Originally published October 26 2005
Make your workplace healthy in several easy steps
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Nurse practitioners discuss practical ways to integrate fitness and good nutrition into a variety of work spaces and schedules, to counteract obesity and work-related stress.
If you're going to talk the talk, you'd better be able to run the run -- or at least walk.
And how the employees of Mid-Kansas Pediatric Associates came to walk and run is a story full of changes that can make almost any work setting a healthier place to be.
They, two doctors and five spouses all finished a half-marathon in Virginia Beach, Va., over Labor Day weekend, even though most of them weren't even runners a year ago.
At Mid-Kansas Pediatric Associates' two Wichita offices, the starting point was childhood obesity.
The doctors and nurses aren't seeing more of it, Dusenbury said, "but we're becoming more aware."
And if your job is to talk to children and parents about good food choices and exercise, you'd better be a good role model, they decided.
Together, staff members developed a booklet for patients called "Healthy Living Guidelines."
Employees committed to a variety of actions, depending on their own goals and how willing they were to change.
About 20 people agreed to participate in the Asthma Walk, a spring fundraiser that required them to get up and moving.
"A blueberry bagel doesn't count as a fruit," Ecord pointed out.
By committing to the Asthma Walk, the employees had a date on the calendar to work toward.
And even though some people couldn't walk a mile at sign-up time -- the Asthma Walk is 3.1 miles -- everyone was able to finish by the time the walk rolled around.
Healthy living,not weight loss, was the goal.
But their efforts had side effects: Wallace lost 8 pounds, Dusenbury lost 6, and Ecord lost 5.
Ecord's husband, a runner, put together a 12-week training program, "and we just all followed it the best we could," Ecord said.
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