Affectionately referred to as "the most important meal of the day" by mothers and grandmothers everywhere, breakfast is one of the few important healthy habits that most people freely admit to skipping. Often times, it's due to a lack of time, energy, or combination of both. 

By now, we are all aware that skipping breakfast can be a key ingredient to unwanted weight gain, mood swings, low energy and more. With all of the busy and messy things we have to juggle as employees, spouses, parents, or children of aging parents - all before 9am, sometimes - what you really need is a quick solution to the breakfast problem.
Enter: Blueberry Banana Walnut Breakfast Muffins! *

"Over time, employees who are lacking energy can zip quickly down the road to burnout. This leads to increased absenteeism and turnover, and decreased productivity and innovation. In fact, according to the American Psychological Association, U.S. businesses lose an estimated $300 billion when employees hit the breaking point."

- Limeade Blog

"The safety and health of employees is fundamentally important to having a successful and productive workplace.  Healthy employees equal happy employees and happy employees equals happy customers.  The logistical cycle of benefits from versatile policies implementing workplace health will provide plenty of reasons to enact incentives for a healthy lifestyle."

- FitRev

More and more research is being conducted on the dangers of “sitting” too much. A study of 6,300 people by Vanderbilt University published in the American Journal of Epidemiology estimated that the average American spends 55% of waking time (7.7 hours per day) in sedentary behaviors such as sitting. According to Martha Grogan, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, people who sit most of the day have the same risk of a heart attack as someone who smokes. What’s the solution? Get your employees to move more!

"Pressure at the workplace is unavoidable due to the demands of the contemporary work environment. Pressure perceived as acceptable by an individual, may even keep workers alert, motivated, able to work and learn, depending on the available resources and personal characteristics. However, when that pressure becomes excessive or otherwise unmanageable it leads to stress. Stress can damage an employees' health and the business performance."

- World Health Organization

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It’s very rare to go a day without hearing the word “stress”. It’s probably the most overused word in the English language. Today, stress is a lot of things to a lot of people:

How to make the healthiest choice from a vending machine VIDEO

When Walbridge wanted to build a healthier workforce and provide a more robust benefit program for employees, they relied on Kapnick.

As an organization, you say promote wellness in the workplace. But does your organization actually practice wellness? I still find it fascinating when I walk into an employer’s wellness meeting or lunchroom and there in the back of the room is a box of donuts. And while a doughnut every now and then isn’t the end of the world, what I am trying to convey is that many organizations contradict what they are trying to accomplish by asking their employees to do something when the company, the culture and the environment does not incentivize good behavior and healthier life choices. Many employers who implement wellness programs still have poor vending machine options, smoking break areas that are easily accessible and accommodating, and at the end of the day are not making it easy for their employees to choose a healthier lifestyle. Employers are making it easy to continue to do what they always have done but somehow expect a different outcome.

Although workplace wellness programs are becoming more and more popular, just because you implement one doesn’t mean your employee will participate or that your business will benefit. In order to truly drive employee engagement and eventually realize a positive impact on your business, a more comprehensive approach must be taken. This includes trying to create the ultimate “culture” of health within your organization.

Individuals play the fundamental role in maintaining and/or improving their own health. Therefore, participation is the biggest factor in any health and wellness programming. This is true for both the individual and the organizational level. From the business case, this is evident in several studies that demonstrate a positive return on investment (ROI). Research clearly shows that increased participation affects major outcomes in an ROI calculation. For example, as participation increases the program costs per member decrease and as incremental health risk reductions accumulate across the population healthcare costs should decrease.

Workplace Wellness - Don’t Forget to Include Dependents