Fit Tip #11: What’s in our Fitness Future?
by Erin Calderone
I recently took the short wellness survey sent out by Ed Karpp. The whole time I was answering the survey (yes! yes! Let’s do all of it!) I wondered if perhaps I was skewing the data. (Sorry Ed!) What can I say though? The thought of the blossoming health and fitness-minded culture here at GCC makes my socks roll up and down.
When I was a personal trainer several years ago, I did toy around with the idea of starting a corporate wellness company myself. If you do just a casual web search of the benefits of a corporate wellness program, you’ll get a number of calculators designed to estimate the savings in health costs to a company of any size. (Here’s an example:
https://www.wellsteps.com/roi/resources_tools_roi_cal_health.php?fresh=true ) Even more than the dollar signs associated with being healthier, companies benefit from happier, more productive employees and a positive, health-minded culture. For employees, this not only benefits their health, morale and well-being, wellness programs can bring colleagues and coworkers together (make more friends!) and even spill over into their home life (it’s time for a family walk so I can get my steps in!). Check out this article on ROI and the “Employee Positivity Factor” – which is not usually calculated into the ROI.
https://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/benefits/articles/pages/real-roi-wellness.aspx
It seems like a no-brainer, but we all know that the real challenge doesn’t come from deciding which program will be best. They would all “work” to some degree. Just like a treadmill. The treadmill works just as effectively as a gym membership or the track – but only if you use it! So many home treadmills eventually become very expensive clothes hangers. Even with our own student population (supposedly young and full of energy) the need remains for thoughtful motivation from coaches, instructors and peers. Whatever wellness programs we opt for at GCC, we’ll need to commit to both the effort and the energy it will take to actually do them.
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Momentum can be our friend. |
Just look at what has happened with our tireless guild exec’s efforts to rally us, inform us, mobilize us, fight for us and get us to wear blue t-shirts! We’ve seen what it looks like when GCC comes together for a cause that we need and care about. And I know I’m biased by my discipline, but I believe we all care about our health and well-being. We care about each other’s. We care about the health and well-being of our students. I always encourage my students to not put off their health and fitness until after they finish college, or get a job, or have kids – it starts now. What better way to inspire the generation coming after us than to show that we care about ourselves?
Whatever wellness programs we can take advantage of in the year to come, let’s make a commitment this summer break to do one thing for our own health and wellness. Whether that’s eating at least three vegetables every day, walking the dog for 30 minutes every night, or swapping our regular soda for water; write it down, tell a friend, and make it happen!
Thanks to the guild exec and everyone advocating for wellness at GCC. For myself, I’m planning on losing about 30lbs this summer… and gaining a tiny, squirmy, new family member. (Experience over the past few months suggests that she is going to be an excellent martial artist…).
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