(and 3 other key ingredients to keep the plan from falling flat)

Working professionals are busier than ever these days.

If only this article could read itself and immediately transmit the message into our brains beyond time and effort so we could get right back to being busy. Wouldn’t that be great?

And wouldn’t it be great if the most important meal of the day, breakfast, could magically materialize on our kitchen tables so we could still enjoy waking up at the very last minute while also getting in a nutritious meal?

And wouldn’t it be even better if your company’s wellness program strategy had the technology to instantaneously transform all of your employees into just happy people? I mean REALLY happy people?

No need to worry about getting them physically fit and eating healthy, which we’ll get to in a moment with the 4 key ingredients. They’re already just happy.

And we know that happy employees = profitable company. Wow, talk about killing two of life’s biggest birds with one heck of a rock.

Ok, fantasies and jokes aside. Back to the reality of coffee and bagel “breakfasts,” while speeding to work just to meet more coffee and pastries in the employee break room just before crashing and burning into a lean cuisine in the microwave for lunch.

The funny thing is we rationally know this approach doesn’t work to fuel our bodies with good nutrition for energy throughout the day. So one of the biggest excuses has become “I just don’t have enough time.” And the dirty little secret behind that statement is that we secretly know that we’re lying to ourselves, especially as it pertains to doing things that will benefit us in a positive way.

Now on to the 4 key ingredients that’ll keep your wellness program’s nutrition plan from falling flat and instead, succeed long-term.

Your wellness program’s nutrition strategy shouldn’t dig a hole in your employees’ brains.

Here’s what that means:

If I told you that you need to stop drinking coffee while you’re on the program, then psychologically there’s a void. We just attempted to “dig out” all the coffee. It’s essentially the “diet” mentality all over again saying you “can’t” have such and such.

Instead of digging a “hole” by telling you what you can’t have, we only dig out a little “dirt,” and then fill it with miracle grow potting mix, cover it with sod and water it with green tea.

Do a little better each day and Breakfast, Breakfast, Breakfast.

Yes, it is the most important meal of the day for more reasons than ten, and a major tenant of any wellness program’s nutrition strategy must emphasize that all one has to do to improve the way they look and feel is to consistently do better each day.

Some folks have a tendency to beat themselves up if they aren’t making a “180” overnight, and that’s why having an expert coach continually guiding and interacting with your team can make a huge difference in the long-term adherence to the program with just this one simple strategy.

Start with the “Why” before teaching the “How.”

A questions like, “What should I eat to lose weight?” is typical of a person just wanting to know the straight and simple “How To” answer to their problem.

I can’t blame them; it’s just how our minds work. But unfortunately just giving folks the “How,” especially when it comes to changing nutrition habits, never works. It never works because it doesn’t address the “Why.”  Why eat a breakfast consisting of lean protein and unprocessed natural carbohydrates as opposed to just a cup of coffee and maybe a muffin?

There are many reasons, of course, and your team needs to understand the “Why” if changing an old habit is going to stick in the long run.

Teach, Assess, Playback.

Following new nutritional advice is never easy at first, so once you teach someone the why and the how and have them go out and implement it, then you need to find out how they did with their new tools.

Assessing their comprehension of what they learned and how they applied it is critical, and having them playback to you what they “heard” is just as critical. If compliance is an issue in a certain area, then this process must continually repeat itself until that area is mastered.

When implementing a wellness program’s nutrition plan, it becomes pretty obvious that the way the information is communicated on an ongoing basis is key to making this aspect of your overall wellness program’s strategy a long-term success.

It really does take much more than someone well-versed in nutritional knowledge to help a team of employees actually follow through with the information, and an easy-to-follow, structured plan for helping everyone achieve their desired goals becomes mandatory.

Until next time…

Live like you mean it!

Glenn