Prevent Blindness America has designated April as Women’s Eye Health and Safety awareness month. According to the National Eye Institute, two thirds of blindness and other visual impairments worldwide occur in women. This is due to several factors, most notably that women typically live longer than men and that women experience more hormonal fluctuations, the latter of which also contributes to a higher susceptibility to the condition known as “dry eye”. Cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and AMD (Age-Related Macular Degeneration) are the four leading eye diseases in the country.
​
The eyes offer tremendous insight into the internal health of your body. Decades ago, researchers discovered that monitoring eye health can identify the risk of stroke and, more recently, early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Embryology, which studies brain development, states that in early child development, the eyes are formed in the brain tissue, and so the connection between the eyes and brain function is fundamental.

The three best ways to maintain good eye health are to receive regular eye exams, eat a healthy and balanced diet and to quit smoking. And if you wear contacts, adhere to correct hygiene and safety precautions to better protect your eyes. There are several foods you can eat to help promote the health of your eyes.

Leafy Greens

Leafy green vegetables contain the most important nutrients for your eye health: lutein and zeaxanthin. These two nutrients are found in high concentrations in the macula (the part of the eye responsible for visual activity and color vision) and eating foods rich in these nutrients can help to prevent cataracts and macular degeneration. Lutein and zeaxanthin also have important antioxidant function in the body, helping to guard against free radicals – cell destroying molecules that play a role in many diseases.

Salmon

This fish is a powerful source of omega-3 fats, which are an essential component of good eye health. Including salmon in your diet can help to prevent dry eye syndrome, which occurs when the eye can no longer produce enough tears to hydrate itself, a condition which affects an estimated 3.2 million American women. The nutrients and healthy fats found in salmon can also help to prevent age-related degeneration of the eye.

Carrots

Remember when your parents used to tell you that carrots would help you see in the dark? That wasn’t entirely untrue! Carrots are high in beta-carotene, a form of vitamin A, which is crucial for eye health as it helps to inhibit inflammation. Carrots also contain lutein.

Eggs

Like leafy green vegetables, eggs also contain the important nutrients lutein and zeaxanthin which are key antioxidants for overall eye health. Omega-3 fatty acids can be found in eggs as well, which reduce the damage caused by high pressure on the eyes and prevent glaucoma. Eggs are also a great source of zinc, which allows vitamin A to generate the melanin pigment which protects the eyes. Zinc can help to prevent impaired vision and macular degeneration.

Berries

Berries are a wonderful source of antioxidants, which help to eliminate free radicals from the body. Berries are also high in vitamin C, which can lower the risk of developing several eye-related diseases that can result in blindness. Raspberries and blueberries are high in lutein and vitamin A, which aids in inflammation. Adding berries to your diet can improve your night vision and blood circulation in your eyes.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are high in lycopene, a carotenoid pigment (phytonutrient) that helps to protect your eyes against the damaging ultraviolet radiation from exposure to the sun. Lycopene also helps to prevent age-related eye degeneration which often leads to blindness in the elderly. Tomatoes also have high concentrations of vitamin A and vitamin C, which help to protect the cornea and can ward off many age-related eye diseases.

Almonds

These delicious nuts are a health addition to any diet, due to several nutritional properties. Almonds are high in vitamin E, which helps prevent oxidation in some parts of the eyes. They also contain omega-3 fatty acids, which help to protect vision and reduce pressure damage which can lead to glaucoma. Almonds also help to prevent vision loss by protecting the eyes against macular degeneration.
 
As with any healthy diet, a variety of nutritious fruits, vegetables and proteins is the best approach for your overall health. 

​Now that spring has finally sprung, it’s time to dust off your running shoes and start thinking about outdoor exercise. Did you know that taking your workout outside has many health benefits, in addition to a change of scenery and fresh air? These benefits include proven promotion of your mental health, improved oxygen levels and better blood flow, increased exposure to vitamin D, utilizing more muscle groups for exercise thus burning more calories, and, perhaps the most obvious, offers a change in pace from staring at the four walls inside a gym through a variety of outdoor options, making you more motivated to get moving!
 
Improve your mental health
 
Evidence is growing in support of a multitude of mental health benefits from what has been named green exercise, that is, exercise that takes place in a natural environment. Studies have proven that no matter what form of exercise you are doing, working out in green spaces decreases tension, feelings of anger and decreases the hormones related to stress response – cortisol and adrenalin.  You are also far less likely to be “plugged in” while outdoors, thus giving your brain a break from screen time. The visual landscape of the outdoors offers numerous distractions, keeping your mind off the daily grind and forcing you to be more present in the moment. Ever-changing terrains as you walk or run outdoors also force your mind to focus more on the task at hand and less on internal, mental stimuli.
 
Get more committed to exercise
 
Studies show that changing your exercise routine on a regular basis keeps you more interested in your workout and increases your ability to lose weight. Exercising outside not only enables you to change your scenery every day but offers a wider variety of exercises. There are many things you can do outdoors this spring to move your body, such as:

• Walking
• Running or jogging
• Hiking
• Nordic pole walking
• Outdoor yoga or other meditative activity
• Rock climbing
• Basketball, baseball, street hockey, tennis, volleyball or soccer
• Circuit training
• Canoeing or rowing
• Swimming
• Cycling
• Stand-up paddle boarding
• Horseback riding
• Gardening

 
Blast more calories
 
Changing the terrain on which you workout can have a dramatic impact on the number of calories you burn in an hour. For example, according to the American Heart Association, a 150 pound person walking an average speed of 2 miles an hour, can burn around 240 calories. But if you take that walk onto a sandy surface, you more than double the effort required by your body, subsequently burning a lot more calories and utilizing new muscles. If you take that walk onto a cross-country style trail, you can burn around 400 calories in an hour. And should you have the energy for a mountainous trail instead, you can burn over 500 calories in an hour. Exercising on uneven terrain uses more lateral movements and activates stabilizer muscle groups throughout your core, knees and ankles. Most outdoor exercise options require better balance and coordination, thus utilizing different and additional muscles from indoor exercise.
 
Increase vitamin D absorption
 
You likely spend the majority of your time indoors and your exposure to vitamin D is limited. While you must be careful about sun exposure, vitamin D is essential to your overall health. A recent clinical review found that nearly 1 billion people world-wide are not getting enough of the sunshine vitamin. A deficiency in this vitamin has been linked to chronic disease, heart disease and many mental health ailments, most notably depression. Outdoor exercise in the spring and summer months help to boost your absorption of vitamin D naturally, but remember to take appropriate precautions based on the UV index. Brief flirtations with the sun are safe for most people but any prolonged exposure should involve sunscreen and a hat. Many companies manufacture workout clothing with UV-shielding fabrics, to keep you best protected while keeping you cool, as you sweat in the sun.
 
Reap the rewards of fresh air
 
When you are surrounded by trees, you are in the best place for truly fresh air. While you are engaging all your senses on a completely different level from being indoors, you are also absorbing all that pure oxygen from the surrounding greenery. Fresh air has many health benefits, aside from the obvious. An increased flow of oxygen helps with digestion and weight loss, helps to naturally lower blood pressure, increases serotonin levels (making you feel happier!), strengthens your immune system, sharpens your mind and increases concentration, helps to release airborne toxins from your lungs and ultimately cleans out your respiratory system, and naturally raises your energy level, providing more stamina for that outdoor workout!
 
Ideally, finding your balance between indoor and outdoor exercise is guaranteed to give you maximum health benefits, as it’s not always realistic to attain green exercise. But by utilizing outdoor options more often, you are doing yourself a big favor by rejuvenating your overall health. 

The health and well-being of your employees is important to you and to the success of your business. Forming a Wellness Program for your employees is an effective way to foster a happier, more productive workplace, to reduce health insurance premium costs and to maximize the health and subsequently the productivity of your staff. When you develop a program that takes these factors into account, you often generate higher financial returns as well. Studies have shown that healthier, happier employees are more productive, more inclined to come to work and to remain with their employer.

According to a health and wellness survey, published by Forbes, the annual costs related to lost productivity in the workplace, due to chronic illnesses and mental illnesses, total $84 billion. Conditions such as asthma, cancer, depression, diabetes, heart attack, high blood pressure or cholesterol, and obesity-related illnesses were considered. While a corporate Wellness Program cannot cure these conditions in every employee, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that such a program can have a dramatic, positive impact on employee engagement levels, company morale and employee attendance at work.

Designing a Wellness Program that fits your workplace can be a daunting task. The decision to select a program provider or to design your own may seem like the logical place to start, but before you make that important decision, you need to determine what it is exactly that you both want and need to achieve, in order to make this a worthwhile venture for your company.
Here are five of the most important things to consider before you make any decisions about starting your own corporate Wellness Program:
 
1. Do you have the budget for a wellness program?

According to national wellness providers, the average cost per employee for a corporate Wellness Program is about $150 per year. There is great variability in this cost, depending on how much you can source internally, or through existing vendors and benefits, but this gives you a general starting point. If your worksite is fully insured, your insurance company likely offers assistance towards a wellness program. Remember to consult your insurance before you start making plans as they may turn out to be a key component to making the program a reality. Also remember that asking yourself whether you can afford not to start a corporate wellness program may be just as important. Stress alone contributes to 60% of time spent off work. Healthcare costs are rising each year and many companies are passing these increasing costs onto their employees through deductibles. But health-conscious employers can actually improve this bottom line by lowering employee’s contributions with rebates and rewards for participating in a wellness program.

The greatest challenge in deciding whether or not to start a program lies in what you have in mind for your program, which is also a key factor in determining cost. Use the following questions to help you decide the nature of your program and this will give you a better idea for the cost to your company.

2. What do your employees want out of Wellness?

Identifying the needs of your workforce is the most important place to start. Why? Because if you are not meeting the needs, and wants, of your employees,  they are not likely to participate or appreciate your efforts.  The best way to identify the needs of your workforce is to conduct focus groups and surveys. These can easily be created and managed internally and will provide maximum results. Set a goal first and decide how many ideas you are looking for, structure your surveys accordingly, and from those results, conduct your focus groups. You can easily narrow down the ideas and programs in which your employees are most interested in.  When the time comes to launch your program, involve those same focus group employees in starting the programs they chose. You will find that this helps to create program ambassadors and increases overall participation. Assessing the corporate culture is one of the most important things to consider when designing your program so that it works for all involved.

3. What are your wellness related goals for your company and how can you achieve them?

Are you looking to reduce healthcare costs? Are you looking to maximize insurance vendor’s benefits that you are already paying for? Are you genuinely interested in the well-being of your employees and how far are you willing to go to ensure they are benefiting from a truly overall healthy workplace? These are all imperative questions to answer before you can create a program that will work effectively for your company. Strategic planning on the part of you, the employer, is just as important as strategic selection on the part of the employees. Make a list of questions that will help you to decide what program you can realistically offer and a directory will reveal itself to you, from which you can start to form your ideas.

4. Do you have the qualified personnel and tools to manage this program, or should you look to an external provider?

You cannot start a Wellness Program without having someone to oversee and manage the program. Whether this is one chief person, or several people across different offices or departments, your program will require strong leaders and faithful ambassadors in order to be effective. You will also need the tools to manage such a program, which can be determined once you answer whether you are going internally or externally for a program manager. Depending on the size of your workforce, you may need to be prepared to create a full-time position for the management of the wellness program. Once you have decided whether you have the qualified personnel, and remember that going internally will save you money as program providers can be costly, remember to consult your insurance broker and any wellness-related vendors you already use to see what benefits, tools and programs they may provide that you are not already using. Many of these companies provide free and/or low-cost options that can be a great compliment to the program you design for your employees. It is completely realistic to try and self-manage a corporate wellness program. You can read more about how to start your own program here.

5. How do you plan to quantify the success of your wellness program?

You know that question you were asked at every job interview: Where do you see yourself in five years? Your wellness program is no different. You need to take into account the measured outcomes and how you hope they will change and grow, as well as how you will adjust your program accordingly. For example, if at the end of the first year of your program, you have over 50% engagement, what will you do to increase that engagement? And how will you keep up with the cost and demand? How will you measure the outcome, for example, relating to overall employee health, employee retention and medical expenditures? Have tools in place for when the time comes so that you can justify the program as well as see tangible results from your efforts.
​
In making the decision to start a corporate wellness program, a comprehensive approach is key. Take into account the above five points, and add your own questions as well that are applicable to your corporate culture as well as your own vision for your program, and ask yourself if this idea is right for your company. More and more Americans are focusing on their health and well-being and ultimately, because so much of the day is spent at work, a workplace wellness program is a wonderful addition to any workplace. And remember, when top talent are job hunting, they often include amenities and benefits in their search and will choose a company where they can take full advantage of such programs as corporate wellness. During the interview process for new candidates, your wellness program is certainly grounds for bragging rights! 

Congratulations! You have made the decision to design your own corporate Wellness Program! More and more companies are prioritizing the health and well-being of their workforce. And with significant increases in chronic and mental illness, drastically affecting the workplace and company productivity, it has never been more important to focus on the health of your employees.

So now what? You have decided to design a program and manage it internally, selecting a program director or manager. You have gauged your workforce and determined what they want and need. You have created your budget and now you want a holistic approach to wellness, incorporating your workplace culture. You have found that your existing insurance provider and benefits companies offer tools and programs that compliment your vision. How do you put it all together? How do you now deliver this program to your employees and ensure their participation?

Here are twelve tips and ideas from an award-winning corporate Wellness Program to design a program that your employees will appreciate, in which they will participate, and from which you will see the all-round returns.

1. Create a Program Definition

Your Wellness Program needs to be clearly defined. In taking the pulse of your employees, through surveys and by conducting focus groups, to determine what they want and need out of a wellness program, you have the tools to structure your program accordingly. For example, a tiered program is a holistic approach to wellness. Utilize the top topics chosen by your employees as the areas in which they are most interested (i.e. Health, Fitness, Mental Well-Being, Financial Wellness, Gratitude and Mindfulness) and design all elements, activities and rewards of your program around these areas.

2. Wellness Ambassadors

In order for your program to be successful, your employees have to believe in your program. By assigning Wellness Program Ambassadors, you are alleviating some of the burden from the program director but also helping to make the program more personal, through peer-support. Your employees are more likely to participate if their own managers, co-workers and supervisors are participating. Ambassadors participate in all related activities and rally the troops! You can assign one Ambassador per office (if your company has offices in different cities) or by floor or by department, for example.

3. Annual Wellness Calendar

A wonderful way to organize your corporate Wellness Program is through an annual calendar, in conjunction with nationally recognized wellness-themed months and days (i.e. Heart Month in February with an event taking place on Valentine’s Day, Cancer Awareness month in June, Mental Health Awareness day in October, etc.). By creating a calendar of events and activities for the year, you can enable your employees to plan their attendance in advance, to contribute ideas to events and activities and subsequently increase program engagement. As the manager of your program, you will also find much more relatable information through these nationally recognized themes as the government and health agencies dedicate websites and campaigns throughout the year, accordingly.

4. Wellness Newsletters

Electronic newsletters are a great way to reach all employees, with an aim to increase program participation and raise awareness on matters relating to Wellness. By utilizing the nationally recognized monthly themes, you can design your newsletter around the topic of the month. Alert employees to any new tools, programs or benefits relating to your program and provide links that they can use on their own schedule to learn more about your program. Include a monthly contest, health stats and tips, ask a skill testing question (perhaps about the previous month’s program content) – make it fun and engage your employees. Always remind them about your incentives as well.

5. Monthly Lunch and Learn Sessions

In accordance with the nationally observed monthly wellness themes, where possible, organize a monthly Lunch and Learn session. You can either provide a healthy lunch for those who attend or have the employees bring their own lunch. Have an expert come and speak to your employees about a pre-determined topic, provide handouts, ask questions at the end of the session and ensure the speaker can stay a few minutes afterwards to speak to anyone in private. These sessions engage your employees in a group setting and provide a social setting in which to learn and grow, both independently and as a team.

6. Utilize Benefit Provider Tools

You likely have tools at your disposal that you never knew you had until you researched creating your own Wellness Program. Many insurance and benefit providers have wonderful tools, such as on-line video libraries, dedicated websites, books, pamphlets and discs available through mail, all relating to issues of Wellness, that can be accessed by your employees as a part of your Wellness program. Make sure your employees know about these valuable tools, through your program launch and your monthly newsletter. Many of these materials can also be shared by your employee with their family, extending the impact and value of your program.

7. Healthy Vending Machines

Most office spaces have vending machines, so why not exchange what’s inside them for more healthy options? If your current vending machine provider is not willing to do this, there are plenty of companies who will. You can start slowly, replacing favorites such as offering baked chips and dark chocolate, or you can go full-on healthy with fresh fruit and smoothies in place of pop. This may be a process but your employees will show you what works and what doesn’t.

8. Cooking Classes

Unless you have a kitchen on-site, you will have to source this idea externally. Several grocery store chains, Whole Foods for example, offer corporate cooking classes as a compliment to your corporate wellness program. The cost is minimal and this is a fun and exciting way to engage your employees in wellness. Again, this is something that will extend to the families of your employees. You may find that in utilizing these courses through a grocery store, that the store will give your company additional perks such as discounted shopping or free recipe cards, etc. There is no better way to teach nutrition than through meal creation and planning.

9. Gym Memberships

Providing your employees with a discounted gym membership is one of the best ways to engage them in fitness. While you may be able to organize some fitness activities on-site, such as a stair-climb challenge or a walking club, most employees prefer to work out in a gym setting, either before or after work, some even on their lunch break. Partner with a local fitness chain and offer a discounted gym membership to your employees and their immediate family. And make sure that those who participate in this offer are rewarded through your incentive program. Keeping fit and healthy should be one of the ultimate aims of your program.

10. Charitable Initiatives

Engaging in charitable initiatives and encouraging generosity should be an integral part of your corporate Wellness Program. Far too often, this important element of mental well-being is forgotten. You can incorporate this into your program by hosting fundraising events (i.e. cycle for heart, run for the cure, etc.) or by donating your time to a local event or charity. The possibilities here are endless. Utilize your surrounding organizations and engage any employees who may already be involved.

11. Financial Presentations

Either as part of your Lunch and Learn program or otherwise, incorporate financial health into your Wellness Program. Utilize your financial provider to come and speak to groups of employees about things such as retirement savings, registered education savings plans, estate planning, budgeting, etc. Most financial institutions will offer these types of workshops at no cost.

12. Incentive Programs

There are several incentive options you can incorporate into your Wellness Program. You can use one of these ideas or group ideas together to work for your budget and vision for your program.
​

• Points System

A points system is a fun way to encourage participation and some healthy competition for employees, either within themselves or between each other. Perhaps even between offices, departments or regions too! It is a good idea to start all employees off with ten points, to encourage more participation. Designate a point value for each component of your program (i.e. an employee gets 10 points for attending a Lunch and Learn, an employee gets 5 points for answering a question from the newsletter, an employee gets 20 points for leading a stair climber challenge, etc.). Then create a rewards system. You can have one ultimate winner, so the employee with the most points at the end of the year wins a gym membership, for example, or you can break this down into more frequent and smaller rewards, such as monthly gift cards.

• Lowering Deductibles

Another method of incentive is to offer employees a contribution towards their insurance deductible, offering a partial rebate and other further rewards for participating in the company’s Wellness Program.

• Additional Prizes

​Door prizes, small trophies and ribbons, certificates and other tangible rewards are more ways to encourage healthy competition and participation from your employees for your various Wellness Program components. And remember to reward your program Ambassadors as well, as they are an integral part of your program’s success. 

​How many times have you collapsed in front of the television and grabbed the quickest snack you can find, ignoring fat and calories for convenience? You are exhausted after a long day and reach into a bag of popcorn or chips, with a can of soda nearby, and soon discover you are at the bottom of that bag with fingers covered in grease. And that was dinner!

This is what’s called mindless eating, indulging in food excessively while distracted, and it happens when you are paying little attention to what or how much you are eating, usually because your emotions and environment are taking priority.

With more prepackaged food choices than ever before, most of those heavy in sugar, and our constant rushed pace of life, eating for convenience is not typically healthy eating. Bad eating habits are hard to break and unless you have prepared healthy snacks at the ready in your home, you are likely guilty of mindless binge eating.

Behavioral scientists have concurred that people often fail on diet plans because the effort to make healthy choices is affected by multiple triggers (such as time of day, where you are, how you feel) which cause repeated responses from past unhealthy behaviors. Ultimately, we have a predisposition to make decisions without really thinking them through, especially when it comes to the multitude of decisions made each day about food.

If you want to replace bad habits with more healthy behaviors, you must be more mindful in making choices related to healthy eating. Your best defense is to try the following tricks to prevent yourself from mindless binging on unhealthy, processed and pre-packaged foods.

Make a plate

Instead of grabbing a bag of chips before sitting down to watch your favorite show, make a plate of snack foods and tell yourself that what is on the plate is all that you are going to eat while you watch. You can then see what you will eat before you start, forcing you to choose more wisely and to choose foods that will leave you more satisfied, since you are not allowing yourself anything more. You can still have a handful of popcorn but perhaps you will be more inclined to pair it with an apple or carrot sticks instead.

Use smaller dishes

This may sound like a no-brainer, but this is more about being mindful than tricking yourself in plain sight. When you have a smaller dish to fill, you are more careful about the foods you choose (and more likely to feel guilty if you go back for a second bowl!). This will help you to get a gauge of portion sizes too, and help you to get the amount of food you eat under control. The majority of people have no idea what a correct portion size looks like and that is often because you are using dishes that are much too large.

Stay away from re-fills

The most powerful cue to stop eating is an empty plate. Restaurants that offer free refills on soups or salads, even fountain drinks, are doing your health a great disservice, even if those refills are seemingly healthy food choices. Be mindful of your portion size and only go around once. Buffets are also dangerous for the same reason. One bowl of soup or salad, followed by one plate of a healthy dinner, is the way to go. Anything more is excessive and leads towards the cycle of binge eating.

Put some back

In his book Mindless Eating, nutritionist Brian Wansink suggests putting back 20% of the food you serve yourself, before eating. He refers to this as the mindless margin, “the zone in which we can slightly overeat without noticing”. If you overeat 100 calories each day for a year, without burning them off, this can cause you to gain about ten pounds in a year. And imagine what will happen if you don’t break that habit. You will barely notice putting back that 20% as you eat but your scales will thank you. Maintaining this habit not only forces you to be mindful but will help you to lose weight as well.

Slow down

Nutrition experts recommend mindful eating through eating more slowly, chewing more purposefully and ultimately better digesting your food. By paying attention to food’s taste, texture and aroma, you will get more enjoyment out of eating while being more mindful about what you put into your mouth.
​
As soon as you understand that many of the food choices you make are more about habit than about health, you can begin the practice of mindful eating. Savor your food, eat less and enjoy that food more, be in the moment with your food and you can slowly reduce your cycle of excess.