healthy habits Archives - Innovative Health Insurance Advisors

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How to Promote Healthy Habits in Your Employees

Exercise

Consistent exercise creates long-lasting health benefits. Promoting regular exercise improves heart health, lowers cholesterol, increases brain function, reduces cancer risk, lowers stress, improves sleep and so much more.

All of these come together to facilitate a more productive lifestyle and work environment because your team is more capable of managing their stress and responsibilities. Additionally, healthy employees take fewer sick days and miss less work due to health-related concerns. Yet another example of how encouraging healthy habits promotes productivity in the workplace. A healthy team means you spend less on healthcare costs and more on reinvesting into your employees themselves.

We suggest getting creative to encourage employee physical activity. Some suggestions include:

Provide weekly group workout classes
Develop walking or running groups
Partner with local gyms or yoga studios to offer discounts or added benefits
Offer employees free or subsidized gym memberships
Create friendly exercise competitions
Try a hula hoop challenge

Preventative care

Visiting your doctor for an annual physical is one of the best long-term health strategies. You grow your health history and build a relationship with your physician. The routine physical exam keeps you up to date on important vaccinations, assesses lab results, and addresses any concerns your doctor or you may have. Additionally, attending these visits can potentially catch any more serious health issues that may arise before they become something potentially more dangerous.

Wellness check-ups

Maintaining good mental health is just as important as physical health. Increasing awareness of stress management strategies and sleep habits can help employees stay well-balanced. Additionally, employees that are supported with access to resources to combat mental health are more likely to be positive, engaged, and determined.

Investing in employee health and well-being is critical to the ongoing success of most businesses. Try different methods to promote wellness in your employees such as:

Team retreats
Breathwork and reflection
Solicit the expertise of a sleep expert to educate your team on the importance of sleep
Keep work at work

All in all, promoting healthy lifestyles and providing employees with the tools to live successfully healthier lifestyles can lead to many benefits. Employees will be less likely to take sick days and more likely to stay loyal to your company and be happier in their work environment. Overall, you gain increased productivity in the workplace.

If you’re looking for a comprehensive, affordable, ACA-compliant benefits plan to offer your employees, look no further. At SBMA Benefits, our goal is to provide affordable health coverage to help keep your employees healthy and promote their overall well-being. If you’re interested in offering SBMA benefits to your team, call or contact us today.

September 23, 2022

Top Tips for Spring Cleaning Your Health

Spring is in the air. This means it’s time to spring clean not only your home but also your healthy habits. By focusing on simple ways to improve your health, you are setting yourself up to take advantage of lifelong health benefits. Implementing healthy habits is simpler than you’d think.

Use Your Health Plan to Your Advantage

Your health plan is a resource to be used to your advantage. Using your plan helps you stay healthy, and find any potential chronic illnesses before they become dangerous.

Basic health insurance plans, like Minimum Essential Coverage plans, include ACA-compliant services that cover wellness, preventative services, prescription discounts, and telehealth services.

How can you use your health insurance to spring clean your health?

First, visit your primary care provider. Plans offer coverage for an annual checkup with your primary care physician. This annual checkup helps keep you and your healthcare team ahead of potential chronic illnesses by catching a diagnosis early. This visit allows your provider to consistently monitor your health year after year. Anything found during this visit can be addressed and monitored before it becomes more serious.

Next, use your plan to cover routine vaccinations. They protect your body and keep you strong against viral and bacterial illnesses. It helps you reduce the risk of contracting disease or spreading disease.

Your health plan may offer prescription discounts that make medication more affordable. If your healthcare provider prescribes a medication, stay healthy by taking your medication as directed, and save money in the process.

Lab work and screenings act similarly to your annual physical. If the lab work or screenings flag your doctor of potential illness, catching it early can help you stay healthy, longer.

Use Telemedicine Services

Telemedicine supports your health by providing you with cost-effective access to your medical resources. Oftentimes, telehealth copays are less expensive than an office co-pay.

Use telehealth as an opportunity to speak with your health care team regarding:

Medical test results
Lifestyle coaching
Health coaching
Consultation visits
Medication management
Chronic disease management

Patients receive the same quality of care with telehealth visits as they do in a provider’s office. Taking advantage of telemedicine services supports your health, reduces time spent at the doctor’s office, and saves money. Learn more about the top reasons why you should use telehealth here.

Eat Fruits and Vegetables

A well-balanced diet including fruits and vegetables, especially those in season, help promote your health. A few of the positive effects they have on your body include:

Lowering blood pressure
Reducing the risk of stroke
Cancer prevention
Reduce digestive issues
Support your vision
Promote weight loss
And more

Easy ways to add fruits and vegetables into your daily diet are by keeping them where you can see them, and by incorporating them into a meal itself (i.e. soups, salads, and stir-fries).

Instead of turning towards a sugary treat after a meal, try an in-season fruit. It’ll satisfy your sweet tooth and support your body’s overall health simultaneously.

Curious if the foods you think are actually healthy for you, are? Take our quiz here to find out if the foods marketed as “healthy” are actually good for you.

Drink Water

Oftentimes, the answer seems to be “drink more water.” This may be one of the best ways to spring clean your health this season because of how much it can positively impact your wellbeing.

At a basic level, water helps your body function by:

Eliminating waste through urination, and perspiration
Temperature regulation
Lubricating and cushioning joints
Protecting sensitive tissues

Dehydration can lead to fatigue and a reduction in your body’s ability to perform the way it needs to.

Other ways water supports your health is through:

Supporting brain functions
Supporting your kidneys
Aiding with digestion
Promoting clearer skin and skin elasticity

How much water should you drink a day? According to The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine men should drink at least 15.5 cups a day and women should drink at least 11.5 cups a day. One way you can increase your liquid intake is by swapping out sugary drinks for water. Your body will thank you for it.

Walk 11 Minutes A Day

Ideally, physicians recommend at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity each day. Unfortunately, the increase in more sedentary lifestyles hinders the amount of physical activity people take daily. Forbes found that the average stay-at-home employee sits for about 15 hours a day.

Sitting for the majority of the day has detrimental effects on the body. In fact, the Mayo Clinic analyzed 13 studies and found that all found, “sitting time and activity levels found in those who sat for more than 8 hours a day with no physical activity had a risk of dying similar to the risks of dying posed by obesity and smoking.”

A way to combat the negative effects sitting has on your health is by taking at least an 11-minute walk a day. The positive impact it has on your health is lifelong according to a study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine. They found that walking for at least 11 minutes a day actually combats the negative effects of sitting for long periods of time.

Take Standing Breaks

As previously mentioned, sitting for long periods of time has detrimental effects on your body. Its impact is so great that it is now coined “the new smoking.”

A few ways it hurts your body is through:

Leading to weight gain
Muscle loss
Links to lung, uterine, and colon cancer

Learn more about the long and short-term effects here.

A way to combat the negative effects of sitting is to support your health is by taking standing breaks. Ways you can do this is through:

Standing while working
Walking during meetings
Taking movement breaks
Stretch during the day
Take walks
Set timers to move around

A Final Word

Spring clean your healthy habits by implementing these habits. Together, they have a lifelong impact on supporting your overall wellbeing. For more healthy habit tips, read our article giving tips on using your health insurance to meet your health goals.

Article originally published on SBMA Benefits.

May 8, 2022

Uncategorized

Tips to Combat the Negative Effects of Sitting

Sitting is now one of the most common daily activities. Increased desk jobs and a bigger than ever stay-at-home workforce have contributed to more sedentary lives.

In fact, over a quarter of Americans sit for more than eight hours a day, and most sit for six to eight hours a day according to a report by TIME.

They call the results of sitting “the new smoking” because of the negative impacts it can have on your body. Do you sit all day? Are you tired of tight hamstrings or back pain?

Let’s dive into what sitting does to your body and how you can combat those negative effects daily.

What Does Sitting Do to Your Body?

Sitting doesn’t seem like it should or would be such a dangerous activity for your body. After all, you aren’t doing much—but that could be the point.

There are both long and short-term effects that sitting for long periods of time can have on your body. After all, they don’t call it the “new smoking” for no reason. Below are some details.

Sitting can lead to weight gain because you spend less time moving/ exercising.
Use it or lose it! You start to lose muscle in your legs and glutes because they don’t have to work to hold you up, which can cause muscle atrophy.
Sitting is linked to increased lung, uterine, and colon cancer.
Those who sit for longer periods of time are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression.
Sitting can lead to tight muscles, especially tightness in your hamstrings.
Your body can experience back pain from poor posture (i.e. hunching over a computer screen for prolonged periods of time).
You can also experience stiff shoulders and neck pain from bad posture.
There is a higher risk for heart diseases like strokes and heart attacks.
Sitting for long periods of time is linked to an increased risk of diabetes and can also lead to varicose veins.
Sitting can cause deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

There are many negative effects of sitting that can be detrimental to your health. But how do you combat them when you have to work a desk job?

Combatting the Effects of Sitting

Just because you’re sitting all day doesn’t mean that you can’t combat its negative effects —you can. (After all, this article was written while standing!)

Here’s our guide on how you can combat the negative effects of sitting all day.

1. Stand While You Work

As mentioned before, you can stand while you work. Take advantage of standing desks so you can alternate from a seated to a standing position throughout the day. This will help get blood flowing through and also build muscle.

2. Walk During Meetings

If you can, walk or stand during your scheduled meetings or calls if you don’t have to be at your desk. Plug in earbuds to move while the call takes place.

3. Take Movement Breaks

Use your breaks to walk around and help avoid staying sedentary. It’s okay to start small and work your way up to longer breaks. This might look like walking up and down your stairs, around your office, or going for a quick stroll outside. Use your best judgment to find out what type of movement you like the most.

4. Stretch During the Day

Plug in a quick and easy stretch when you wake up, take your lunch break, or take a few minutes in the middle of your day. Here’s a link from healthline for an easy five minute stretch.

Stretching can help you recenter and refocus, boosting your productivity during the day.

5. Take Walks

Working straight throughout the day without breaks isn’t healthy or productive. Schedule time to take a quick walk.

6. Keep Yourself Hydrated

While you’re reading this, drink a glass of water. Staying hydrated is great for your health and refilling your water bottle forces you to get up and move.

7. Set Timers to Stand and Move

Yes, it’s easy to start on a project and then look up only to realize a few hours have flown by. During that time, you were probably sitting hunched over your laptop or workspace.

So, consider setting a timer on your computer, phone, or watch to remind yourself to get up and move!

A Final Note

Adding walking as a healthy habit can take time and practice. It’s okay that it may not come naturally or immediately. As you slowly integrate it into your life, have patience if it doesn’t happen immediately. Little movements daily will benefit your health in the long run.

Did you know that people who use their health insurance are healthier than those who don’t? Read the different minimum essential coverage options available to you to continue making health habit choices.

Original article published on SBMA Benefits.

April 10, 2022