Straight from the Expert

New Year’s resolutions - Allison Cocking
Allison Cocking

Allison Cocking Manager, Workplace Wellness

Many individuals ring in the New Year with a clink of the champagne flute and toast to health and happiness for the year to come. New Year’s resolutions are made, and often broken, within a mere sip of bubbly. This year, in an effort to help staff keep their resolutions, UHNews sat down with Alison Cocking, Manager of Workplace Wellness, to uncover the tips to making an attainable resolution and see what programs UHN offers to stop you from making the same resolutions year after year.

Do you have any tips on how to keep a New Year’s resolution?

1. Focus on realistic and measurable goals. Try breaking goals down into small steps that are manageable and achievable. For example, losing 30 pounds may sound overwhelming, but losing 1-2 pounds a week is more manageable. Don’t create a huge list of resolutions as you’ll simply feel overwhelmed. Pick a couple of things that are really important to you and commit to them.

2. Don’t keep your resolutions to yourself. Tell someone you trust, and at the very least, write your resolutions down so that you can continually revisit them.

3. Avoid perfectionist thinking. Try to think in positive terms versus thinking about how far you’re falling short of your goal(s).

4. View setbacks as opportunities. It’s not realistic to think that you will achieve your goal(s) without a setback or two. By realizing this ahead of time you won’t be caught off-guard. So you don’t diet for a weekend? No big deal, you simply start again on Monday.

5. It’s likely that you have friends and co-workers with similar health and wellness resolutions. Create an informal group where you support and encourage one another. Add in some friendly competition to keep up the motivation.

My New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. Any suggestions on where to start?

The first thing to do is set a realistic goal to lose weight and ensure you address it from both an exercise and a nutritional perspective. Remember to focus on the fact that you’re making long-term lifestyle changes.

Wellness programs can assist you. There are many things happening in 2010 to address and support New Year’s health resolutions. Some exciting classes are Boot Camp, Hip Hop Dancing, Tank Top Arms, Body Blast and many more. In addition to fitness classes, Wellness offers nutritional classes such as Cooking Demonstrations, a Healthy Eating Challenge and a Healthy Nutrition Lunch Series. You can also receive one-to-one dietary counselling sessions in the wellness centre with Samantha Goren, Registered Dietician. Visit the Wellness Intranet page for a list of all the classes offered.

You can also contact your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provider- Sheppell FGI at 1-800-361-5676. Not only can you access professional counselling services but they also offer an array of other free services including nutritional counselling and a new health coaching service. For more information go to:http://www.shepellfgi.com

As a UHN employee you can access services from Sun Life, including the services of their wellness centre. Please go to www.sunlife.ca to get more information.

My New Year’s resolution is to quit smoking. Does UHN have any programs to help?

UHN offers two smoking cessation programs. As part of our wellness program we are encouraging employees to quit smoking by providing partially subsidized nicotine replacement therapies (NRT). To determine your eligibility for NRT visit the Wellness Intranet. UHN has also partnered with the Smokers’ Helpline which can strengthen and improve your chances of successfully quitting. You can reach the Smokers’ Helpline at 1-877-513-5333 or by visiting www.smokershelpline.ca.

My New Year’s resolution is to decrease stress in my life. Can you suggest a program at UHN that could help?

Wellness offers various stress reducing classes such as relaxation sessions and yoga. Also, a Resiliency Committee was created to champion the idea that learning to become more emotionally resilient can greatly improve your attitude, your ability to cope and your health in the face of stress that cannot be avoided. Resiliency means having the ability to cope with, and bounce back from difficult experiences. This interdisciplinary committee created learning nuggets which can be found on eLearning. Staff can also download up to five relaxation sessions onto their MP3 player from eLearning on the Intranet.

My New Year’s resolution is to work on my professional development. What services does UHN offer?

UHN, through Organizational & Employee Development, offers many exciting new professional development course this year. A few highlights are the Conversations for Possibilities (an opportunity to have an appreciative dialogue on the topics that are most important to you), Your Life, Your Energy-Take Control (this program will share some of the latest research findings, provide a self energy audit, possible strategies and concrete action planning for yourself, and if relevant, for your entire team), Maximizing your Influence (complete a self assessment on your current influence abilities and then learn a set of principles and skills that will increase your sphere of influence to increase your impact on others) and Essentials for Inspiring Leaders (helps emerging leaders get ready for the challenge and responsibility of a leadership role). More course descriptions can be found under eLearning on the Intranet.

 

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