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Want to Live a Healthy Life? Bring Your Home to Work

To make a workplace healthy people need to actually commit. It needs to be a learning environment and it needs to be a place where employees can ask questions about health and get solid information. The goal is to get workplaces thinking healthy. To do that I want you to take your home to work.
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Do you take your work home with you? The stress of the job, the paperwork, the little things that you should be leaving at work?

If you do, I want to ask you to do me a favour. I've been listening to Sharon Blady, Manitoba's Minister of Healthy Living and Seniors talk about Wellness Works. It's a joint venture between the Ministers Cabinet and The Manitoba Chamber of Commerce. The goal is to get workplaces thinking healthy. To do that I want you to take your home to work.

To make a workplace healthy people need to actually commit. It needs to be a learning environment and it needs to be a place where employees can ask questions about health and get solid information. When I contract my service out to a workplace to make sure people get the message I ask for one full year. In that year, it's simple. We offer tips on healthy living, a place to ask questions, and a stay away from biggest loser challenges. The tips offered create a healthy home.

1) Fill your fridge with local vegetables, cut up and ready to eat

2) Prepare food and have healthy options ready

3) Get active in the evening. Simple as a walk, or as hard core as Martial Arts classes and High Intensity Interval Training

4) Keep the home low stress and smoke free, as best as you can

5) Set up a bedroom for sleep to ensure you are rested.

Now bring that to work.

Make sure you have healthy food, take a few minutes to get up and walk around so you don't let your metabolism fall off the chart, and stop smoking. Show up to work as rested as possible. Do everything you can to make sure that the place you work at is as positive as it can be. I know not everyone loves their job, and I'm sorry for that. It really does break my heart. The goal needs to be to maximize the health of the workplace you are in.

It's actually one of the reasons that Wellness Works has had a successful first year. The workplaces that sign up for it are leaders in hiring and creating positive work environments. Employers that go that extra mile to ensure healthy employees get the most out of them. As I go into more workplaces, I truly hope to see more people bring their homes to work.

Make sure you set up an environment where you improve your health, and maintain a lifestyle that increases your energy, focus and stamina. There is no reason to stop being healthy when you get to work. Continue to care for your body, and build a community and environment of health in your workplace. Make a request to bring in an expert to cover the basics and be available to help you start your journey. Remind your boss that studies show for every dollar they spend on your wellness it's a six dollar return.

Now go make your workplace healthy! You spend a lot of time there. Bring your home to work.

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