Wednesday January 24th I attended a workshop titled Wellness & Work / Motivation & Lifestyle. Although it does not seem from the title that this workshop is work related, I would beg to differ. Any measure that we as employees can take to make ourselves healthier and more motivated, is I think ultimately good for our employer. UNB seems to realize this fact by offering and re-offering this workshop to their employees.
I found it to be an excellent workshop. Our facilitator Gord McNeilly is a former UNB student, basketball player and he played professional basketball for a time in Europe. Gord McNeilly now lives in PEI were he is officially an employee of the federal government, but he is on leave and is running his personal business called UFIT. Gord told us one of his main goals at in working at the government was to get out of government and this looks like his ticket.
The workshop could be broken down into three parts, motivation, nutrition and action. In the morning, Gord spoke about motivation, which I think of as the most important part of this day. Without the personal motivation to improve your health, the rest of this day would be useless. Being a fairly healthy and active guy myself, I think Gord hit all of the right buttons in this regard. He spoke about the barriers to getting active, commitment, accountability, embracing change, setting goals, passion, balance, resolve, attitude, confidence, planning, social support, distractions, pitfalls, and risks vs rewards. Gord sprinkled his talk with personal anecdotes of successes he has had with his clients. He also produced some very meaningful quotes, like �to change first start thinking differently.� I take much of this part of the talk to heart, because I realize it takes a certain mind set to make regular activity an important part of my life. I make the time rather than taking the time in my busy life for these activities.
The section on nutrition was good as well and very appropriate. Some very basic rules of nutrition were promoted like eating a balanced diet according to Canada�s Health Guide. Drinking lots of water and timing your meals throughout the day was also encouraged. I think in most cases people with weight problems have fallen away from good eating habits and fail to eat properly according to their size (height) and activity level.
Finally, in the afternoon Gord introduced us to some of his exercise programs. These programs a mostly aerobics based classes that can be tailored to individual needs. We also did about 25 minutes of aerobics near the end of the session. Not being a highly coordinated or graceful individual, I struggled with some parts of this routine, but it was a lot of fun and we generated enough heat to warm up that room about 10 degrees. I enjoyed the activity immensely as I do with most physical activity.
Gord McNeilly did his presentation with positive humor, intelligence and enthusiasam, which impressed me and I think he made a connection with most of the participants on this day. I would highly recommend this workshop to everyone and I am quite sure he will be returning to UNB for more of the same work.