The e-mail comes out at noon. “To celebrate your hard work this week, there is cake and ice cream in the big kitchen at 3 today. Be there!”

The universal reward for hard work always seems to be food: cake and ice cream, a catered lunch for in-service training sessions, pizza for the overtime crew, bagels, and cream cheese to brighten up a bleak Monday morning.

Food seems to be the perennial favorite for any kind of work reward because it is universally accepted. Some of us (we hardcore dieters) may pass on the sweet stuff but usually find something allowable. In a world where two-thirds of us are overweight or obese, is there nothing else available as a gift that cuts across all individual interests?

Recently, we had a whole week at my company devoted to employee appreciation. The primary rewards were, of course, food but other things were added: a company baseball cap, a hiking water container, a lunch bag, and a handwritten note of thanks to every employee from their supervisor. The cap was a bust for those of us with any modicum of fashion sense; the insulated flask and bag were food-related, and the handwritten notes were superfluous – good supervisors show their appreciation of hard work constantly while a handwritten note from a harsh supervisor, no matter the “thanks” stated, means diddly squat to a resentful employee.

The HAS to be something else, doesn’t there? We human beings have few things totally in common and eating is the primary universal. Other common bodily activities such as urination and defecation are not easily translatable into some kind of reward system. We are all involved in physical activity, to some degree, but that is often more a chore than a delight.

When it comes to our other senses, we all differ so much that one person’s pleasure is another person’s pain: music, perfume, pictures, or massages are differential tastes rather than general givens.

Money is almost always acceptable but the small amounts that would be individually generated to replace a free dessert or snack would be so minimal that their reward value would be insignificant.

So what can those of us on a permanent diet, and alarmed about our coworkers’ increased girth, suggest?

How about plants? Small individual pots or a larger department shrub would save our waistlines while adding to the health and aesthetics of our environment. I calculate, just within my call center, that if a plant had been given to each department, instead of an edible goodie, for celebrations over the past 5 years, that I would now be working in a lush rain forest of exotic plants where the stale re-processed air-conditioned air would be purer, more humid, and a thousand times fresher. Morale booster and health benefits in one fell swoop!

How about the gift of time? In our overly busy pressured lives, who would not be immensely grateful for a free hour here or there. Rotate it through each department, letting one or two people leave early on a Friday afternoon. That would mean something and would carry no cost so upper management should be ecstatic.

Instead of a handwritten note, how about getting Supervisors to perform their subordinates work duties for an hour or so, once in a while? Can you imagine the morale boost for an employee to get off the telephone, or the machine, or the computer, and shoot the breeze with friends for an hour while their duties are performed by their supervisors? And if mistakes are made – so much the better. It creates a sense of equality and inter-relationship between workers and supervisors that is generally lacking in a corporate environment.

How about free “Get out of jail” cards for every line worker? Each person gets one free card and additional cards can be given by supervisors for outstanding work, ensuring that the better workers have more cards. The cards can then be used as excuses for small transgressions – coming in a little late, leaving early, making minor mistakes. With the use of the card, a worker avoids verbal coaching, warnings, or being put on report. And let employees use their cards for coworkers who may need them – think of the team building that would accomplish!

Flexibility of hours, assignments, and days, is another area where workers will universally respond: not to money, or food, but to the accommodation of individual needs. Give each employee a wish card and then allow them to use it to get something they need.

What does all of this accomplish? It allows for employee rewards without fats and carbohydrates. Now isn’t that worthwhile?

P. S. I’m recommending this to my company. I’ll let you know if they buy it!

The post Weight Loss At Work: Non-Food Rewards appeared first on Vegan Raw Fitness.

source https://veganrawfitness.com/weight-loss-at-work-non-food-rewards-2/

The e-mail comes out at noon. “To celebrate your hard work this week, there is cake and ice cream in the big kitchen at 3 today. Be there!”

The universal reward for hard work always seems to be food: cake and ice cream, a catered lunch for in-service training sessions, pizza for the overtime crew, bagels, and cream cheese to brighten up a bleak Monday morning.

Food seems to be the perennial favorite for any kind of work reward because it is universally accepted. Some of us (we hardcore dieters) may pass on the sweet stuff but usually find something allowable. In a world where two-thirds of us are overweight or obese, is there nothing else available as a gift that cuts across all individual interests?

Recently, we had a whole week at my company devoted to employee appreciation. The primary rewards were, of course, food but other things were added: a company baseball cap, a hiking water container, a lunch bag, and a handwritten note of thanks to every employee from their supervisor. The cap was a bust for those of us with any modicum of fashion sense; the insulated flask and bag were food-related, and the handwritten notes were superfluous — good supervisors show their appreciation of hard work constantly while a handwritten note from a harsh supervisor, no matter the “thanks” stated, means diddly squat to a resentful employee.

The HAS to be something else, doesn’t there? We human beings have few things totally in common and eating is the primary universal. Other common bodily activities such as urination and defecation are not easily translatable into some kind of reward system. We are all involved in physical activity, to some degree, but that is often more a chore than a delight.

When it comes to our other senses, we all differ so much that one person’s pleasure is another person’s pain: music, perfume, pictures, or massages are differential tastes rather than general givens.

Money is almost always acceptable but the small amounts that would be individually generated to replace a free dessert or snack would be so minimal that their reward value would be insignificant.

So what can those of us on a permanent diet, and alarmed about our coworkers’ increased girth, suggest?

How about plants? Small individual pots or a larger department shrub would save our waistlines while adding to the health and aesthetics of our environment. I calculate, just within my call center, that if a plant had been given to each department, instead of an edible goodie, for celebrations over the past 5 years, that I would now be working in a lush rain forest of exotic plants where the stale re-processed air-conditioned air would be purer, more humid, and a thousand times fresher. Morale booster and health benefits in one fell swoop!

How about the gift of time? In our overly busy pressured lives, who would not be immensely grateful for a free hour here or there. Rotate it through each department, letting one or two people leave early on a Friday afternoon. That would mean something and would carry no cost so upper management should be ecstatic.

Instead of a handwritten note, how about getting Supervisors to perform their subordinates work duties for an hour or so, once in a while? Can you imagine the morale boost for an employee to get off the telephone, or the machine, or the computer, and shoot the breeze with friends for an hour while their duties are performed by their supervisors? And if mistakes are made — so much the better. It creates a sense of equality and inter-relationship between workers and supervisors that are generally lacking in a corporate environment.

How about free “Get out of jail” cards for every line worker? Each person gets one free card and additional cards can be given by supervisors for outstanding work, ensuring that the better workers have more cards. The cards can then be used as excuses for small transgressions — coming in a little late, leaving early, making minor mistakes. With the use of the card, a worker avoids verbal coaching, warnings, or being put on report. And let employees use their cards for coworkers who may need them — think of the team building that would accomplish!

Flexibility of hours, assignments, and days, is another area where workers will universally respond: not to money, or food, but to the accommodation of individual needs. Give each employee a wish card and then allow them to use it to get something they need.

What does all of this accomplish? It allows for employee rewards without fats and carbohydrates. Now isn’t that worthwhile?

P. S. I’m recommending this to my company. I’ll let you know if they buy it!

The post Weight Loss at Work: Non-Food Rewards appeared first on Vegan Raw Fitness.

source https://veganrawfitness.com/weight-loss-at-work-non-food-rewards/

There are many things that you can do to lose weight and get healthier. Ideally, you will want to combine both diet and exercise but more specifically you can use running weight loss.

But, you can ‘t just go out and start running weight loss if you are out of shape. You will want to start slowly and follow some simple tips to get the most out of all your diet and exercise goals.

And, don’t forget, that you need to remember that whatever changes you make you will want to continue to make them from here on. This isn’t a temporary thing, and it shouldn’t be thought about in that way.

If you don’t make all your eating and exercise changes a permanent part of your life, you will eventually gain all your weight back.

So, here are some ideas of what you can do to help users running to lose weight:

1. First, you must have a long conversation with your doctor before you start any type of exercise program. It’s important that you work with your doctor, so she can monitor your health. Getting in shape is good for you, but if you are out of shape you have to be a little more careful when you first get started.

2. Next, find some comfortable shoes. This is important since your feet will take a lot of pounding when you run. You shouldn’t try to cheap out here either. There is real technology that goes into many of these shoes but it does cost. Still, though, if it keeps your knees, feet, and ankles in better shape it will be worth it.

3. Remember that with all your exercise programs, running or not, you will need to change the intensity. If you run at the same pace the whole time your body will eventually get used to that level of intensity. It is important to ramp up the intensity now and then.

So, instead of running the same route at the same speed change it up. Change your route now and then and change your speed.

You can actually change your speed during your run, you don’t have to run at a certain pace for one week and then the next week run at a different pace. Instead, run at varying speeds during each run to maximize your results.

4. Stay hydrated during and after your run. If you are running for more than 20 minutes you should take some water with you. Of course, make sure you only run in safe places. Don’t run too close to traffic (the exhaust fumes aren’t good for you either) run only in populated well-lit areas, etc. Common sense.

5. Another thing you can do is to run hilly courses. This can be another way to change up your workouts. So, just find some hilly areas and add that to your regular running course.

So, if you are running weight loss follow these tips. Just make sure to talk to your doctor first to make sure you are healthy enough to run.

The post 5 Tips to Lose Weight with Running appeared first on Vegan Raw Fitness.

source https://veganrawfitness.com/5-tips-to-lose-weight-with-running/

Most of us realize that whether we like it or not we have to stick to weight loss workouts if we want to shed those pounds the right way–the way that will keep them off. But one common mistake that first-time dieters, or dieters who are in the first couple of days of their diet, make is to diminish their food intake too much while exercising.

Doing this will not allow you all the energy you need in order to get through your exercise. You’ll tire too quickly to be able to follow through. Perfecting the delicate balance of eating right (the right foods, and not too much or too little) and exercise is what will get you to your goal weight.

Many diets suggest that you cut down (or even eliminate) carbohydrates from your meals. However, you need carbohydrates for energy. Just make sure that you are getting the right kinds of carbohydrates. They should come from foods that are unprocessed and rich in fiber like whole grains, vegetables, fruit, brown rice, and potatoes. When you eat the right carbohydrates, you’re getting all the necessary fiber and other nutrients that your body needs. You also want to make sure that you are getting enough protein and healthy fat (like olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fish oil). You should be eating three moderate meals and two snacks or five small meals a day in order to have the energy needed to work out.

When it comes to working out, you need to first assess your status and determine how in-shape or out-of-shape you are. You’ll eventually want to incorporate both aerobics (cardio training) and strength (resistance) training into your weight loss workouts, but if you’re just starting out, you need to start with one and start very slowly. In your assessment, also take into account how much time you can dedicate to your workouts and your preferences.

Then, take heed to a few general rules. If your goal is only to lose weight, you can really concentrate on cardio activities. You should also do some strength training to tone and raise your metabolism. But if your goal is also to build up some muscle mass, you will need to focus on the strength training. If you’re going to put both aerobics and strength training in the same workout, do the strength training first so that you don’t use up all of your energy after the cardio part. You can do five minutes or so of cardio for a warm-up before your strength training. If you don’t have any real specific goals except to lose weight and just be healthier, just alternate days of strength training and aerobics training. This ensures that you will get both in and takes away the boredom of doing the same thing all the time. Also, try to mix up what you do for aerobic training and what you do for strength training in your weight loss workouts.

The post Basic Workout Steps for Effective Weight Loss appeared first on Vegan Raw Fitness.

source https://veganrawfitness.com/basic-workout-steps-for-effective-weight-loss/

Parenting can be one of the most difficult jobs a parent will ever have to face. Being a mother or father, you have to deal with so many things such as how to give a child all the things that he or she need; being a parent is hard work, and it can also be exhausting and stressful. There are also a lot of responsibilities a parent has to take care of and for this reason, parents need to be as healthy as possible. In order to do this, it is important that the parent not only be physically fit but mentally fit as well. The first step to make a healthier lifestyle is always to eat healthily. It does not matter what kind of diet a parent follows; what is important is that the parent eats a healthy balanced diet every day.

Parenting children is not easy, there are so many things to take care of at once, but in doing so a parent can have fun with the process. Besides this, there are also many decisions that parents need to make and there are a lot of things that the parents have to decide upon. Having an easy time making decisions is very important. Some people will find it easier to make a decision and sit down and figure out the best decision for them, while other people tend to have fewer problems with deciding things for themselves. A very important aspect of parenting is the ability to take care of yourself. There are many problems that a parent can have in their health if they neglect themselves, even a small mistake could lead to a lot of problems in the future. It is important that parents take time for themselves to make sure that they are healthy.

Another aspect of parenting is making sure that the children are safe and that they are fed properly. Children usually eat a lot and this can be unhealthy for them if the parent is not taking the time to feed them properly. Parents should not just let their children eat all the time; they should also take the time to teach them about how to eat properly. If a parent has been ignoring their health, it is obvious that this will have a negative effect on their children’s health. It is important for a parent to be at their best when it comes to parenting. If a parent is not feeling good, they probably will not be the best in handling their responsibilities of parenting. So in order to be at their best, a parent should take care of their body first and then think about how to handle the tasks of parenting.

The post Your First Step to Parenting appeared first on Vegan Raw Fitness.

source https://veganrawfitness.com/your-first-step-to-parenting/