And the Winners Are.....

Happy New Year, Holiday Health Challengers!

The final numbers are in. Congratulations to everyone for being great to themselves over the holidays!!!

AND THE WINNERS ARE :
In 5th place – PHISH PHOOD – they lost a total of 3.33% weight together. Raquel lost 9odd% and Daniella over 3%. All the guys did their share and this team lost 27lbs.

In 4th place – CONQUERING THE BEAST BACK EAST – these five all ladies team provided an incredible support system to each other over the holidays. They rocked it together at the Turkey Trot and then still used the discussion group to continue the motivation. They lost a total of 4.65%. Paige was a team member who lost just over 11% of her total body weight – this put her in 3rd place overall in total percentage of weight lost for an individual. Well done, Guys!– not even the snow can keep you guys for making it all happen With-U!

In 3rd place – THE FINKS – they didn’t know each other. They only ever met online. David lost an incredible 12.85% of his total body weight. FANTASTIC!

In 2nd place – THE FURIOUS FIVE – Anthony put together this team of co-workers, and, boy, did he put them to work. They were incredibly supportive of each other and lost an amazing 89lbs. Mike on this team lost just over 38lbs for the greatest total amount of weight lost! Darrel dropped a belt size by shedding 20lbs. Wendy lost 7, Daniel 5, and their furious leader dropped 19! CRAZEE!! Thanks to the generosity of Runners High, The Furious Five each won a $40 gift card to Runners High!

And the team that galloped away with the grand prizes was…
THE PINK PONIES – a father, daughter, brother, friend and boyfriend team (Mom was on another team!) kept each other motivated to stay the course throughout the treacherous holiday season. Two of their team work at California Pizza Kitchen and navigated the temptations there together. They did workouts together, planned meals together, counted calories together, and lost a total of 100.4lbs! Chris M lost 15.96% of his total weight – the most of the challenge. Chris C lost 24lbs, Ryan dropped 10.62% of his total body weight, while Taylor and her dad Steve both lost over 4% of their total body weight. And they did all this over the Holiday Season, so they can ring in the new year feeling a whole lot better about themselves!

The PINK PONIES gallop away with $1500!!

But wait there’s more! THE FINAL POG WINNERS –
Check them out On the With-U Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB8WLRpqdg0

Five Teams made it into the final drawing – several were just shy of the 80% cut off, including the Ponies who had 78.78% of their POG’s…
1. Conquering the Beast Back East
2. Less is More
3. Phish Phood
4. The Finks
5. The Fab Five

And the winner is #4 – The FINKS walk away with $500 to start their 2010!

What Next?
Remember that 90% of people will have broken their new years resolution by the end of January. Don’t let that happen to you!

Let With-U help you through 2010, and start with the 2010 With-U Wellness Challenge on January 16th. Sign up today for steep discounts!

All HHC members just need to send us an email to let us know if they would like to participate in the 2010 special – ALL four for $100 per person or just the STRIP With-U (Spare Tire Reduction Incentive Program) $40 per person.

See http://www.withu.org/ for more details, but you do NOT need to register online. We will send you a link so that we can import all your existing information over to the new incentives.

Check out the Pink Ponies this morning as they learn they are the Winning Team.

CHECK OUT OUR BLOG FOR GRAPHS OF THE TOP 20 INDIVIDUAL LOSERS! http://wellnesswithu.blogspot.com/

Post on your facebooks, tweet and tell everyone your success – the more teams we have, the more the prize money will increase next year.

Finally, you all made a difference – everyone of you who maintained or lost weight were winners for your wellness. Although we didn’t quite hit the 500lb mark, With-U is donating 100lbs of food to the OC Foodbank in honor of the Ponies, who lost a whopping 100lbs!!

CONGRATS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

With-U WELLNESS TEAM

Holiday Health Challenge Winners Prize Award Tomorrow!

Winners of the With-U Holiday Health Challenge will be announced in an award ceremony at 7:30 a.m. TOMORROW, Thursday, December 31, at Tustin Sports Park, 12850 Robinson Drive. Please join us to congratulate them as they receive their $1,500 cash prize!

The With-U Holiday Health Challenge was a tremendous success. The 90 participants lost a total of 475 pounds over an eight-week period beginning on Halloween. The winning five-person team lost more than 100 pounds total, averaging 8.9 percent of total body weight per individual team member. The second-place team lost a cumulative 86 pounds, averaging 6.53 percent of total body weight per member.

Seventeen of the 19 five-member teams in the Holiday Health Challenge lost weight—at a time of year when many people put on the pounds—and 92 percent of all participants lost weight or stayed at same weight.

Since the kick-off weigh-in on Oct. 31, the Health Challenge competitors have completed a cumulative total of more than 4,000 health- and nutrition-focused POGs.

In addition to the $1,500 grand prize award, each team completing at least 80 percent of its weekly assignments was entered into a drawing for an additional $500 cash prize.

Because the Holiday Health Challenges in both 2008 and this year were so popular and successful, With-U will be holding four similar eight-week Health Challenges during 2010. The kick-off weigh-in for the first quarterly challenge of 2010, “STRIP With-U” (for Spare Tire Reduction Incentive Program) will be held Jan. 16 at Runner’s High in Irvine, with participants competing for $2,000 total cash prizes.

For more information or to register, visit www.withu.org, or call us at 714-832-8590.

P.S. Check out the fabulous feature in today's Orange County Register, focusing on 2008 Holiday Health Challenge participant Cindy Speer, with lots of great photos of the Rough-Fit folks. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/healthy-226197-year-resolution.html

Holiday Health Challengers drop over 300 lbs in 4 weeks!

The Holiday Health Challenge began October 31st and was designed to help participants navigate the temptations that arrive with the holiday season.

Participants weighed in on October 31st and returned for weigh in's every two weeks. They receive weekly newsletters and are challenged with a weekly plan of goals(POG's). Prizes are awarded to top weight losers and a drawing has been held each week for participants who complete at least 80% of their POG's.

The results thus far:

* Over 300lbs lost

* 70% of POG's are completed overall

* 8 teams are completing 80% or higher of their POG's

But the most important:Participants say it keeps them focused and on track during a time when the average person stacks on a few extra pounds.

Well done to all the participants and we look forward to continued success over the next few weeks.

Health Plan Costs To Remain High in 2010

A survey conducted last spring by The Segal Company indicates that health plan costs will remain high in 2010. Employers are adopting four main strategies to reduce healthcare costs. These strategies, in the words of The Segal Company, are as follows:

• Monitoring wellness/disease management programs and tying program results to financial rewards and penalties for individual employees;
• Eliminating or reducing insurance coverage for certain brand-name drugs, reducing copayments for primary care visits, increasing copayments for visits to specialists, and waiving copayments for certain tests such as targeted cancer screenings;
• Asking insurance providers to enforce prior authorization rules and manage step-therapy programs or risk the loss of fees or payments; and
• Relying more on case management and health coaching services to help employees stick to appropriate therapies and avoid future health complications.

Adapted from http://www.employersgroup.com/newsandlegislation/high-healthplan.shtml

Feasting season is approaching. You know, that four-month period of time beginning with Halloween candy and ending with Valentine’s chocolates and forgotten goals. Statistics show that Americans tend to gain anywhere from 1 to 10 pounds during end-of-the-year festivities alone. Don’t let this happen to you! We can help with our Holiday Health Challenge. The challenge is a fun, team-based, weight loss competition, designed to promote a healthier lifestyle. You will also have the opportunity to win cash prizes: $500 for the POG’s raffle winner and $1500 for the final winning team. The Competition begins Saturday, October 31st and ends Monday, December 28th, 2009. For more information, visit the following link http://www.withu.org/public/holidaychallenge/holidaychallenge.html

Evidence of the Effectiveness of Worksite Wellness Programs

Significant improvements in employee health, as well as reduced costs for employers are made possible through worksite wellness programs. More than 400 studies prove that worksite wellness programs impact health behavior and risks. Such impacts include reducing sick leave costs, workers comp costs, and costs associated with disability. There are also productivity-related economic effects.

Employers can expect incredible savings as a result of their wellness initiatives. Using the Quality of Work Life and Traditional models, employers could expect a return on investment (ROI) of about 3:1 (three dollars returned for every dollar invested) within about 18 months. The newer prevention technologies offered in Health and Productivity Management can produce an ROI of anywhere between 6:1 and 15:1. That’s an incredible savings that employers can’t afford to ignore. For additional information, please visit the following link http://www.welcoa.org/freeresources/pdf/larry_chapman_qa_092508.pdf

With-U Hosts and Presents at the OC Worksite Wellness Forum supporting IAWHP

With-U has the privilege of hosting a cocktail party for the OC Worksite Wellness Forum supporting IAWHP. The event will be held at PCI (Pacific Coast Imaging) in Newport Beach on October 14th from 6:30 to 9pm. Discover how an executive can influence the role of wellbeing in the workplace; learn how you can increase retention, improve employee engagement, reduce disability claims, and other issues; find out how you can influence worksite wellness and improve your coworkers’ morale and productivity. This is a mocktail party with hors d'oeuvres. If you are interested in attending, please contact us at 714-832-8590. With-U takes an active role in the event as guest speakers will include:

Lindsey Coen-Fernandez – Founder – With-U

Kim Shepherd – CEO of Decision Toolbox

An IAWHP board member will be present via skype

A medical professional representative from PCI

WITH-U supports the IAWHP and the National Physical Activity Plan

WITH-U is proud to be an alliance member of the National Physical Activity Plan, with a focus on initiatives to promote activities in the business sector. The National Physical Activity Plan consists of organizations and individuals dedicated to developing a plan that will empower all Americans to be physically active every day. WITH-U is also a founding member of IAWHP (The International Association for Worksite Health Promotion). It is the mission of IAWHP to "advance the global community of worksite health promotion practitioners through high-quality information, services, educational activities, personal and professional development and networking opportunities." For more information, please visit the following link http://www.informz.net/acsm/archives/archive_828555.html