet. Others are still looking for the motivation to put the first foot forward. I hope my story somehow encourages each of you to push forward, take control of your life, and become a true “health” warrior. “
- Employee Participant, June 2010
