Wellness in the Workplace

• American kids have higher allergy risk — May 7, 2013
• 5 things we learned about kids' health this week — May 6, 2013
• 5 ways to build lean muscle fast — May 3, 2013
• The germiest spots in your kitchen — where you least expect them — May 3, 2013
• The surprising reason you snack at night (and how to stop it) — May 2, 2013
• Ask well: Do we need to stretch? — April 26, 2013
• Sodium hiding in plain sight — April 1, 2013
• FDA: Longer use of nicotine gum is OK — April 1, 2013
• What causes hearing loss — March 25, 2013
• Really? The claim: The flu shot can worsen asthma — March 25, 2013
• Deadly bacteria that resist strongest drugs are spreading — March 5, 2013
• Activity trackers for kids — March 5, 2013
• How economics can help you lose weight — March 5, 2013
• Think like a doctor: The wobble solved! — March 1, 2013
• Twice as many midsize employers offer wellness incentives than in 2010 — Feb. 28, 2013
• How obesity harms a child's body
• 5 social apps to encourage employee health and wellness — Feb. 10, 2013
• Getting into your exercise groove — Feb. 6, 2013
• Gluten-free, whether you need it or not — Feb. 4, 2013
• The next step for wellness — Jan. 21, 2013
• CDHPs, wellness programs may boost employee health management: Survey — Jan. 9, 2013

Read older headlines in the Wellness News Archive 

• 'Biggest Loser' challenge
• 'Maintain don't gain' weight maintenance program
• 'Frosty Challenge' weight maintenance program
• 'Step to it' team fitness program
• 'Walk to Athens' fitness program
• 'Get produce' healthy eating challenge
• 'Yoga in the office' stretching program
• Year-round wellness activities list

• The dangers of carbon monoxide
• Too snowy and icy outside?
• To vaccinate or not to vaccinate?
• A graphic illustration of skin cancer
• Prime time for creepy crawlers

General wellness

• American Cancer Society
• American Heart Association
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Hope Health
• Minnesota Safety Council
• National Cancer Institute
• Wellness Council of America
• Wisconsin Safety Council
• Wisconsin Wellness Resource Kit
• Work Well Healthy Minnesota Toolkit

Wellness related to workers' compensation

• Is there a place for health promotion programs in workers' compensation?

Physical fitness

• American College of Sports Medicine updated physical activity guidelines
• HealthPartners' 10,000 Steps Program
• Obesity Workplace Prevention Program
• Walking Calorie Calculator

Healthy eating

• Calorie Count
• Choosing Foods and Beverages for Healthy Meetings and Events
• Eat Right
• Dietary Guidelines for Americans
• Food Fit
• Healthy Vending
• HealthCastle Healthy Holiday Eating Tips
• Holiday Eating Tips
• Nutrition Data
• WebMD Healthy Shopping gude and List

Fitness videos 

• Free web streaming

Weight loss 

• Free weight loss program through LifeTime Fitness
• Foods for weight loss blog
• Nutrition.gov

Smoking cessation

• American Cancer Society
• American Lung Association: Stop Smoking
• Cigarette Costs Calculator
• Health Plus Online Wellness Center-Stop Smoking Center
• Medical Options for Tobacco Cessation
• PACT—Professional Assisted Cessation Therapy
• Smokefree.gov
• Tobacco Cessation Leadership Network
• The Ultimate Quit Smoking guide

Healthy living

• Supertracker
  Supertracker helps you learn about your food and activity level. It provides you with a personal account to track what you eat and what you do, helping you make healthy decisions and better understand the choices you make. It also can help you learn skills that make healthy living easier, like controlling portions, managing and losing weight, and making and keeping your healthy lifestyle goals.

Fitness

• Fitango.com
  A fitness website that makes it easy to set and achive goals. Because fitness is viewed as a longer-term goal, Fitango provides a daily breakdown of activities to help uses get to where they want to be. Site provides 200+ plans for meeting goals – for free. Has discussion boards and other social networking features.
• Runkeeper.com
  A mobile running app, follows and records user running activity thru GPS tracking. Data can be synced to RunKeeper to provide user with online log of workouts. Has map integration. Free app available.

Nutrition and calorie tracking

• Calorie Count
  Participate in daily nutrition challenges. Keep track of your progress via the calorie bar. Publish a daily report to the Calorie Count community. Get support and feedback. Earn fun achievements by going above and beyond. Free app available.
• Fooducate.com
  Provides information to make good choices at the grocery store. By scanning a product bar code, user can view additional data about the product such as about sugar and additivies. Fooducate also provides healthful alternatives for selected products. Free app available.
• Fatsecret.com
  Provides nutrition information and allows user to input those foods into a food journal where they can track daily calories. User can also chart daily exercise and weight. Free app available.
• Myfitnesspal.com
  Lose weight using this free calorie counter, diet and exercise journal. Find nutrition facts for more than a million foods. Scan products' bar codes or search through the food database. Set a weight loss goal and have your daily caloric needs automatically calculated for you. Enter your own recipes and calculate portions and calories. Free app available.

Quit smoking

• Livestrong.com
  The LIVESTRONG.COM MyQuit COACH application allows you to design a personalized plan to help you quit smoking. Through this app, you'll evaluate your current status, set attainable goals and adjust preferences according to your needs. You'll have the option to choose to quit smoking right away or gradually decrease your daily nicotine intake. Personalized inspirational photos, motivational tips and progress charts will keep you on track while achievement badges will reward you for progress. And you're not alone with a built in social support circle and the ability to update your Facebook and Twitter as friends cheer you on.
• Quitter
  This free application will keep track of how long you've been smoke-free and how much money you have saved since giving up smoking. Simply enter the cost of a pack of cigarettes and how many you smoked a day and watch as this program keeps track of how much money you're saving.
• Smoke Out
  This app tracks your progress with many motivational features. Keep track of how long it's been since your last cigarette, calculate (approximately) how much of your life you've saved by not smoking, see how much money you've saved, and view excerpts and links to pages that detail the benefits and offer support on cutting out cigarettes. Post your accomplishments and stats to Facebook and Twitter and update your friends and family on your progress.
• SmokeBreak
  This app tracks and visualizes your smoking habit, and guides you to achieving your personal goals, whether that's to quit smoking completely, or just cut down on your daily intake. SmokeBreak adapts to you and creates a personalized program based on the information you give it, and then issues you with a daily "report card" that awards you with stars for achieving your goals, beating your goals, or for avoiding cigarettes completely.

Stress management

• Stress Check
  A stress test tool that provides users with an overall stress score. Users can deepen their insight by examining the specific areas their stress affects them (interpersonal, physiological, situational, control). Save scores and track development of stress over time. It's an excellent way to monitor progress on a stress reduction initiative, or to simply achieve a baseline of your stress over a period of time.