A few health and weight-loss stories that caught our eye (and ear) this week:

What can you gain from skipping meat just one day a week? Find out from the Meatless Mondays website, or listen to this audio interview with founder Sid Lerner, the man behind the famous “Squeeze the Charmin” ad campaign with Mr. Whipple. (NPR) You can also try these meat-free weight-loss tips from Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation.

On a related note, GEICO employees lost 11 pounds each, on average, with one dietary change. No word yet on how their gecko stays so trim. (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)

Linda Fondren is the latest CNN Hero. Read her inspiring story of how her sister’s death led her to tackle obesity in the nation’s fattest state.

A Discovery Channel doc shares tips for how to go beyond the typical office visit, get more from your doctor, and be a better patient. (Huffington Post)

Hey guys, need another reason to lose weight? If you want to have kids, that may be reason enough. (Reuters Health)

From our environmental health desk: how Prozac turns shrimp into lemmings … and how shrimp get Prozac in the first place. (NPR)

And finally, local columnist Michael Smerconish calls out the Mayor to bring bike sharing to Philadelphia. (Philly.com)

Our Tracker helps you benefit from physical activity, even if you have no weight to lose.

I just read an article in National Geographic about what motivated humans to start walking upright on two legs instead of four. I will let you Google it if you really want to know, but it appears that the oldest motivation is quite similar to the oldest profession.

We all have different motivations to start and keep exercising. Yours might be to lose weight or get a healthier heart. Or it might be just to feel better, like this very, very skinny girl (pictured, with the Tracker on her foot) who has neither weight to lose nor a heart. Or it might be because your doctor has told you that you have to – or else.

Regardless of what inspired you to start exercising in the first place, Destination: You has a variety of built-in motivational tools to keep you going, and there are lots of ways to use the program to motivate your participants.

• Some people are motivated by competition, and the Challenge options in D:Y help keep them moving. Create team or individual challenges regularly for all of your participants to encourage them with some friendly competition. You might also want to remind them that they can challenge each other for bragging rights.

• Others might be motivated by the social aspects. Use the postcards in D:Y to invite participants to a walking group once or twice a week at lunch time. They can chit chat out in the fresh air while getting their steps in. The postcards also let you share your accomplishments with your walking pals so you can encourage each other.

• Prizes, incentives, and even their name in lights (or a newsletter or email) are huge motivators. Reward challenge winners with small prizes and incentives, and set larger goals with even larger rewards to really get people going. Consider giving away a half day off for anyone reaching one million steps or put the names of those reaching a large goal into a drawing for a full day off or a cash incentive. It’s also amazing what people will do for a t-shirt; set target step levels at which participants could earn t-shirts, like belts in karate.

Let us know if we can help you find your motivation and help others find theirs. I can’t promise what the first walkers got, but I can help you brainstorm some fun ideas.

1,000 push-ups, 20 rules, 60 minutes, and the countless times we heard ourselves saying what this first story re-confirms:

When your business is benefits for healthy living, it’s no surprise to hear that people perform better on days when they exercise, but it is nice to see it validated by science. (CNN)

We love this video of Stockholm’s Piano Stairs, an imaginative installation that encourages people to use their legs (and their ears) instead of the escalator. (YouTube)

Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, November 1. The new Serve 60 movement encourages us to use the extra hour to volunteer in our communities.

Fitness icon Jack LaLanne is still going strong at 95. And his 1959 record of 1,000 push-ups and 1,000 pull-ups still stands, despite his nephew’s recent failed attempt. (S.F. Examiner)

Location, location, location! It’s the mantra of real estate agents, and perhaps soon, diabetes prevention experts. New research links where you live with your likelihood to get type 2 diabetes. See how your neighborhood stacks up. (Archives of Internal Medicine, or the less technical explanation at the L.A. Times)

“If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you are not hungry,” goes one of the “Rules to Eat By,” a new project from acclaimed foodie author Michael Pollan. We like the clean and fun graphics that accompany that and the 19 other reader-submitted rules. (New York Times)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PHILADELPHIA, PA–(Marketwire - September 15, 2009) - An established medical and wellness practice is ready to whip corporate Philadelphia into shape.

Rittenhouse Corporate Wellness (RCW) is a new venture that provides small to medium-sized companies with the resources, strategies and services to improve their employees’ overall health and wellbeing. RCW utilizes the team of healthcare professionals at the Rittenhouse Women’s Wellness Center; both are under the medical direction of board-certified internist, Dr. Leslie Saltzman.

To round out their corporate offering, RCW turned to another local institution: GlobalFit, the Philadelphia 100 Hall of Fame company that has offered corporate wellness programs since 1992. A leading national provider, GlobalFit offers a range of options for healthy living to some 70 million covered lives at over 1,400 companies and groups in the U.S. and Canada.

“RCW works with companies to develop personalized comprehensive worksite wellness programs that fit each company’s needs and culture,” says Bob Saltzman, President of RCW. “Our goal is to help companies take a proactive approach towards educating, and improving the health of, their employees. GlobalFit gives us the core components of our health and wellness offering: special low rates on gym memberships, at-home fitness equipment and health coaching, as well as their own Destination: You activity program.”

Dr. Saltzman leads the RCW multi-disciplinary team, which includes a registered dietician, psychologist, certified life coach, yoga and meditation instructor, fitness specialists and health coaches. Together, the RCW team offers health and wellness services, education and programs to its clients at their worksites in the Greater Philadelphia area.

“Our collaboration with RCW presents an invaluable opportunity for smaller area companies to offer benefit options to rival this region’s major players,” says Frank Napolitano, GlobalFit’s President and CEO. “The combination of affordable group rates on GlobalFit’s suite of healthy living programs, products and services, plus personalized attention from RCW’s team of health professionals, can substantially improve the lives of their employees and, in return, bring these companies significant savings on their healthcare costs.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PHILADELPHIA, PA - September 3, 2009 - For 40 years, Jazzercise has been helping women (and some men) get fit and feel great. With their latest partnership, those ‘Jazz hands’ are beckoning to corporate employees.

GlobalFit, a leading corporate wellness provider, now offers affordable Jazzercise memberships to more than 1,400 corporate sponsors through their group-benefit packages. The pairing brings more than 2,700 Jazzercise locations across the U.S. into GlobalFit’s fitness center network, already the largest of its kind.

“Jazzercise is a true innovator in the fitness industry,” says GlobalFit President and CEO, Frank Napolitano. “Many of their instructors operate out of non-traditional locations; that goes a long way toward overcoming the gym intimidation that keeps many Americans on the couch.”

Judi Sheppard Missett, founder and CEO of Jazzercise, Inc., agrees that it’s precisely her company’s unique model that suits GlobalFit so well. “Corporations are just begging for fitness opportunities for their employees to help bring healthcare costs under control,” she observes. “I’ve seen how our program can help people — who don’t see themselves as ‘gym people’ — transform their lives, all while having a lot of fun! We’re thrilled to have GlobalFit help us bring this opportunity to the busy, working people who need it the most.”

In 2007/2008, Jazzercise posted their most successful fiscal year ever; system-wide sales topped $93 million, a 9% increase over the previous year. Jazzercise ranks 42nd on Entrepreneur Magazine’s top 500 franchise list for 2009, 7th on the publication’s list of fastest growing franchises, and 8th on its list of top home-based franchises.

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Destination: You, the program that powers our Wellness Challenge, encourages people to walk more. Now, there are lots of reasons to walk instead of driving: it’s healthier; it’s better for the environment; it cuts our dependence on foreign oil. But to hear Lindsey, an analyst in our IT department, tell it, walking is simply part of the good life.

It all starts with home, particularly liking where you live. A native Texan, Lindsey admits that she’s grown “sentimental” about her new home, South Philly, which is one reason why she walks. “I much prefer to take everything in, rather than just have it zooming past,” which seems a very Southern attitude to take toward Philadelphia.

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Sometimes, a great idea can strike like a lightning bolt. For Nina, our HR Director and the organizer of our Wellness Challenge, her big fitness realization came more like a rainstorm.

“Around my neighborhood, we had a one-mile loop,” she recalls of the path she’d take for her regular walks. “One time I was about halfway around. I got caught in a thunderstorm, and I had to run home. I realized, ‘Oh, I can run now.’”

And she was off! Nina’s been running on and off for about 10 years now. Her regular weekend runs take her around a five-mile loop in Ridley Creek State Park, a 2600-acre preserve in Delaware County, a Philadelphia suburb. “I run except for the big hill. That’s probably three-quarters of a mile and really steep!”

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Shawn in our Call Center was participating in our Wellness Challenge for over two months before he noticed something surprising: he was among the top 10 steppers at our company. “I feel really good about being that active,” he reflects, “and I’m not even going to the gym.”

Shawn doesn’t need the gym to keep moving; he has two daughters and a big lawn to keep him on his toes.

His strategy is quite simple: he tries to stay active, and he tracks everything. “I’ve maybe forgotten to put it on twice. … I even put it on my slippers!” And clearly, he’s getting more steps than he could just padding around his house.

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One of the great things about Destination: You, the program that forms the basis of our company Wellness Challenge, is that almost anyone can do it. If you can walk, you can participate, and if you can participate, you can get healthier. And that can be a boon to anyone with a chronic ailment, such as Julie, who’s on our Provider Relations team.

Julie has a rare disorder called Systemic Mastocytosis, which means that her body has an excessive amount of mast cells. “So I’m basically a walking ball of allergies,” she says with a laugh.

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When our team was creating Destination: You, we tailored it for the majority: those who know they should be taking better care of themselves but who need more motivation. But would such a program be engaging for the already motivated? To help answer that, we turn to Danny, our Senior Software Engineer.

When Danny was in high school, he was 5′ 3″ and 186 pounds. (A quick check to the BMI Calculator in the D:Y Resources section tells us that he was clinically obese.) At age 20, he decided to do something about it. After experimenting with a series of fad diets, he settled on a more sensible program: daily exercise and no junk food. He dropped over 50 pounds in a little over a year! Today, he’s 5′ 5″ and a healthy 148 pounds.

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