I am very lucky to work for a company that helps me maintain my weight loss goals. How does your company support - or hurt - your weight loss efforts?
I work for a Fortune 500 company, at it's headquarters. It's a private company and does not like to be mentioned on media sites so I won't say the name. I will just say that I have never worked for such an employee-focused company that makes my weight loss efforts easier! I'm very lucky, especially with so many people who are unemployed.
My company:
- offers several healthy options in its cafeterias daily. Calorie and nutritional data is provided so I can make good choices. And the healthy meals and snacks are reduced in price! There is also a Subway on-site in case none of the healthy options sound good to me. Salad bars, low-cal soups, fruit, etc. are available.
- has two large fitness centers on-site, with very low membership costs that are reduced even further the more often you use them. They even provide the towels and clothing!
- there is a weight loss incentive program where you can earn money if you reduce your weight by 10% year over year.
- on-site health assessments annually.
-if you do things to improve your health, you can get a reduction in health insurance rates.
- the fitness center will do free fitness evaluations, and if you improve your fitness levels, you can cont the improvement towards your health insurance rate reduction.
-vending machines always have several healthier options.
-there are "convenience" food stores on-site where you can buy fresh fruit cups, fresh cut-up veggies, and other healthy foods.
- the building is huge: half a mile from end to end. And that's just one building. There are walking routes mapped out, and you can see people walking in the basement during lunch hour.
- there are other incentive programs, like a walking incentive program, healthy eating challenges, and annual weight loss challenge.
-fitness classes (Zumba, kickboxing, tennis lessons, boot camp, etc.) are offered for free or at low cost.
There's even an on-site clinic with a nurse, blood pressure testing equipment, pharmacy services, and physical therapy.
I'm so grateful to have found this company. I hope they decide to keep me around a while. Other companies I have worked for helped me GAIN weight - long hours behind a desk, no healthy food options anywhere around the neighborhood, lots of stress, and no fitness facilities. Not that my job is perfect, but most of the time I am just so grateful to work there.
My company offers a program that focuses on the 8 dimensions of wellness, which includes physical, spiritual, environmental, vocational, intellectual, emotional, social and health services.
We earn points for what we do on a monthly basis for any of the 8 dimensions including exercise, preventative medical care (mammogram, physical, etc), and for monthly assignments that focus on wellness, among other things.
They offer pedometers for people who want to track their steps and walk around the campus, and there is a small fitness center for employees available for a really low monthly fee.
They have healthy food choices available, including yogurt, fresh fruit and a full salad bar. Employee meals are subsidized and super cheap. They offer inservices, and discussions for employees, and encourage them to attend.
Those of us who participate in this program pay less for our health insurance premiums.
We get to cash in our points for things like massages, movie tickets or paid time off.
It's good to see companies putting focus on healthier lifestyles.
when i worked for lowe's they had a life-points program that was an all around health and wellness thing you could use to earn points, complete with a free support phone number, and they had annual competitions with pedometers and weight loss, etc. it was a great thing.
currently i sell tastefully simple, a home business... really yummy food products! the spices and such are wonderful, but the cakes (delicious as they are) make me cringe at 300+ calories per 1/10 of the cake... probably because to make it you mix 3/4c of butter (1.5 sticks) with the mix the fact that the parties are 'taste test parties' also doesn't help, but that's why i go to the gym more often lol
Absolutely nothing. It's a fairly small company (maybe 250 employees) and a non-profit government contractor, though, so that may have something to do with it. They have to stay competitive to keep winning their contract (they have just the one contract, that's it), and to do that they need to be able to do the work for less money than anyone else.
Well my University provides an amazing gym. The membership cost is included in tuition. They also offer TONS of classes like Zumba, different Yoga's, Water Bootcamps... things like that for a very low cost.
As for my employer, I work at his house and he has an at-home gym that I am free to use before/after work if working there interferes with a planned work out (I set my own schedule). I don't use it since I'd feel very weird, but he still offered lol!
I work in a small school. They do nothing to help with weight loss and fitness. In fact there are always donuts and other treats in the faculty room. Thankfully I don't like donuts so I'm not tempted.
Then again my job involves a lot of walking around all day, so I suppose it's a bit better than having a sedentary job. Also there is a lovely park across the street that I like to go to and have lunch during the warmer weather
I work at a major university that is beyond good to staff in terms of helping them achieve mental and physical fitness. They have free fitness center and still have discounts like a waived joining fee for local YMCAs. There are multiple incentive programs to encourage healthy living. If you reach a certain amount of cardio in a three month time period they cover your insurance premium for the next month. They have free sessions with a mental health counselor for you and your family if needed and regular fitness assessments and screenings. I am healthier than I have ever been in adulthood and it is partially due to a workplace that promotes overall wellness.
I work for a retirement home that's owned by a big company but they hardly do anything to help us with weightloss. It's a big building so we do do a lot of walking and going up and down stairs between 5 floors but that's about it. At all staff meetings they pull out the cupcakes and when it comes to the food they serve here it's so greasy :/ the healthiest thing we can buy is a sandwich or Cobb salad, when we get together and do pot lucks it's a bad food anyone brings. I try to avoid eating the food here and now that I started losing weight all my co workers think I starve myself but oh my goodness, the cooks must use 5 gallons of oil or butter to make everything, and even then most of the food tastes Terrible! Last year there was talk about them getting us some discounted gym memberships but who knows what happened what that.
I work for a county government. We used to have a wellness incentive program with contests and opportunities to earn extra time off for fitness/wellness activities, but then the new mayor took over and did away with the entire program.
I look forward to seeing what that's going to do to our insurance rates when the bidding process starts again this year. /sarcasm
My company offers Weight-Watchers at Work but I don't attend those meetings. Last thing I want is to share my journey at work! They also have a gym at the HQ but I don't work out there either, lol.
Well, my company....the government...has provided us with a few weight machines in a garage that is unheated and lacks any sort of cooling. They also offer "Weight loss challenges" through email sign up programs..
My biggest beef with it all is they allow supervisors to work out for an hour per shift, but the rest of us NO! Half my coworkers are overweight, some are even obese. We work 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. We have been trying to fight for the hour but no sucess yet.
KittyKat - when I started reading your post I thought we worked in the same place LOL!
My co. is amazing re: weight loss.
We have a beautiful gym with pilates and yoga classes - ALL FREE and it includes two personal training sessions a month - FREE.
We have two cafes that serve breakfast & lunch - ALL FREE - and printed weekly menus highlighting the healthy choices [there are at least four per meal] plus unlimited fruits & yogurts and healthy cereals & juices all day. Also, healthy snacks on each floor [trail mix, granola bars etc.].
They have a weight watchers representative come and hold a meeting in our conference room every Thursday - ALL FREE. Includes online WW too.
We have 5k races with prizes.
Also - they added to the health insurance, nutritional counseling which I thought was awesome.
They really stress the importance of good health at my office for which I am extremely grateful!
I work for a small company without a lot of resources, but they're great. They absolutely don't do anything to discourage people who want to go get a workout in during the day (I get mine in before work and come in a little later, and as long as I don't miss any meetings no one cares). It's also in a great location for fitness. We have a parking lot ~1/4 mile away, and parking is otherwise abysmal so anything less than 2 miles one way and we walk. They also let us bring our dogs to work, so there's another excuse for some exercise. Most of the people who work here are fitness buffs (several are marathon runners) and the rest of us have to expend a lot of effort to keep up with them!
On the other hand, there's a deep fryer in the kitchen and it's on just about every day, plus people are always bringing junk food in.
Some of the programs y'alls jobs have are amazing!
I'm a long term sub at an alternative high school, I don't have any benefits becaues of my position, but I don't believe any employees have access to any health related insentives. There's always pot lucks I try to avoid, tons of snacks and goodies always in the break room, which I also avoid.
How does your company help you with weight loss?
the fact that the parties are 'taste test parties' also doesn't help, but that's why i go to the gym more often lol
