Healthy South Dakota

Did You Know...

A staggering $270 billion is spent each year treating preventable conditions related to tobacco, adult-onset diabetes and obesity?

According to the Wellness Councils of America, more than 81% of businesses with 50 or more employees have some form of health promotion program – the most popular being exercise, stop-smoking, backcare program, and stress management. Most employers offer wellness programs simply because they think the benefit is worth the cost.

"Healthy individuals mean healthy organizations"

Basic stretches are keys to fitness

Exercise for weight loss: calories burned in 1 hour (MayoClinic.com)

Delicious, Nutritious Food Selections for Conferences . . . check it out!

Making meetings work

For ideas on healthy meetings, click here.

Healthy Eating and Meeting

Guidelines for Offering Healthy Foods at Meetings, Seminars and Catered Events

Choosing Foods and Beverages for Healthy Meetings, Conferences and Events

Coffee calories: how many in your cup? (MayoClinic.com)

Elliptical machines: what are the fitness benefits? (MayoClinic.com)

Benefits of stretching

Bike to Work Day, May 16

woman on bike Join work commuters across America in participating in Bike to Work Day, Friday, May 16, 2008. Take this day to save some drive time and put on your helmet and bike to work. Latest census figures report that Americans spend almost an hour a day on daily work commutes. Bicycling pays off: you save gas money, avoid traffic, get exercise, help curb global warming pollution and often save time, too. Check out this Bike Calculator to find out you can improve your health, save money and the environment by biking!

New Worksite Wellness Tools

Promoting a healthy worksite can mean money saved and increased work production. Healthy South Dakota works to promote worksite wellness throughout South Dakota. Healthy SD would like to learn more about your worksite health environment. Take this survey to learn how you can improve worksite and employee health.

If you want to learn how your worksite rates at promoting healthy living, click here.

Workplace Poster

Check here each month for a poster you can print off to put up in your workplace. Posters are 8 ½” X 11” and look best when printed in color but will work in black and white. This month features two posters on portion size: Portion Distortion and Avoid Portion Distortion. For posters from previous months click here.

What Makes Your Cholesterol High or Low? Part 1

Your blood cholesterol level is affected by what you eat, how quickly your body makes LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and gets rid of it, and many other factors. Following is the first part in a three part series that will review what the most important factors are.

Heredity: Your genes influence how high your LDL cholesterol is by affecting how fast LDL is made and removed from the blood. One specific form of inherited high cholesterol that affects 1 in 500 people is familial hypercholesterolemia, which often leads to early heart disease. Even if you do not have a specific genetic form of high cholesterol, genes play a role in influencing your LDL-cholesterol level.
What you eat: Two main nutrients in the foods you eat make your LDL (‘bad”) cholesterol level go up: saturated fat and cholesterol. Saturated fat is a type of fat found mostly in foods that come from animals. Cholesterol comes only from animal products. Saturated fat raises your LDL-cholesterol level more than anything else in the diet. Eating too much saturated fat and cholesterol is the main reason for high levels of cholesterol and a high rate of heart attacks in the US. Reducing the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol you eat is a very important step in reducing your blood cholesterol levels.

"Gym memberships and exercise equipment are just too expensive." Yes, these items can add variety and strength to our exercise, but there are lots of things that can be done without them. Try doing push-ups, lunges, crunches and dips right at home in front of the TV. Install a simple bar across a doorway and do some pull-ups. Find some heavy cans that you can use when doing bicep curls and other exercises, even walking. Cardio can be easily reached by going for a brisk walk or running outside. Put a jumping rope in your suitcase and use it when in your motel room. Park further away while doing errands or take the stairs at work. With a little creativity it is easy to get a workout without spending lots of money.

Starting a Worksite Wellness Program?

Several resources are available free to South Dakota workplaces who are interested in starting a worksite wellness program.

Strides to a Healthier Worksite - takes you step by step through how to start a wellness program, provides samples of surveys to evaluate your particular workplace, and provides wellness activity ideas for nutrition and physical activity.
Sample employer survey | Sample employee interest survey

Strides to a Healthier Worksite Wellness Challenge Tool Kit - helps you organize challenges to encourage employees to lead healthier lifestyles. The tool kit includes a step by step guide to setting up a wellness challenge and includes a variety of supplemental materials such as registration forms, calendars, advertisements and sample challenge resources.

StairWell Kits - promotes use of the stairs as a simple and effective way to get people to walk more at work. The kit includes instructions on setting up a StairWell program at your worksite and point-of-decision posters that are free for you to use.

For more information and possible free on-site technical assistance regarding starting a wellness program for your worksite, email us with your contact information.

The Department of Health exercises no control over the content of outside sites linked on www.HealthySD.gov and provides the links for informational purposes only. This information is not a substitute for medical care.

Work, Live, and Play--Tobacco Free

Click here to learn what tobacco-free options are available for your family and to learn how being tobacco-free is good for your business.

Tips for eating out

Exercises for lower back pain

No time to work out? Get fit in a flash!

22 healthy munchies!

All body movement originates from the body core. . . learn how to strengthen it

8 tips for exercise haters – can an exercise-hater really change? Will you ever be able to face a daily workout without dread?

The Fruits & Veggies–More Matters Campaign

How many fruits and vegetables do you need?

Ways to get more fruits and veggies!

Why should a workplace offer wellness programs?

Lower health care costs
Reduced absenteeism
Higher productivity
Reduced use of health care benefits
Reduced injuries
Reduced worker‘s comp/disability
Increased morale and loyalty
Worksite wellness works!

Small Steps Change of the Month

Each month watch for a new small step you can take to a healthier lifestyle, a healthier you!

Need to add calcium to your diet? For snacks try to dip fruits and vegetables into yogurt or have some low-fat or fat-free string cheese.