Advice and insight on health and fitness in the workplace.
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Business, Health & Fitness
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Published in Business, Health & Fitness
Article
Six Simple Ways to Improve Your Posture at Work
It should come as no surprise by now that sitting for prolonged periods of time is poor for our health. One of the many negative effects of sitting is a compromised posture. Poor posture can cause several obvious pains but has also been linked to feelings of depression, energy loss, and poor circulation. For many in t...
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Fitness For The Self-Employed
A common misconception of the self-employed is that they have the flexibility in their schedules to do what they want when they want. While that is only partially true, it’s an unfortunate assumption the self-employed make for themselves as well. Sure, there are potentially greater freedoms and more flexibility in the...
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Protecting Your Bottom Line
Times have recently been tough and there has been little to be confident about, but things do have a way of turning around for the better. While there are many things that are simply out of our control, there are few things in life that we have complete control over and those are usually the most important. Take your...
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The Importance of Earning Your MBA
It has been said that variety is the spice of life. Life is short; therefore, enjoy everything that you can, in moderation of course. Enter the world of mass confusion. “If I am to enjoy life, then what I am supposed to eat if I want to remain healthy?” How much exercise do I really need? How can I afford to take anot...
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Fitness is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
At the time I began to write this article, it was hard to believe that all of the snow would ever go away; that spring would never come, and according to the groundhog, we were in store for another few more weeks of winter. But it then became more noticeable that the daylight hours had been getting longer and the bird...
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The Business of Failure
Why would anyone go into business if they thought they were going to fail? Despite the statistics of new start-ups that plunder in the first three to five years (two-thirds in two years, 44 percent in four years) not one of them would say they took the leap of faith because they knew they would fail. Failure is not a...
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Survival Guide for the Business Traveler
Eating well is a daunting task enough. Eating well on the road is an even greater challenge. Even if you are one of the fortunate who has no to minimal travel required for work, the abundance of fast food and busy schedules that interfere with planning meals makes good nutrition seem almost impossible. Wrong! As in mo...
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Combating Desk Work Injuries
Injuries at work are common (3.7 million cases in 2008), particularly in occupations that require physical labor. But what about the white-collar folks? The desk jockeys sitting in front of their computer; the salesman driving in the car from client to client; the endless work traveler. Do these workers miss days due...
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Wellness in the Workplace: Can Your Company Afford to Ignore It?
Affordability. In today’s economic state, it is a term that has become more commonplace in business than growth and prosperity. Businesses today are asking themselves: “Can we afford advertising? Can we afford to hire more staff? Can we afford to keep operating at the same costs and still turn a profit?” In a time whe...
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No Pain, No Gain: Myth or Truth?
No pain, no gain. For decades, this was the accepted mantra of those who competed in bodybuilding or power lifting events, which was then passed on to and assumed by the general population as the only way to exercise to improve health, lose weight, or change the shape of their body. As years of research and a better u...
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Going Green With Health and Fitness
“Going Green” appears to be one of, if not the mantra of the new century. Companies worldwide are claiming to cut back on waste production, energy costs, and finding newer Earth friendly solutions for conducting business in today’s eco-conscious world. “Going Green” initiatives began in response to the growing concern...
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Recession Proof Your Health
Does your head hurt as the bills pile up? Is your heart racing as your investments and job opportunities head south? In these tough economic times, financial stress can hurt not only your wallet but also your body and your mind. According to a poll from the Associated Press, the recession and consequential debt may be...
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No Excuses
No excuses — quite possibly the favorite of expression of most physical trainers, and this one is no different. It is a common slogan in athletic environments, often seen on the back of t-shirts and sweatshirts or on the walls of weight rooms and locker rooms. These are two simple yet powerful words. The slogan urges...
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Article
Fitness To Go
Imagine for a moment that while heading out to work for another day of toil and labor, you stop at your favorite place to grab a coffee, breakfast, or whatever you do to start your day. Then while on your way to your confinement for the next eight to ten hours, you pull into a drive-thru; only this drive-thru is not a...
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Are You Living on Autopilot?
See if this sounds all too familiar. Wake up at 6 am; get a cup of coffee and perhaps eat breakfast; watch the morning news programs or read the paper; get in the car for a one hour commute to work; get to work and go through the motions for eight hours; get in the car again for another one hour commute back home; eat...
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Defeating Back Pain in the Office
It's only Monday and you're already wishing it was Friday. Sound too familiar? Is work really that bad or is it that you just don’t enjoy what you’re doing? Or is it perhaps that the cause of your anguish really has nothing to do with your job, your career, or your colleagues? Chances are, the one thing that can make...
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When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Fit
Times are tough, financially speaking of course. Our greed has now become the very cause of the enemy we now face. But even in a troubled economy, there is a glimmer of hope; that things can only get better. While no one can accurately predict or guarantee when that will happen, one assurance we can all and should gra...
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No Replacement for Hard Work
A while ago I received an interesting e-mail from a blog I subscribe. The author of the blog, Seth Godin, a bestselling author, entrepreneur and self-professed agent of change questioned whether effort was a myth. He pointed out that our society, as is reinforced through the media, believes that success is merely a pr...
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The Business of Weight Loss
The number one resolution people make every year is to lose weight. As a result, weight loss is a billion-dollar a year industry. The reason: everyone is looking for the quick fix when it comes to losing weight and never appreciating the fact that losing weight takes time. It’s a surefire and costly path to failure. E...
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Employers Incentivizing for Health and Wellness
It has always been amazing to me to think that people need to be incentivized to be healthy. Despite all the studies on the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle; the number of preventable diseases prevalent in today’s society; the growing evidence that we are a civilization in physical peril, and people still don’t feel...
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Article
Of Course You Realize . . . This Means War
Those were the famous words of a certain long eared, bushy tailed Warner Bros cartoon character aimed at one Elmer Fudd numerous times. In cartoons, a lot of humor can be found in that phrase. But when it comes to battling the obesity epidemic, particularly in today’s workforce and the ever rising associated health ca...
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There Is No Limit to What You Can Do
Ask yourself this question: If I had a million dollars, what would I do? Would you think about how you would spend the money? Would you quit your job? Would you follow your dreams and do the things you always wanted to do but were afraid to take the chance? Bottom line is, you could do a lot with a million dollars. Bu...
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Investing in Yourself
There are few things in life that are a guarantee. Everything else is a result of the choices and decisions we make as we walk through that life. You could say then that the life we choose is largely dependent on what we do as individuals and that the best way to maximize that experience is to constantly invest in our...
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Greatness is Possible!
In his New York Times Best Selling book, Good to Great , author Jim Collins states, “Greatness is a matter of choice; a discipline.” How each of us defines greatness is as unique as the individual. But regardless of how you define it, greatness does not happen by chance or by luck. It is a culmination of thoughts, cho...
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Consider Your Body as a Business
Ever think about what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? For the thrill seeker, that may mean taking that big step over the edge for the ultimate rush. For the entrepreneurial minded, that may entail taking the risk of starting up and running their own business. But is there really a difference between the tw...
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Take Time to Slow Down
Imagine driving your car at the average pace on the 422 By-pass and then suddenly hitting the brakes. What would happen? If your car is equipped with the latest in safety features, it may quickly come to a stop but not without some tremendous shift in forces affecting the car, the road, and more importantly, you. Now...
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Dare to Dream
At a very young age, we were introduced to the song, “When you wish upon a star” and believed everything we dreamed of and desired could be found by looking towards the stars. Just as we are individuals, our dreams are truly unique based on our needs and wishes. Everyone wants to live or achieve their dreams yet only...
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Creating a More Healthful Workstation
Sit up straight. Stand tall. Don’t slouch. Mom always had a way of telling us how to “defy gravity.” As is with most things Mom taught us, it’s not until we’re older that we better understand those subtle commands, let alone appreciate them. If you work in an office setting, I’ll bet if you turn around right now you w...
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Vending Machine Jargon
Convenient. Cheap. Fulfilling. These three words can ring harmony in most ears, especially when referring to food. We like to eat quickly and hassle free; we'd rather not spend too much; and we expect to be satisfied with our meal. Think for a moment of how it was hundreds of years ago and eating a meal wasn't as conv...
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Politically Correct Fitness?
As long as man has been alive, there has been physical fitness. Centuries ago, physical fitness was a way of life. It was how we lived and more importantly, it was how we survived. Fast forward to today, and physical fitness hasn’t changed. At least it shouldn’t have changed. It is and should still be a way of life an...
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You Are What You Think About
In 1956, famed radio personality and motivational speaker Earl Nightingale wrote, "The Strangest Secret is that we become what we think about." The genius behind that statement is that back in 1956, he did not have the knowledge we have now about the inner workings of the brain and yet his observation is in fact prett...
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Health and Fitness: A Company's BEST Investment
Mention investing and most people think you were going to talk to them about money. When it comes to investing in our health however, very few get excited about the prospect and the return on investment (ROI) seldom makes the headlines in The Wall Street Journal . As is apparent by the state of our national health, ve...
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Getting Smart About Getting Healthy
We've all heard the expression, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Due to the competitiveness of businesses, we as consumers have choices and because of those choices, it is reasonable to assume that the choices we make are based on what we feel is best for us. Companies invest thousands of dollars into...
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Building Success Through Motivation
One of my favorite sayings is a Chinese proverb that says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” As a fitness professional, I am always working with those who are highly motivated or who are seeking to be motivated. But what exactly does it mean to be motivated and is there a difference between th...
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