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Original post by healthhabits

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The Cost of Obesity

Interesting fact in this article I thought you might like to know.

Guest post by Tom Raithel

Being a loser is a lot more fun than it used to be.

In fact, being the Biggest Loser in a weight-loss competition sponsored by the Tri-State Business Group on Health this spring resulted in cash bonuses, not to mention the likelihood of improved health and happiness for the 266 participants.

The Business Group sponsored a Biggest Loser competition, modeled after a television program of the same name, to encourage employees of Tri-State businesses to lose weight.

Employees at 12 companies took part in the 10-week contest, said Lisa Gish, executive director of the group.

The first-place team of eight won $800. The second-place team won $400. Employers of some of the teams chipped in additional incentives, Gish said.

“Obviously, our interest was to provide some sort of program on the obesity front, because that is one of the concerns that businesses say they are most challenged with,” Gish said.

“It’s a known problem, and even more than that … they (employers) will tell you that tobacco use and BMI (body mass index, or weight) are two of the biggest problems they have trouble impacting,” she said.

If it shares the stage with tobacco use as a national problem, obesity is increasingly hogging the spotlight. A 2007 study by the Milken Institute, “An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease,” found that the most important way to reduce health costs in the U.S. is to reduce obesity. Obesity is commonly defined as having a body mass index greater than 30.

The study concluded that, if the country reduced the growth of its obese population to 1998 levels, it could save more than $300 million in the treatment of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

That’s just reducing the growth. In fact, the total cost of U.S. obesity and physical inactivity in 2000 was $117 billion, according to a 2008 study by Trust for America’s Health.

Businesses pay part of that cost through higher health insurance premiums, worker absenteeism and loss of productivity, said JoEllen Vrazel, director of the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity of the Indiana State Department of Health.

Just how much this costs businesses locally and nationally is hard to determine, said Andrea Hays, program director for two Welborn Baptist Foundation programs aimed at reducing obesity. “Folks can come up with all the figures they want. Obesity is a tough one.”

But the local problem appears to be worse than national one, she said. A random telephone survey of adults in five counties in the Tri-State revealed that the percentage of overweight and obese people here was in most cases higher than state and national averages.

For example, in Vanderburgh County, the percentage of obese people was 34 percent compared to 27 percent in Indiana and 26 percent nationally. In Warrick County, the percentage of obese people was 40 percent.

As a result, the Foundation has a school-based initiative called Heroes that emphasizes good nutrition and exercise among young children, and an adult program called movement, which encourages healthier eating and more physical activity, Hays said.

Individual companies are also taking action. Flanders Electric has one of the longest-running and most innovative wellness programs in the Evansville area. “The reason why they started it was basically as a cost containment for insurance purposes,” said Jennifer Wakeland, wellness director at the company.

A key aspect of the program is financial incentives for employees, she said.

The program includes an annual health screening for employees in which risks, such as tobacco use, obesity and high blood pressure, are identified. Employees receive information about their risks and develop goals to reduce them. They get money if they make progress toward a goal.

“We’ve been getting results,” Wakeland said. Between 85 and 95 percent of the employees participate compared to many companies that have rates as low as 20 percent participation, she said.

The program includes follow-up blood pressure screening, tobacco cessation classes and the posting of information on a variety of health matters.

As for obesity, the company offers a fitness reimbursement for those who exercise regularly and arranges reduced corporate rates for employees at three local fitness centers, said Wakeland.

Tracy Mallory, benefits specialist for Berry Plastics, said that the Biggest Loser competition generated enough interest the company is offering its own Biggest Loser Part 2 — an individual competition where employees receive financial incentives for losing weight over 12 weeks.

The contest also succeeded because obesity, weight loss and healthier living are all hot topics now, Mallory said. “A lot of people were interested in losing weight, and we just gave them a start.”

Tom Raithel

EBJ correspondent

Cool idea isn’t it…run your own biggest loser contest and get your employees healthy. Win/Win in my book!
-Darrin Walton

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I am doing an intense exercise routine in my apartment this winter. One of the days is such a pain in the butt that I really have to psych myself up to mentally prepare for it. The big challenge I have found with doing exercise at home is the ability to go easy on myself or finding an excuse to cut my workout short. It is much harder to justify cutting a workout short, when you drive to a gym. I'd like to discuss this a bit as well as get your comments and tips that you may have regarding exercising at home.

[The benefits of working out at home is the time you save. The downside is that you are the only person holding yourself accountable. It is so easy to simply find an excuse to cut your workout short, skip sets, etc.]
Character = How You Behave When No One […]

Original post by admin

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As part of our ongoing Primal Blueprint Fitness Video Contest reader Peter Nathan submitted his interpretation of Primal Blueprint bodyweight exercises (the current theme). He is in the running for a cash and prize package worth $400 and has a one in four shot of winning. If you’d like to be featured on Mark’s Daily Apple for a chance to win Primal gear read the Primal Blueprint contest details and submit your video (fitness or recipe), real life Primal story or Primal recipe soon!

Check back tomorrow for a Worker Bee culinary creation of a reader’s Primal recipe submitted as part of the Primal Blueprint Cookbook Contest (current theme: A Primal Breakfast).
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Related posts:

Contest Video: Primal Blueprint Bodyweight Exercises
Contest Video: Primal Blueprint Upper Body Workout
Announcement: New Recipe Theme for the Cookbook Contest

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Original post by Mark Sisson

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Enter your best Primal Blueprint recipes for your chance to win prizes and be featured in the Reader-Created Cookbook
The new theme: A Primal Breakfast
We’ve received some delicious Primal beef recipes from readers:
Korean-Style Short Ribs
Carne Asada
And we have a few more reader-submitted beef recipes in the pipeline, including one that will be published tomorrow.
All of these recipes will be featured in the Reader-Created Primal Blueprint Cookbook and the entrants have a chance to win an über cool Primal prize package.
If you’d like to participate in this contest send in your own favorite Primal recipes that relate to the current theme – A Primal Breakfast. Click here for all the details.
Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds
Related posts:

Contest Video: Primal Blueprint Bodyweight Exercises
Contest Video: Primal Blueprint Upper Body Workout
Contest Poll: Primal Blueprint Recipe Videos

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Original post by Mark Sisson

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How to Improve Your Posture

Just because Conventional Wisdom seems to get almost everything wrong when it comes to effective fitness, proper human nutrition, and preventing degenerative diseases, it doesn’t necessarily follow that all official recommendations and prescriptions are faulty. Cigarettes are bad for your health, for example, and drinking and driving actually do not mix. Those are two obvious examples of CW getting it right, and there are definitely a few others, but today, I’m mostly interested in the popular concept of good posture. What is posture? Is “good posture,” as defined by chiropractors, teachers, office ergonomic consultants, drill sergeants, and Grandma (“straighten up, sonny!”), actually good for us? Or have the experts gotten it wrong, once again? Looking around me, if people are listening to the professional advice, it’s bad advice. Slumping, slouching – I see it everywhere, every day, and not just when people are sitting. Can we apply the Primal Blueprint […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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A Primal commitment to regular consumption of pastured, organic (expensive/hard-to-find) meats often means buying in bulk when a good price presents itself. Grass-fed steak runs rather pricey, so the average Grok on a budget can’t survive buying a juicy ribeye from Whole Foods every night; he’s got to pick his spots and stock up when he can. If that means buying fifteen pounds of New Zealand lamb leg steaks in a single go just because they dropped to four bucks a pound, so be it. Thus, we’re left with freezers full of identical cuts of steak, roasts, and slabs of meat, along with a serious conundrum: what the heck do we do with all that meat? Maybe good meat can stand on its own merit (along with a bit of salt and pepper), but even the purest of carnivores will eventually tire of eating the same cut prepared the same […]

Original post by Worker Bee

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Announcement: Upcoming Event

Before I publish today’s regularly scheduled blog post I wanted to get the word out.
I will be speaking at a CrossFit Genesis sponsored event in Roseville, CA on Tuesday, October 20th. If any Mark’s Daily Apple readers can make it I’d be thrilled to have you drop by. Read below for all the details and the promo flyer copy:
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet Mark in person during his Northern California media tour. Mark’s extensively researched masterwork cuts through the confusion, hype and flawed Conventional Wisdom about eating and exercising with a simple, evolution-proven program based on ten simple, practical Primal Blueprint behavior laws. As soon as you “go Primal” you will enjoy immediate results in the form of improved energy, athletic performance and immune function. Long-term, you will be able to effortlessly reach and maintain your ideal weight without the struggling and suffering that is so common with […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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College students and healthy lifestyle. On the one hand it seems like the ultimate contradiction. Pizza boxes, Red Bull cans, Doritos bags, beer bottles, Captain Crunch at every cafeteria meal. They’re as much a cultural vision of college as John Belushi’s sweatshirt. If there were a Primal no man’s land, you’d think the residential campus experience would at least be a top contender. Nonetheless, college needn’t be the physical wasteland it’s made out to be. And, let’s be honest: most students do not really live/eat/drink this way. As many students exercise regularly and eat decently as send their bodies through the wringer during their college careers. Nonetheless, campus living is its own kind of existence, and it presents its own challenges for maintaining a Primal routine. Not surprisingly, I get emails from college readers asking for tips on how to live a healthy lifestyle. Here’s one:

I love your blog and […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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Welcome to Passionate Fitness!
For those of you who are new here, Passionate Fitness is a community based fitness site where people can read and submit articles, upload pictures, with privacy settings, make friends, use forums and more. For more information about us read the about seciton and the guide to using the site.
We’re currently hosting an article submissions contest with an $100 cash prize. The contest ends October 14th, so make sure to submit an article as soon as possible!

Original post by Rafi

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