The-F-Word.org

The company I work for held its first health and wellness fair yesterday. What with the company-sanctioned Biggest Loser competition and employee Weight Watchers group, I was hesitant to attend, for fears our large conference room would be bulging at the seams with diet company representatives shilling snake oil weigh-loss cures and medical experts barking the health hazards of obesity.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The company invited vendors to set up small tables highlighting their services and products and surprisingly, there were only a few pamphlets for Weight Watchers mixed in with a hodgepodge of other programs, including our dental plan and life insurance program, on an unmanned table. One table did include a trifold display illustrating the assumed health risks of obesity, but it, too, was unmanned, and most people appeared to breeze right by it without pause.

The company really did take a holistic approach to health and wellness, with even a banker on-site to talk about financial health. A man who teaches self-defense set up a punching bag demonstration and the Council on Aging representative talked to those employees who are caregivers to elderly in their family. Another company showed off its treadmill-slash-desk, which even includes a computer monitor so you can work while working out. No, thanks!

I stopped by a table set up by a local breast cancer survivor and activist who encouraged folks to feel up three realistic feeling breasts for lumps, which, let me add, is a really odd thing to be doing at work. Because I have fibrous breasts, she gave me some really good advice on the latest in testing technologies to detect lumps in people like me.

Then, I stopped by a table set up a company specializing in running gear, and explained to the two reps there my problems with finding comfortable gym shoes. I tried out my new, oh-so-cute pair of gym shoes on the treadmill last week and had to stop after half an hour because the sides of my feet were in excruciating pain. They both gave me some really good advice and I plan on stopping in with my old pair of shoes to see what kind of suggestions they can offer.

A local hospital offered on-the-spot blood sugar level tests, of which mine tested well within the normal range. This is, despite the fact that not only am I “obese,” I also have a family history of diabetes, which has been shown to be a strong predictor that I may also develop it. The specialist there didn’t even mention weight, nor did she caution me on any “future risks” posed by my fatness.

A man who retired from the company last year and now dedicates himself to his martial arts business also set up a demonstration. I tried Taekwondo about seven years ago, but I didn’t stick with it because at my weight then of 300 pounds, the largest size uniforms were uncomfortably tight and I felt as if people were laughing at the fat girl trying miserably to do a high karate kick. In speaking with Charlie, I expressed my concerns that the meditation-like aspects of martial arts wouldn’t play well with my ADD. He explained that for ADD’ers, martial arts are actually quite beneficial, because they teach you how to channel your attention and focus. Then I asked him when I would be able to break boards with one swift slice of my hand.

Overall I was really surprised and reassured that my company seems to *get it* or at least, appears to. In all the rhetoric we hear on health, both in the news and from our own family doctors, weight and weight-loss are pushed to the forefront, but there is far more to health and wellness than what we weigh or don’t weigh.