2007 New Year's Message from the Wellness Team
Happy, Happy New Year! We trust
everyone had a filling holiday season in more ways than one. Consumption presumably
increased in December setting new highs for caloric intake, cholesterol and
girth.
Fortunately, merrymaking has an expiry date before we succumb to it first. Thus,
there is nothing like the start of a new year to begin doing the right things
in earnest for our health that were disregarded, or half-heartedly done, in
the last.
Start with your annual physical exam (APE). Complement that with at least 30
minutes, preferably 1 hour, of brisk walking daily and with nutritious, balanced
meals as recommended in this website. Remember, however, to eat less than what
you burn. You can do more and this website is dedicated to help you choose more
paths to wellness.
To get things moving, Lifelong has a number of activities slated for January
to crank up our mortal engines.
- January 5: a mountaineering seminar @ Benpres for
beginners
- January 12-13: the long-awaited climb to the peak
of Mt. Pulag with Chairman Oscar M. Lopez and the First Philippine Mt Everest
Team.
- January 20: "Walk the Talk" resumes on the Ateneo
grounds @ Katipunan.
- Last week of January (date TBD): seminar on "Will
Power"
In addition, the Wellness team will be preparing for February.
A daily stress management routine that includes ballroom dancing, yoga, taebo,
latin aero and pilates will be introduced. A chess tournament is also in the
works with the collaboration of the Philippines' first Grandmaster, Eugene Torre,
and National Master Gerry Cabillon of Meralco. Chess is a good way of exercising
the mind and sharpening strategic as well as tactical skills.
A word of caution: Lifelong
activities are meant to just show the way. Wellness has a broad
menu and it is up to each company and individual employee in the Group to determine
which combinations to adopt to ensure total wellness. At the end of the day,
each one of us must take responsibility for our own health and do something
about it. It is a moral obligation.
The team looks to CEO leadership, with the full support of their COO's and HR's,
to sustain and institutionalize Lifelong. Healthy employees, after all, make
for healthy companies. A key to best practice is data base development and integration
to establish health and productivity profiles, and to correlate this with health
costs. Knowing what one is dealing with will help determine what must be done.
We hope to gain headway on the corporate dimensions of wellness in 2007. With
the involvement of the Third Generation of Lopezes, we can look forward to better
information, informed choices and healthier times!
Be well and stay well.
Rafael M. Alunan III
for the Wellness Team
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