Wouldn’t weight loss be easier if you were getting paid for it? Well, now you can. HealthyWage.com, which launched last October, is offering members up to $1,000 for improving their health by shedding some pounds. The company’s website states that they are, “a sponsor-funded company that rewards long-term changes in behavior that lead to improved health.” Their aim is to empower people not only to get healthy, but also to have a better understanding of their health so that they can stay healthy.

But, is this really viable? Isn’t personal incentive enough? Turns out, dieters who had a financial incentive to lose weight were nearly five times more likely to meet their goals compared with dieters who had no financial reward (from a 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and available on HealthyWage.com). And HealthyWage is handing out more than just cash, each member gets a personalized wellness plan, helpful tips and gets connected to a social support network of people who have similar weight loss goals. HealthyWage is free, so users have nothing to lose (except some pounds) and a lot more than money to gain. But, what do you think? Do you think money is a good weight loss incentive and how effective do you think you’d be at keeping the weight off if you were to follow an online program?

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Just a few short years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Haiti as part of my work with Freedom from Hunger. While there, I met with scores of women who were working their way out of poverty with the help of Credit with Education, a pioneering microfinance initiative. Although each faced extraordinary barriers, through the motivation of their love for their children and their extended families and the tireless support of one another, they were succeeding remarkably. As has been the case with most of my travels in the developing world, I was the recipient while in Haiti of unconditional hospitality and generosity. Once again, those with the least to give were the first to share the most. Now, it is my turn to give back, and I am asking you as friends and colleagues to consider joining me. The recent earthquake has devastated so many lives in Haiti. And, residing in the poorest country on earth, the people of Haiti have no resources by which to recover except those that we share with them. I am asking you to consider making a donation TODAY to Freedom from Hunger. Visit www.freedomfromhunger.org –  100% of your gift will go directly to relief efforts. I serve on the Board, and have personally met the dedicated staff of our partner organization ACLAM in Haiti who will be managing distribution of resources to relief and rebuilding. Please visit the Freedom from Hunger Website to learn more, or call me directly at 303-779-3004 ext. 3522. If you are reading this, you are a person of compassion, and I invite your generous assistance.

Tagged as: Freedom from Hunger, Haiti, Haiti relief

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Just in time for the holidays, a nice story of humanity, generosity and social media…

When Chris Strouth found out he had kidney disease, he named it Harold.

It was a goofy way to deal with a serious disease that could in fact, kill him. Strouth had dealt with his disease for close to three years, before visiting the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota where he learned that he would need a kidney transplant.

His reaction – log into Twitter.

“‘S*$* I need a kidney,” Strouth wrote, and in a short period of time, 19 people had contacted him with donation offers. The tweet, which could easily be misconstrued as a joke, was linked to Strouth’s Facebook page, where people were directed to a longer, emotional plea.

Scott Pakudaitis was one of the Strouth’s Twitter followers, and the one of nineteen donor volunteers that turned out to be a perfect match. Today, Strouth is recovering nicely from the kidney transplant , thanks to the generosity of Pakudaitis and the social media blow horn that is Twitter.

AND of course, the two of them tweeted before and after the operation.

Strouth: “In the waiting room at the hospital, I feel like I am in 7th grade just before swimming class.”

Pakudaitis: “Hey @chrisstrouth how’s my kidney doing? I hope your recovery is going as well as mine.”

Source: The City Pages

http://www.citypages.com/2009-12-09/news/chris-strouth-tweets-for-a-kidney

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Recently, I posted about prevention.  And the need to stand up for it, not taking steps backward in a field that has to fight so hard to make headway.  I was compelled to share this next:

I understand that this video alone does not represent an entire social marketing campaign but what it does represent is a group of very passionate people (from a corporate healthcare setting no less) taking many steps (dance steps) to encourage not only awareness but also online action – spread the word and ask people to hit the site. When I looked a week ago, there was only three hundred thousand.  Now, it’s over three million.  Medline has made large donations to the National Breast Cancer Foundation and helped support the production of the video.  But what is most amazing is the hospital’s commitment to engage in a prevention effort.  Hats off to them!  The true question is how to transfer online behaviors into offline actions.

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Did you know that everyday Internet usage, such as logging into social networking Web sites, or even conducting online searches leaves behind a trail of personal information that is collected by companies and the government? Well, it can!

The collection of your digital data can lead to the denial of loans, mortgages and even drivers licenses and any laws protecting Internet users from these unfair practices are severely outdated. In fact, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act was passed in 1986, four years before the World Wide Web was created!Because of this, Internet users have questionable protection and in a world where online usage has become an integral part of life, the ability to feel safe online, and take control of our personal information is more important than ever.

We had the privilege of working with the ACLU of Northern California to create an informative and thought provoking campaign that educates people about the digital footprint left behind when using the Internet.

The Demand Your dotRights campaign provides a look behind the digital curtain to see what’s really happening to your personal data online and educates us on how to protect our rights. Check out the campaign here.

Tagged as: ACLU, Demand Your dotRights, digital footprint, Electronic Communications Privacy Act

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The CDC has issued this warning about an email “phishing” scam. “Phishing” is the act of fraudulently acquiring sensitive information by masquerading as a legitimate source.

PHISHING SCAM – CDC Sponsored State Vaccination Program for H1N1

CDC has received reports of fraudulent emails (phishing) referencing a CDC sponsored State Vaccination Program for H1N1. The messages request that users create a personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the CDC.gov web site.

An example of the phishing email is below:

Users that click on the embedded link in the email are at risk of having malicious code installed on their system. CDC reminds users to take the following steps to reduce the risk of being a victim of a phishing attack:

1. Do not open or respond to unsolicited email messages.
2. Do not click links embedded in emails from unknown senders.
3. Use caution when entering personal information online.
4. Update anti-virus, spyware, firewall, and anti-spam software regularly.

Tagged as: CDC, H1N1, phishing, scam

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Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day. How do I know this? Most notably because Starbucks is quick to remind me that for every five buck drink I buy today, they’ll donate 5 cents to the Global Fund.

Awareness of the day has also been pushed through several social media channels, notably “Turn Facebook Red“, which encourages Facebook users to share a video and change their profile picture, and using the #red or #laceupsavelives hashtags on twitter, which cause that particular tweet to turn red:

Social media is great for raising awareness: but is this enough? What do we really wish to achieve today, and is buying a coffee or changing our avatar enough?

Tagged as: awareness, world AIDS day

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Yes they are, according to Joseph Proietto, a professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne.

In the article “Treatments needed to tackle obesity crisis: Experts” that has been picked up by British and Indian news aggregators but apparently hasn’t yet been widely distributed state-side, Proietto claims that lifestyle changes can only achieve so much before the body adapts. Therefore, it is “absolutely essential” to develop drugs to help people keep the weight off, he is quoted as saying.

As an athlete, I know that unless I change up my training regimen now and then, my performance will plateau. Ole Albert Einstein said it well: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Some speculate that diets don’t work because they are temporary measures to reach a specific target, but aren’t necessarily designed for long-term impact. The notion that the body adapts is also a possibility: what initially helps us to lose weight will decrease in effectiveness as our body becomes used to the new intake and accommodates for it. As with physical activity: as we undergo physical conditioning, activities that used to tax our muscles become easier, and we see fewer results. We then need to increase the intensity or duration of an activity to continue to see gains.

What do you think? Is varying our diet and incorporating different types of physical activity enough? Or do we need a little help to stay healthy?

Tagged as: behavior change, diet, drugs, lifestyle, obesity

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Growing up in Canada in the 80s, I was subject to the cheesy yet incredibly catchy “participACTION” campaign.

ParticipACTION was started as a government program in the ’70s. Cutbacks caused the program to be ceased in 2001, but it was revived in 2007 thanks to a Federal grant.

While the general ParticipACTION program encouraged physical activity of any kind, all Canadian students also had to participate in the yearly Canada Fitness Tests. These tests assigned students an “Award of Excellence”, Gold, Silver, Bronze or “participant” status based on their ability to perform a number of exercises, included the dreaded “flexed arm hang.” This program was so much a part of Canadian culture that a reference thereto is made in the 1998 Tragically Hip song “Fireworks”: “Next to your comrades in the national fitness program / Caught in some eternal flexed-arm hang / Droppin’ to the mat in a fit of laughter / Showed no patience, tolerance or restraint”.

In researching for this post, I came across a blog post entitled “Canada Fitness” about this program, where nearly 100 people had left comments fondly (or not so fondly) remembering what level of fitness they had achieved.

I’ll admit I don’t recall what grade I achieved. I was naturally an athletic child, playing soccer and softball in elementary school, so I didn’t worry too much about what the test was meant to illustrate. It was just a different workout on a specific day. (The Cadets continue to use a version of this program: http://titanous.com/cadets/fitness_test.pdf)

In contrast, for some the CFT was truly a test. There were participants who would remember exactly what they needed to get to to reach a milestone, and perform exactly to that level. This is the equivalent of the students who would neglect their homework all year, only to be cramming madly the week before exams.

We all have different motivations and approaches. Some of us will do our homework diligently to achieve an overall level of knowledge or fitness, and others will do what they need to ‘pass the test’. Does your program account for both?

Tagged as: action, fitness, physical activity, program development

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