“We’ve always offered wellness programs to our students here at State,” says Lisa Eberhart, RD, CSSD, LDN, CDE, University Dining, NC State. “This year we decided it was time to put in place a similar program for our dining staff.”
Goals of the ‘One Change’ campaign include engaging the staff with the program’s goals, and then focusing on making one positive lifestyle change over a period of six weeks. Rather than approaching the topic of ‘wellness’ as a whole, the idea of a healthy lifestyle is broken down into bite-size pieces. Some key areas of emphasis include: walking, hydration, exercise, relaxation and nutrition.
Communication to employees was accomplished with an overview of the program in an initial staff meeting, in which attendees had the option of being weighed (confidentially) and having their blood pressure taken by dietetic interns.
At the meeting, the department’s more than 200 employees were challenged to make one small change over a period of six weeks. Examples include taking the stairs more often, keeping a food diary with the smartphone app MyFitnessPal.com, walking more, going to the gym and more.