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When we consider the amount of time we spend at work, organized, creative and targeted wellness worksite programs are a true imperative!

Corporate Wellness

The American College for Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) considers the American workplace as a "critical location for achieving the goals of health reform and for improving the overall health of employees and their families." According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website, a workplace health program is a health promotion activity or organization-wide policy designed to support healthy behaviors and improve health outcomes while at work." This allows the employee to gain the upper hand in managing their condition before serious symptoms surface.

"Workplace health programs include policies intended to facilitate employee health, such as allowing time for exercise, providing on-site kitchens and eating areas, offering healthful food options in vending machines, holding "walk and talk" meetings, and offering financial and other incentives for participation. Effective workplace programs, policies, and environments that are health-focused and worker-centered have the potential to significantly benefit employers, employees, their families, and communities."

Why should your company conscientiously go the extra mile and provide life-changing wellness programs?

When even one employee in an efficient, inter-connected workforce is impacted by a health issue, the entire workforce is affected. Absenteeism, shifting employee dialogues, increased distractions, perceived susceptibility, interference with workforce momentum, and many other negative effects are possible. Any one of these factors is enough to impact work flow as well as the quantity and quality of work.

How we feel matters.

How we live, matters.

What we think, matters.

What we do on a daily basis, matters.

And, last but not least, what happens at work matters!

Health is defined by each individual

It is a composite of a continuum of good and bad symptoms evolving over time. You may not have pain today but after playing tennis this evening you may wake up with shoulder pain. Hopefully the pain will not last more than a day or two, but sometimes the pain / inflammation transitions from acute to chronic.
One may have excellent muscle mass in their early 20's but by their mid 30's, they struggle with harboring extra weight.
A person in their early 40's might not think twice about their heart health, but by the time they reach their mid 50's and see their friends and loved ones sidelined by heart attacks, strokes and expensive heart surgeries, they begin to worry about blocked arteries and increasing risk for heart disease.
The immune system is basically fully developed by age 25, but cancer may strike at any age.
What do the above scenarios have in common? They are lifestyle-related and largely preventable.

Why is worksite wellness an imperative?

Most people spend the majority of their waking hours either preparing for work, traveling to and from work, eating while at work, and working. We may consider it a 40-hour work week but in reality, most Americans spend around 60 hours out of 168 hours in a week, focused on some aspect of their working life. If work is perceived to be stressful, employees will suffer mental and eventually physical consequences; what is mental eventually becomes physical. If the work place is perceived to be positive and nurturing, more like an extension of the nuclear family, employees will be more likely to thrive and establish a positive health trajectory. Studies have shown corporate wellness programs significantly reduce health-care costs.

Below are just a few reasons to consider a corporate wellness program:

Improved job performance, productivity and decreased absenteeism - saving money and time.
Improved profit measures due to greater productivity and reduced employee health care costs.
Enhanced recruitment and retention of productive employees.
Healthy employee morale and a willingness to go the extra mile when needed.
Healthy employees are more likely to be harmonious, cohesive and mentally facile.
A healthy employee / workforce places the proper emphasis on many aspects of life.

Everything we do, even how we think and process the world around us, affects our genes. Epigenetics is the study of how diet and lifestyles affect a network of chemical switches within our cells, known as the epigenome.

Every thought and every action results in strengthening or weakening our epigenome. It turns out, our lifestyle choices play a huge role in securing one our most valuable possessions - our health.

Walk and Talk Meetings

Bottom line: A healthy workforce will drive our local and national economy in a positive direction and support the underpinnings of our country as we increasingly compete in the global marketplace

At Build A Better You, we bring to you leading experts including, professors, educators, physicians, clinicians, social workers, psychologists, exercise physiologists, nurses, and others.

We address health literacy through a series of educational classes. In addition to the education component, we identify various groups within your company such as high health risk individuals, highly motivated individuals, early adopters, and those with extraordinary leadership abilities. We work with you as you partner with your employees to improve their health and to reduce costs.

Vending Machine Make-overs

Fresh Fruit - the New "Candy Bar"

*STAFF; #PROFESSIONAL; ^EXECUTIVE

The Following Information is Obtained from Each Participant

We offer three biometric packages plus custom designed packages: staff, professional and executive.

All tests and indices collected at the staff levels are collected as part of the professional and executive packages. All tests and indices collected as part of the professional package are also collected as part of the executive package. The executive package includes all blood work except nicotine (unless indicated). Nicotine is added to a package when used to verify non-smoking status.

Contact information *
A photograph *
Height *, weight *, frame size * and body measurements #
Blood pressure *
Bone density ^
Body fat mass ^
Blood work (Avoid all food and beverages (except water) after 6 pm on the day before the blood draw.)
- Electrolytes *
- Complete Blood Count *
- Iron *
- Chemistry14 *
- Lipid Panel *
- Hemoglobin A1c #
- Thyroid: TSH and Free T4 #
- Toxins: Lead and Mercury ^
- Vitamins and Metabolites: Folate, Vitamin B12, Homocysteine, Vitamin D ^
- C-reactive Protein ^
- Sex Hormones: Testosterone and Luteinizing Hormone ^
- Nicotine - collected when indicated
- Genetic testing when indicated (privacy issues strenuously addressed)
- Others when requested
Colorectal stool test #
EKG
Health and lifestyle information
Nutrition information
Mental health assessment
Stress assessment

Greater Health Literacy

Build A Better You, Services

At Build A Better You, we recommend regular biometrics, blood work, health education programs, and when necessary, individual counseling, integrated with "fun" activities, improves employee's perception of management and the work environment. Attention to small details of an employee's work environment may have a huge impact on an employee's satisfaction quotient. Workplace wellness programs often suffer from "packaging" that does not meet each individual employee's needs. While we do not want to "re-invent" the wheel, we also want to tailor a program to meet your unique environment.

Packages consist of blood work done once or twice per year along with annual lifestyle and questionnaire data. Each employee schedules a morning appointment to have their blood drawn at a local location. The data, in combination with additional information collected, serves to establish "baseline" health data. This is used to set goals, measure progress, and claim success. Participants fill out a health assessment questionnaire, nutrition assessment and other assessment forms as indicated. We also collect body measurements to motivate and stimulate participation. Classes and programs are developed based on each corporation's health profile.

Come Together

Ride Your Bike!

Reach Your Goals!

Food as "Medicine"

This is a premier screening and educational program designed to provide each employee with excellent information to make better informed health decisions. For younger employees, results serve as their baseline health data. For older employees, uncovered information may serve to motivate them to make changes. Employees participating in wellness programs oftentimes receive a discount on their health insurance plan.

Biometrics and risk assessments are used to identify present and future risk for obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, dementia, dehydration, presence of toxins in the blood, metabolic inefficiencies, and screening for the presence of inflammation and thyroid abnormalities. Men may also opt for testosterone, luteinizing hormone and PSA tests. Women may opt for a luteinizing hormone test.

The employee report oftentimes identifies unknown health issues such as the presence of diabetes, heart disease, etc. This allows the employee to gain the upper hand in managing their condition before serious symptoms surface.

The employer report identifies areas where additional employee education may be indicated. It allows the employer to pinpoint and address potential areas of concern. It also helps employers choose health coverage plans that will best meet their employee's needs.

TEAMWORK - Go Further

Pure Water

A Little Sunlight Every Day

Exercise Temperance

Fresh Air

Breathe Deeply

Work Hard

At Build a Better You, we offer the following classes, tailored to make you look like an A+ boss. Mix and match classes from 100+ fun and educational lectures or choose themed mini-series targeting specific topics. We will also help you plan a work-site based health fair, fun runs, employee exchanges, and even design an uber healthy office environment, etc.

Examples of class topics include

Anti-inflammatory Lifestyle
Build A Better Breakfast
Keep Your Biological Clock in Sync
Tune up Digestion
Every Meal Makes A Difference
No More Constipation, Ever
Clean Eating
Slow / Reverse Aging
Conflict Resolution
Natural Approaches to Lowering Your Blood Pressure
Water Matters: Hydration, Types of Water, How Much Do You Need?
Cholesterol Myths
Don't Have a Heart Attack!
Fat Chance
10 Food Rules to Live By
Know Your Nuts
Fresh Air
Rate Your Plate
Why DIEts Don't Work
Mindfulness
Dis-stress vs. De-stress
Plant-based Approaches to Common Chronic Diseases
Drop 5 (lose five pounds)
Sweet Truth
Don't Have a Cow (vegetarian) or Don't Be a Chicken (vegetarian)
Two Exercises Jump Start Weight Loss
Brain Drain
Attitude of Gratitude
Full Disclosure & Food Labels
What Do I Feed My Children?
Body Language Advantage
Juice-it Up, Juice-it Down
Urban farming
Face Lift
Pack Your Lunch, Save a Bunch
The Kitchen Audit
Many others

Mini-courses are designed for two to eight sessions. Some examples include

Cancer Toolbox
The Temperament Advantage
Food as Medicine, Your Kitchen as the Pharmacy
Health Literacy
Menopause Survival KitThyroid Advantage
Train to Run (5K, 10K, Half, Marathon, Triathlon, Iron Man)
Train to Bike: Choosing a Bike, Care & Upkeep, Safety, Best Local Trails
Raw Advantage
What Your Employer Wish You Knew
The Organized Life
Healthy Life Boundaries
Habits of Successful People
Learn to Be a Saver
Say "No" to Dementia
The Eight Laws of Health
Nature as Medicine
The Active Life: Vacations, Spare Time, Weekends, etc.
Communicate for Success
"Sustainable" Habits
Frontal Lobes
Detox Your Life
Blue Zone Living
Choose the Best Hobbies and Activities to Extend Your Lifespan
We Heal from the Top Down and Inside Out
Natural Approaches to Achieving a Better You
Kitchen Equipment - 4 to 8 Sessions on Optimizing Your Time in the Kitchen
Love Your Life
Energize Your Marriage
Reverse Engineer Your Symptoms
Nourish the Brain
Nutri-genomics
Reverse Heart Disease
Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
Why Be A Vegetarian
Raw Food Preparation
Pantry Make-over and Meal Planning
Seasonal Menus
Healthy Celebrations
Others

Work-site competitions

Weight loss
Daily steps
Urban Gardening Co-op
Others

Work-site Based Health Fairs

If we don't offer exactly what you want, we will design a program specifically for your workforce. For some of our services, we contract with experts across a wide range of disciplines to offer you the most current and up-to-date educational programs

Guided Change Counseling Services. We also offer individual and / or small group sessions for those needing more intensive interventions.

Fun Stuff. We balance our approaches to health and wellness by promoting fun activities with a wellness component. For example, studies have shown the presence of domestic animals in the workplace reduces anxiety and improves mood. Implementing a "Bring Your Dog to the Office Day," while not appropriate for all worksites, is just one example of how work-based "fun" can be incorporated to boost health parameters and make you a "rock star" boss.

Some of our Fun Stuff activities include the following:

Involve your employees in the education process - identify employees with legitimate skills and use them!
Make the workplace more interesting
Incentivize making changes by awarding raffles, prizes, free lunch, etc.
"Intermittent, spontaneous favors"
Employee of the week or month
Have a juicing party instead of a meeting
Plan a 5 K / 10 K company run
Bring your dog to work, bring your cat to work, bring your kid to work
Spa day
Foot health day
Eye health day
Heart health day
Golf day once per year
New chair (monthly) for highest productivity (reduce back problems, chronic pain, etc.)
Many more examples