We’re excited to launch our new WalkingSpree blog. In the blog, you’ll find articles on health, nutrition and wellness as well as monthly recipes. Our WalkingSpree Personal Trainers will be writing posts that provide grounded and accurate fitness information as well as provide you with encouragement and motivation.

We sent this special edition of our newsletter to all our WalkingSpree members to highlight some exciting events that have happened recently. Read our Corporate client news, listen to a podcast, find out who the member of the month is and see who the top 20 walkers are for September.

Corporate Client News

WalkingSpree Corporate Client wins 2008 Benefits Professional of the Year Award

WalkingSpree was thrilled to congratulate Scott Beeken of American Financial Group (AFG) and Great American Insurance as the 2008 Benefits Professional of the Year (Benny Award) that was recently presented at the Annual Benefits Forum & Expo in Washington, DC.

WalkingSpree has worked closely with Mr. Beeken in establishing a company wide wellness initiative for its 5,500 employees by delivering WalkingSpree’s turn-key walking program for corporate clients that includes a private website for AFG. As part of a comprehensive wellness program that also included biometric screenings, a weight management program and wellness seminars, employees were challenged to walk at least one million steps over a 6 month period to qualify for a range of awards that included a new 2009 Saturn Sky convertible.

There are 2,700 employees and spouses participating in the WalkingSpree walking component and they are averaging over 8,300 steps per day — twice the average activity for a typical office worker. AFG employees might be wearing out their shoes as they collectively have walked over 2 billion steps after four months, and nearly two-thirds will have exceeded the corporate challenge to reach million steps. That is amazing!

WalkingSpree Member of the Month

Not only has Mr. Beeken won the Benny Award, he himself has walked at least 10,000 steps every day since he started the program in early April 2008. He hasn’t missed a single day. In light of this, we would like to make Scott Beeken, the WalkingSpree member of the month. Congratulations!

Scott Beeken (left) with Dr. Oz (right)

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Podcast Interview

Hiran Perera, CEO of WalkingSpree was also interviewed on the Cost of “Presenteism in the Corporate Work Environment”. Listen to the podcast to find out the effects of corporate wellness programs, keeping people motivated and your ROI.

Direct link to w3w3 podcast.

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Top 20 walkers - September
(includes all WalkingSpree members)

Screen Name Total Steps Average Steps

New Features
If you are a club admin, you can now send a private message to all your club members under the club admin panel.

NOTE: We will be transferring all the older newsletters over the next couple of weeks so that you’ll be able to find them all in one spot.

Use Feng Shui to help clear your home of stress

Do you step into your home with a sense of serenity? Or is it with a sense of foreboding as you contemplate that leaky faucet, those piles of unopened mail, and your family’s ever-growing mountains of “stuff”?

If you’re souring on home sweet home, try borrowing some ideas from Feng Shui (pronounced “fung shway”). Arranging space to be in harmony with nature might seem like a New Age fad, but it’s actually an ancient Chinese concept with many practical applications. The main premise is that what you place in your environment and how you arrange and balance those objects can enhance — or hinder — your heath and well-being.

Basic Feng Shui

In her book Feng Shui and Health, Nancy Santopietro compares clutter in the home to cholesterol in your bloodstream: just as high cholesterol clogs your arteries and leads to physical illness, so too can clutter clog your home and feed feelings of stress and anxiety.

Keep your home as free from clutter as you can. Anything disorganized, unused, or unfinished qualifies as clutter — papers that need to be recycled, old clothes that could be given away, broken-down appliances that are gathering dust. Besides removing clutter, be sure to promptly repair or replace worn-out or damaged items, such as broken light bulbs and squeaky doors.

Once you’ve toned down on the visual noise, pacify your home with echoes of nature. The sound of gurgling water can breathe more life into your environment. Tropical plants such as lucky bamboo, dracaena, and ivy are easy to keep and will help to naturally renew the indoor air.

Regularly clean and air out your home. Also plug sinkholes and put toilet seats down. Make sure your doorways and entryways are clear of obstacles.

Install lighting appropriate to the area. Have high-quality luminous lighting in rooms that require greater attention to detail, such as in the kitchen or office. Reduce the amount of lighting in areas like the den or bedroom to help create a quieter, more relaxed environment.

Bathe your home in a sufficient amount of sunlight to uplift and soothe the spirit. (In areas of your home that don’t have access to natural light, full-spectrum light bulbs will do the trick.) Open drapes and add mirrors to draw in the sunlight.

Find a quiet spot in your home that can be reserved for meditation, soul-searching, and creative thinking. Add plants, a comfy chair or couch, and soft lighting, all of which will help to foster a sense of relaxation.

In Feng Shui, the bedroom is considered an inner sanctum. Position your bed so that the view is of something nurturing, rather than straight into the bathroom or down a hallway. Remove TVs or other electronic devices that can distract you from a sound sleep. Above all, don’t work in your bedroom: the goal is to never compromise its status as your ultimate oasis.

Feng Shui for the Office

You can also apply Feng Shui principles to the workplace to help relieve stress and unleash creative energy. You don’t even have to devote a lot of time to rearranging things. According to Kirsten Lagatree, author of Feng Shui at Work, “Subtle changes, such as the placement of your desk or use of color in a room, can bring dramatic results.”

As in the home, clutter in the workplace gives rise to mental and emotional chaos. Keep your desk tidy by dedicating at least an hour per week to organizing it.

When decorating, choose complementary, muted colors over bright colors and/or colors that clash. Avoid an overabundance of white: it reflects light, leading to eyestrain.

Make sure your computer screen is the brightest object in your line of sight. If the overhead light is too bright, your eyes will have to work overtime to make out what’s on the screen.

Bring in some plants or a tabletop fountain to add an element of nature to your office.

Situate yourself in what Feng Shui practitioners call the “Command Position” — with your desk facing the door. Having your back to the door can make you feel vulnerable, increasing stress.

Remember: You don’t have to believe its claims of mysterious cosmic energy to enjoy the very real benefits of Feng Shui. By transforming your space into your personal refuge, you can achieve greater relaxation and reduce your stress, thereby improving your overall health.

What you need to know about the listeria outbreak

A tiny but potentially deadly microorganism has prompted a massive recall of meat products in Canada. In late August, several people in the province of Ontario became sick after consuming “ready-to-serve” deli meats. Inspections later determined the meat to contain listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium found in soil, vegetation, animal feed, and feces (both human and animal). Consuming listeria-contaminated food can lead to a virulent form of food poisoning known as listerosis. For most people, according to Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, “the risk posed by listeria is very low.” However, the resulting condition can be quite harmful and even fatal for the elderly, babies, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems. Three dozen cases of listerosis have been either confirmed or are suspected and at least 12 deaths have been reported since the outbreak began. Here are some more key facts on listeriosis and meat products:

• Symptoms of listerosis mimic those of the flu and include nausea, vomiting, cramps, diarrhea, headache, constipation, and persistent fever. They usually appear within two to 30 days and up to 70 days after consuming contaminated food. In extreme cases, symptoms may be followed by a brain or blood infection, either of which can result in death. For a complete list of food products that have been recalled by the Public Health Agency of Canada due to concerns over listeria monocytogenes, click here. (Source: Public Health Agency of Canada)
• To avoid contamination, refrigerate foods promptly and keep the refrigerator at 4°C (40°F) or colder. Thoroughly cook or boil foods such as hot dogs and poultry products. Avoid raw, unpasteurised milk or foods made from it, such as raw milk cheese. Wash raw vegetables thoroughly before eating them. Clean all utensils, cutting boards, and work surfaces with a mild bleach solution (5 ml/1 tsp. bleach per 750 ml/3 cups water) before and after use. Separate utensils for raw and cooked foods. Follow “use by” dates, especially on packaged goods with a long shelf life. Wash your hands before, during, and after handling any type of food, especially raw meat and poultry. (Source: Public Health Agency of Canada)
• Although most processed meat products remain safe for human consumption, you’d be wise not to make them a staple of your diet. Cold cuts, bologna, and hot dogs contain nitrites (a chemical used to preserve their pink color), which can combine with stomach acid to produce nitrosamine, a suspected cancer-causing agent.

Why kids are the experts on rejuvenation

Ask a skin-care model or those covertly greying men in the Grecian Formula ads: where looks are concerned, we all want to be youthful.

Yet what we eagerly seek on the outside, we routinely bottle up on the inside. Faced with a disapproving adult world, we quickly learn to repress our playfulness, exuberance, and curiosity. We put on poker faces and follow strict schedules that leave no time for fun and games.

As adults, we may continue to look young thanks to our genes or the wonders of cosmetic rejuvenation therapies. But we’ll never enjoy true rejuvenation — complete renewal of the mind, body, and spirit — if we don’t embrace our inner youthfulness.

The secret to rejuvenation is living in the moment. It enables us to get a true break from whatever’s on our minds.

Kids are the undisputed experts at living in the moment. By absorbing deeply whatever the moment has to offer, they’re able to go forward with renewed energy, increased vitality, and a fresh perspective on life. What could be more rejuvenating than that?

Here are five more important lessons about rejuvenation that kids can teach grownups:

1. Give yourself permission to feel what you’re feeling.

Have you ever seen babies cry after a spill or being separated from a toy, only to break out into a glorious smile seconds later when someone does something to amuse them? Believe it or not, those babies may actually be schooling us.

Denying and burying your emotions will only leave you stuck in them. You’ll do much better to simply feel whatever you’re feeling without any resistance. All you need to do is let the emotion wash over you and then let go of it when it no longer feels good. You’ll be amazed at how good it can feel (temporarily) to grieve or have a self-righteous fit of anger. After a while, however, these feelings no longer feel good. That’s when it’s time to let them go.

2. Don’t worry, be happy.

Unlike adults, kids don’t splurge a lot of emotional capital on worrying. Part of the reason is because they don’t have as many responsibilities as grownups. But they also aren’t as worried about maintaining their status or a carefully cultivated image (we’re talking about little kids here, not tweens or teens, of course!). For them, each day is a fresh start. Take your cue from the youngsters. Plan ahead, but don’t become bogged down in unhealthy worrying. Focus on enjoying the present, while moving ahead on your goals for the future.

3. Have a laugh.

Laughter isn’t something to be stifled but encouraged. As well as inducing positive emotions and feel-good endorphins, it improves lung capacity and cardiovascular health, and produces antibodies that help to strengthen the immune system. But while a fit of the giggles is considered cute and charming in kids, chances are you’ll be curtly told to “grow up” if you spontaneously burst into laughter as an adult. So try to find some socially acceptable outlets for laughter. Go see a comedy, watch a funny TV show, or spend time with a friend whose witticisms crack you up. Amid all the hilarity, you’ll be experiencing some serious rejuvenating benefits.

4. Get excited.

Everything excites kids: going to the mall, seeing a doggie, the shapes they think they can make out in the clouds. As adults, we may be older, wiser, and a lot more jaded, but we still need to indulge our inherent yearning for childlike wonderment and excitement as often as we can.

What thrills and captivates you? If it’s the beauty of nature, go for long nature walks. If it’s the mysteries of the universe, buy a telescope and explore the heavens from your backyard. If it’s a favorite musical artist, make a point of seeing them the next time they’re in town. Make whatever excites and inspires an integral part of your rejuvenation program.

5. Get out and have fun.

Remember when your friends used to show up at your door and ask your parents if you could “come out and play?” While those days of sandboxes and jumping jacks may be done, we still need to get out and have fun if we want to enjoy rejuvenation. Playing a sport like baseball lets us socialize and have an excuse to run around and think of nothing beyond catching and hitting a baseball. The arts offer another potential playground for adults. In fact, according to a Swedish study, attendance at cultural events, reading, and playing music may even help you to live longer.

No matter what your preferred form of rejuvenation, give yourself ample opportunities to laugh, get excited, have fun, and generally feel like a kid again. No kidding!

Did you know?

In its earliest usage, the word “rejuvenation” — derived from the Latin root word for “young” — literally meant to become young again.