The good news is that, at weeks end, I weighed 213 pounds, a six-pound loss from when I started this program. I find that, even when under pressure, I can maintain some control over my eating habits. Also, I can fit into pants that I couldn’t fit into several weeks ago.
What a nice feeling!

I would also like to say that the exercise, especially the stretching, relaxes me and helps me put aside the worries of the world for about an hour. I am pleased to be part of this program and once the world resumes a normal course, I will be glad to get back to the gym.

Bruce

Sharon’s Reply
Hi Bruce,

You are amazing! One day you have a fat intake of 120 grams, and the next, 15. With an average of 55 fat grams for the week, you still lost two more pounds! Who said you can’t have fun and lose weight!

I can see that you are aware of when your food choices are poor, and that you make up for it later. People who approach weight loss with a diet mentality often see a slip as a reason to give up. If a person is not “on a diet,” then they can’t go “off a diet.” Make sense?

Long work hours and quick trips to local eateries can take its toll on your energy and your focus on weight loss, but you managed to work through it. Life doesn’t stand still while you try to lose weight. You have to find ways for improved health habits to fit into your life.

Keep up the good work. I appreciate your record keeping efforts. It keeps you on track and helps me help you.

Sharon
Armand’s Reply

Bruce,

For having such a long workweek, you were still able to get in two solid exercise sessions. You’re doing a great job with cross training, using different exercise selections to get in your cardiovascular workout.

It’s also great to know your weight is going down. Most importantly, your waist is getting smaller, which means you’re losing body fat!

I’m pleased to hear how exercise relaxes you. That’s one of the best perks of regular exercise. It can definitely relax your body and calm your mind so that you can handle stress better.

Keep up the good work!

Armand

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All of this disjointed living has brought us into a new era of increased disease and illness, much of it related to stress. We can help our clients, customers, friends and families get back in touch and re-balance their lives and bodies. And by doing this, we will also increase our customer/client base and improve the chance of insurance companies and corporations reimbursing for fitness/health/
wellness expenses.

When you begin a mind/body program in your facility, you’ll want to start small and test the receptiveness. Look to people who are not currently participating in programs to get them involved. Begin with adding a six- to eight-week program.

Examples include tai chi, yoga, journaling, meditation, the Pilates method, reflexology, massage, etc. A short note: If you don’t see a lot of participation right away, consider the following: If you’ve added an extra charge for the program because the “outside” instructor you’ve hired will take a percentage of revenue, members who get all of their other classes included in their membership dues are less likely to participate.

Asgroup exercise in our industry evolves and changes, and new types of programs seem to debut every few months, it may be difficult, expensive and time-consuming for you to keep up with the trends. But, don’t worry, keeping up with the trends may not be the most important way to improve or rejuvenate your group exercise program.

If you have noticed that your numbers are slipping, or that your classes don’t attract new members to your club, there may be some basic elements about your program that are missing, or that should be changed.

When evaluating your current program, consider five main areas: your instructors, the types/variety of your classes, your group exercise schedule (what is offered when), music and your marketing strategy. Improvements to one or all of these could mean a larger, more vibrant group exercise program for your facility.

For instance, the SEC is reconsidering its approach to pre-IPO information disclosures. As outlined in an 800-page proposal known among those who’ve read it as “the aircraft carrier,” SEC regulators are considering changes that would allow companies to create “multimedia prospectuses” using videocassettes, CD-ROMS, and streaming audio or video files.

The new rules would also allow IPO hopefuls to make more information available to potential investors via “electronic roadshows,” email, and chat room postings. The SEC points out that many investors are kept out of the loop because of the way roadshows are currently structured.

But change comes slowly at the SEC. The agency last revised its statutory regulations on pre-IPO communications in 1954, and the new proposals are unlikely to take effect for another year or two, at least.

Email and other high-tech communications are already wreaking havoc for the SEC and companies involved. One of the most well-known illustrations of the new quiet period perils occurred at Wired Ventures-the erstwhile parent company of both Wired magazine and the HotWired Website. Just before Wired Ventures’ planned 1996 IPO, company CEO Louis Rossetto sent out an email to all his staff, criticizing the “shoddy, if not malicious stories” that were being written about the proposed offering. Though intended to boost employee morale, an out-of-date mailing list directed copies of the e-memo to individuals outside the company. Within hours, the full text of the document was posted to The WELL, the Sausalito, Calif.-based online community that is popular among tech journalists (and which was going through its own quiet period as we went to press). Wired’s IPO was canceled shortly afterward. Though no formal explanation was offered for the decision to cancel the offering, rumors that the errant memo could trigger an SEC enforcement action did little to boost investor confidence.

For all the pitfalls, the quiet period is a convenient barrier to raise. It offers PR-obsessed companies a rare opportunity to turn the other cheek when confronted by unwelcome criticism. “Sometimes, people just don’t want to talk to the press,” laughs the SEC’s Heine. “And that’s when the quiet period provides a very convenient way out.”

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With Applied Materials’ workforce spread across the globe, the company’s intranet television channel (AMTV) is available to all departments at all company locations for viewing at any time. So, when Club One staff members saw a “need to reach more employees in a global workforce,” they decided to use the latest in video streaming technology to deliver information and education on health and fitness topics. According to Program Manager Julie Lamothe, they took existing educational videos, real-time educational classes and ‘brown bag’ lectures, and placed them on AMTV. Educational topics available on-demand include cooking classes, financial management (i.e., tax planning, investment options, buying and selling a home), stress management (i.e., surviving the corporate fast track, dealing with difficult people and relaxation techniques), and work life management (i.e., balancing work and family life, adjusting to shift work, fighting fatigue).

In addition, says Lamothe, “AMTV includes documentaries of special events, an online orientation to onsite fitness centers, and the inclusion of regular features such as wellness news and weekly educational articles for employees to view at their leisure.”

“In the past, wellness programs were only available to a limited number of employees at a specific time and location,” explains Lamothe. “Now with this new innovation, we are able to maximize the use of existing resources so that Applied Materials’ employees can conveniently access this information from their computer.” This, in turn, has increased employee participation beyond expected targets, and it has strategically aligned itself with Applied Material’s corporate goals to transition educational programs and technical training resources online. It has “helped to increase overall employee satisfaction regarding program equity at all sites, reduced the cost of training and increased program visibility,” says Lamothe. And, “it has removed barriers employees may have otherwise had to attending classroom sessions and participating in the wellness program as a whole.”

Using baseball as the theme, CIGNA’s exercise incentive program invited Wellness Center members to join an American or National League team of fellow employees. Points were scored when “players” attended a workout session, whether at the center or at home. Two teams competed weekly by tracking which team had the highest average exercise attendance. Individual players who completed 20 sessions over the nine weeks were awarded a special baseball cap. In the final week, the two teams with the best record played in the World Series.

Wellness Center staff members coached the teams by sending inspirational group messages through voice and email. Personal contact was made with members who had been inactive before the start of spring training, explains Pattie Bucaccio, assistant director of employee health.

“Recruiting employees to exercise on a regular basis is an ongoing challenge in today’s corporate environment, with lack of time and lack of motivation going hand-in-hand as the greatest obstacles,” she says. “Our program utilized a team concept and the latest technology to give ongoing encouragement to members in a fun, yet efficient way.”

The Spring Training program ran from Feb 13 through April 17, and was the most successful incentive program in the Wellness Center’s 15-year history, Bucaccio reports. “Of the 497 members who joined the program, 393 met the 20-session goal — a 79-percent success rate. Typical success rates in past exercise incentive programs were 60 to 65 percent,” Bucaccio says. At the same time, 100 previously inactive members jump-started their exercise programs by joining the competition.

A few days ago, officials were downplaying the first anthrax case as an isolated event.

But experts say the odds of two co-workers contracting anthrax are minuscule. “It would be highly unlikely, in my opinion, that two people who work in one building would be colonized with anthrax with another exposure than human intent,” says Judy English, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

Testifying today before the Senate, Dr. Mohammad Akhter, executive director of the American Public Health Association, says he thinks the origins of the anthrax in Florida are “criminal.”

English, who led APIC’s bioterrorism task force, says the initially cautious stance of health and law enforcement officials wasn’t misguided. “They were trying to not incite any undue panic in the public,” she says. But after the second case, the probability of a planned outbreak had to be considered.

English, head of infection control at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, says there’s no way to know except for waiting whether there will be more anthrax cases in Florida. And if there are, only time will tell if the government is prepared to cope with a bigger outbreak. “I don’t believe we are ready to deal with a massive anthrax release, but we are a whole lot more ready this Tuesday than we were last Friday,” she says.

People can be infected with anthrax three ways, through the skin (usually via cuts or other breaks), the gastric system (usually by eating infected meat) and the airways. All can be cured with antibiotics, but inhaled anthrax is the rarest and most serious kind, killing 90 percent of its victims. Symptoms of infection usually appear within about a week of exposure, but the organism can incubate for as long as 60 days.

Until this month only 18 cases of inhaled anthrax — two of which involved lab workers — had been reported in this country in the last 100 years, including one earlier this year in Texas. The disease, which causes rapidly descending flu-like symptoms, followed by pneumonia and meningitis, can be acquired through contact with the hides, wool or other body parts of infected livestock, particularly sheep and goats.

At least 17 countries have biological weapons programs, though it’s not clear how many have anthrax in their arsenals, according to an analysis of the issue two years ago done for the American Medical Association. Iraq has acknowledged turning the germ into a weapon.

While anthrax is difficult to prepare and convert into a weapon, it’s not beyond the reach of someone with sophistication in biology, experts say.

John Pape, an epidemiologist and bioterror expert at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in Denver, says that although skin-borne anthrax isn’t so rare in the West, a single case of inhaled infection “would send up a red flag” in any state. “Despite the reassurances [from the government], you can be sure there was a very intensive investigation” after the first patient was diagnosed in Florida, he says.

Colorado officials have been meeting regularly since last week to hash out their own response plan should an anthrax outbreak occur there, Pape says. “We’ve been meeting throughout the weekend to discuss options, including upping surveillance” at hospitals, coroners’ labs, and doctors’ offices, he says.

In addition to monitoring possible new cases of anthrax, public health workers in Florida must also figure out what to do about the American Media building where the bacteria was found. The germ is quite hardy, capable of surviving extremes of hot and cold, Pape says. But thorough decontamination can make the workplace safe again. “I don’t think that they’re going to have to lock the building up and torch it, but it may take some time,” he says.

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The two Florida men infected with anthrax almost certainly caught the bacteria as a result of intentional infection, experts now say. But law enforcement officials are not sure if terrorists or other criminals may be to blame.

State and federal officials today continued their hunt for the source of the highly toxic germs, which have been linked to the death Friday of Bob Stevens, a 63-year-old photo editor at the The Sun, based in Boca Raton. Stevens was diagnosed with inhaled anthrax, a particularly lethal and rare form of the disease.

One possibility is that a letter sent to the tabloid could have been carrying the bacteria, according to a CNN report.

The second victim, 73-year-old Ernesto Blanco, is in a Florida hospital being treated; he is a mail supervisor at the same supermarket tabloid. Swabs of his nasal cavity turned up spores of the bacteria, but he has not fallen ill, officials say. A Florida health official told the Palm Beach Post that tests of the spores revealed that it was identical to those found on a computer keyboard used by Stevens at The Sun’s building in Boca Raton.

FBI investigators have shut down the facility, home to the American Media Inc., the parent company of The Sun, The National Enquirer and several other supermarket tabloids. Meanwhile, more than 700 people with ties to the building have undergone testing for exposure to the bacteria, and many have been given precautionary doses of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. Another 100 people are expected to be tested.

Investigators have also been looking at the ventilation system at American Media’s headquarters as a possible conduit for the microbes. However, they have yet to identify the source of the infection, which cannot be passed from person to person.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has said the inquiry could become a “clear criminal investigation” as officials piece together the trail of the infections. At the moment, however, “We don’t have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not,” Ashcroft told reporters.

Mohamed Atta, a pilot in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, had lived for a time in Delray Beach, a short drive from the American Media offices. The building is also close to an airport in Lantana where Atta rented light planes at least three times. Investigators believe the terrorists considered trying to spread a killer organism using crop dusters.

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The trick is to make customer service a priority, and to offer it in different ways — ways that will reach every member of your facility.

Customer service is often overlooked as too difficult, too vague, too expensive or too time consuming, but it is one of the most important ways to keep your members happy.

To give you an idea of what other fitness centers do to keep their members from leaving, I interviewed a couple of your peers. While their ideas aren’t revolutionary, they all come down to one thing: pleasing the member.

Mitchell Rubber Products, Mira Loma, Calif., advises to use the following procedures to care for its floors:

Daily.

* Remove loose dirt by sweeping or dust mopping (slightly damp).

Regular maintenance.

* Scrub the floor with a neutral pH detergent at the recommended dilution ratios.

* Work in small areas and do not “flood coat” the floor (to prevent excess solution from flowing under the floor).

* Apply the cleaning solution with a mop and bucket or an automatic scrubber with a soft nylon brush. A “staggered-trim bristle” is preferred for floors with structured surfaces.

* Pick up the solution with a wet pick-up vacuum or automatic scrubber. The vacuum will eliminate residual dirt in surface indentations.

* Rinse with clear water and allow to completely dry (1 to 4 hours). This step may be eliminated if a neutral detergent is used.

* A disinfectant can be used if necessary, but make sure it is safe to use with your type of floor.

For its rubber floors, Freudenberg Building Systems in Lawrence, Mass., recommends the following cleaning regimen:

Daily.

* Thoroughly sweep, vacuum or dust mop.

One to five times per week.

* Spot clean with appropriate detergent.

* Dry polish with single disc or soft nylon brush.

* Remove stains with a solvent and nylon scouring pad, if necessary. Rinse or wipe off solvent.

Gerstung Floor Systems, Baltimore, Md., has similar suggestions for cleaning its rubber floors. It recommends using a rotary scrubbing machine with a built-in wet vac for periodic cleanings and to let the floor dry completely. One or two coats of wax can be applied after this for extra shine and easier daily maintenance, but do not overwax, as buildup will occur.