Practicing What We Preach

“How is your diet?”

“Are you going to the gym?”

“How is your work-home balance?”

We ask questions like these everyday to our patients. Our hope is that they are taking positive steps to be healthy or become healthier.

At the beginning of the year, we turned to one another and asked these same questions. For some of the staff, the answers revealed maybe we needed some motivation.

Two of our staff decided to organize a MetroHealth Biggest Loser Challenge. The challenge would be for three months. There would be one individual and one team winner. Over half our staff signed up to participate and everyone paired up.

To kick off the contest, our registered dietician gave a staff in-service on nutrition. We discussed healthy foods, portion control and avoiding processed and fast food.

In the first month, our office transformed. Where potatoes chips used to sit, now grapes and strawberries took their place. Half an hour lunchtime walks were taken. And the staff requested healthier lunches when we had trainings. These changes paid off.

In the first month, we lost 35 pounds as a group!

We are currently in our second month. Some of the takeaways so far from staff have been:

  • Small changes to routines work. For example, one person enjoyed ice cream at night while watching TV. He now makes fruit salad. Find where your “bad” eating routines are and focus on substituting them for a healthier option.
  • Begin small and work your way up. Another staff person has begun to walk more during the day. She begun walking for just fifteen minutes a day. Now she tries to walk at least twice a day for thirty minutes each time.
  • Take your time. Pace your success. Sometimes people aim to lose all the weigh in the first week. This leads them to extremes and eventual burn out. For most people, losing two or less pounds a week is a good target. Over three months, that comes out to 24 pounds!

We will keep you posted on how we are doing, and we encourage you to join us in our efforts to be healthier every day!