June marks the beginning of Employee Wellbeing Month, a month dedicated to bringing awareness to physical, emotional, mental, financial, social and community needs. What better way to kick off the month than by celebrating the success of some of our coaching clients and highlighting the changes they made to transform their lives.
Lisa – Empowering Transformation & Finding Balance
After a year of working from home, “Lisa” felt like her brain was in a fog. The foggy feeling was affecting her mood, nutrition, and her relationships. Together with her coach, Lisa set a goal to improve her nutrition, starting with planning and preparing her meals at home.
Lisa began cutting back on unhealthy snacks throughout the day. It was difficult considering she often buys easy, not always healthy, snacks for her children to quickly satisfy their hunger. A month later Lisa reported back to her coach that she had a pretty good month but admitted to falling off track a bit. Lisa struggled most when operating outside of her controlled environments, i.e. ordering take out and stopping at the drive thru.
After her second coaching call, Lisa committed to her meal prepping plans to avoid poor choices outside the house by bringing water and healthy to-go snacks with her. As she got more comfortable with these healthy habits, more healthy activities followed – primarily by taking walks and borrowing a family member’s stationary bike. This foundation of new activity has shown Lisa results with a 15 lb. weight loss and drastically improved mood clearing the fog she experienced prior to starting coaching.
Lisa shared that the greatest value she got from this coaching experience was “having a caring person to help nudge her in the right direction and above all, hold her accountable to her own goals”.
Bryan – Consistently Building Healthy Habits
“Bryan” was recently diagnosed with Hypertension and elevated A1C, which was concerning as a new father who just welcomed his first baby. Motivated by his son, Bryan acted on his own and managed to shed 30lbs by regulating his diet and incorporating some light exercise. After a great start on his own, Bryan enlisted the help of a Virgin Pulse coach to keep building new healthy habits, and most importantly keep the weight off.
In Bryan’s first session with his coach, they established goals for a new exercise regimen and tips to maintain healthy eating habits. Bryan purchased a treadmill to begin running, working up to a 5k distance. He also cut out take-out food and began cooking more meals at home. With this new plan he quickly lost an additional 12lbs!
Over the past year, Bryan has learned how difficult it can be to maintain diet and exercise goals through the unpredictability of life. A newborn, home repairs, and work pressure have all created challenges to this routine but maintaining a relationship with his Virgin Pulse coach has helped hold Bryan accountable to his goals and stay on track. Such as reaching his target 5k running pace in the low 30-minute range.
Bryan has been able to maintain his healthy weight and continues to lose weight in healthy increments. His current focus is to improve his sleep schedule and stay hydrated. So far, he has been able to consistently get 7 hours of sleep a night and 80 oz of water each day!
Jane – Becoming Tobacco Free
“Jane” knew she wanted to quit tobacco when she realized she would rather stay home than go places where she wasn’t allowed to smoke. She didn’t want to miss out on social plans with friends and family any longer. After previous failed attempts to kick her habit, Jane was determined to stay committed this time and connected with a Virgin Pulse coach.
With the help of her coach, Jane started wearing nicotine patches and planned to change her routine by filling the time she would normally spend on a smoke break with other hobbies. Some of her new activities included taking her dog on longer walks, completing crossword and jigsaw puzzles, and spending more time in her garden.
After a few months, Jane was fully committed and wearing her nicotine patches every day. Jane was enjoying her new hobbies and has noticed the financial benefits of not buying cigarettes frequently. She even teamed up with her sister, who is also working on quitting tobacco, to support each other in becoming tobacco free.
As of her most recent coaching call, Jane was completely tobacco free for the previous 2 weeks. She mentioned that she has an improved sense of smell, is eating healthier, and is feeling a new sense of confidence. She doesn’t even think about needing tobacco most days.
These are just a few of the amazing stories of lives touched by the Virgin Pulse coaching program. To learn more about Virgin Pulse and our live services visit us here. Ready to make a change for your organization? Let’s Talk!
Wellbeing is personal and therefore different for every individual. To celebrate Employee Wellbeing Month we want to know what wellbeing looks like for you – click here to submit a photo of what wellbeing looks like to you for a chance to win tickets to Thrive 2023.