Healthy for Life Update

Wellness Incentive
The University of Missouri Total Rewards invites you to join Healthy for Life, an incentive-based wellness program designed to help you actively manage your health. By completing a personal health assessment and health screening, primary subscribers to the UM Health Care plan will receive $100 in a tax-favored account to use for medical expenses in 2012 Benefit Plan year.

This year, we’re partnering with Cerner Health to provide straightforward tools to help you work toward better health. You can participate in the program now. It’s simple. Here’s how:

1.    Create your Cerner Health account by visiting www.healthyforlife.umsystem.edu.
2.    Enter your email address and join the program.
3.    Complete your personal health assessment – an online questionnaire that helps you understand your health risks and provides you with resources to improve your well-being.
4.    Schedule your FREE health screening at a convenient time and location on campus. Your health screening provide you a look at your cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, height and weight. If your screening is before noon, fasting for 9 hours is recommended, but not required (6 hours if pregnant) and drinking 64 ounces of water the day before is suggested.

Upcoming Screenings
Feb. 21    8-12 p.m.    Quarterdeck Building, Cafeteria Hallway
Feb. 22    8-11 a.m.    Wellness Resource Center, Room G202 (WALK-INS ONLY)
Feb. 28    8-11 a.m.    Hulston Hall, Room 204
Feb. 29    8-11 a.m.    Wellness Resource Center, Room G202 (WALK-INS ONLY)
*SCHEDULE YOUR APPOINTMENT AT www.healthyforlife.umsystem.edu
Questions? Email Blaine Snow at SnowB@umsystem.edu

Weight Watchers makes enrollment changes
To sign up for any Weight Watchers class, the company is using a portal system. It’s pretty simple and flyers are attached to this email for your convenience. By signing up through the University of Missouri portal, you’ll receive a reduced rate of $39.95 per month and will use a monthly pass that allows you to attend At-Work and/or in the community and have free eTools. Weight Watchers requires 20 members register for a location to begin a meeting and 12 are needed to attend an onsite meeting (instead of the 15 in the past). Registration is open to all faculty, staff, students, family and friends. Healthy for Life will continue the 25% reimbursement for attending at 11 out of every 12 week period – at any location.  Weight Watchers fees are fully reimbursable through the Flexible Spending Account with appropriate medical documentation. For more information, visit www.wellness.umsystem.edu.

Portal Information:
The Employee Portal URL:  https://wellness.weightwatchers.com
The Company ID: 46814
The Company Passcode: WW46814

•    If you enroll through the portal and give your credit card number, you are immediately considered a Monthly Pass user and can go to any public meeting for the first time. There, you will receive your materials.  You can go ahead and attend meetings wherever you so choose. When the At-Work meeting begins, you can either switch to the At-Work meeting and/or continue attending the meeting of your choice.

•    If you join through the portal and do not give your credit card information, you will remain in a suspended state until there are 20 registered members and the At-Work meeting can begin.   At that time, you would give your credit card information and receive the program materials.

•    Those who do not attend campus meetings, but currently have a monthly pass are encouraged to change their status to MU.  This will offer preferred monthly pricing and will allow our campus programs to continue (even if you attend public meetings near home).

Possible At-Work Locations:
There is interest in having meetings at Clark Hall, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and University Hospital. If you are interested in any of these locations, please specify when you log in to the portal. You should see a field listed “Campus Location,” cite which one and once there are 20 members, we can start a class.

Drop-in and de-stress with meditation
Three decades of research suggests that engaging in a regular mindfulness meditation practice can reduce stress and enhance overall psychological and physical well-being.  Find out for yourself by taking advantage of these stress reduction meditation sessions held each week at the following locations:
Mondays:  12:15–12:45 p.m., Heinkel Building, Room 10
Wednesdays: 12:1 –12:45 p.m., University Hospital, GL-11 Conference Room
Wednesdays: 4:15–5 p.m., Hulston Hall, Room
All students, faculty, and staff are welcome. No previous experience with meditation is necessary.  For more information, contact Lynn Rossy. If you can’t make the sitting, listen to online recordings at:  http://www.umsystem.edu/ums/curators/wellness/mindfulness/guided.htm

Physical Activity classes now enrolling
Take advantage of these classes that fit your budget. Full payment is due at the beginning of the first class and space is limited. Please contact the instructor directly to register or for questions. All classes are designed so that exercises can be performed in work clothes.
•    Mar. 6-20: Core Conditioning. Memorial Union, rooms vary. Class meets on Tuesdays from 12:10-12:50 and costs $12 for the three-week session. Pre-registration by Feb. 24 is required. To sign up, e-mail Ashley Jenkins.
•    Mar. 7-21: Flex and Flow. Memorial Union, rooms vary. Class meets on Wednesdays from 12:10-12:50 and costs $12 for the three-week session. Pre-registration by Feb. 24 is required. To sign up, e-mail Ashley Jenkins.
•    Drop In, ongoing: Lunchtime-Me Time Strength Conditioning. Ellis Library, Room 4F51. Class meets every Monday and Wednesday from 12:15-12:45 p.m. and costs $1 for each class (Fee is donated to the food bank). No registration is needed and class is taught by Nani Fudge. If you have questions, click here to email Nani.
•    Drop In, ongoing: Yoga. Ellis Library, Room 4F51. Class meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 12:15-12:45 p.m. and costs $1 for each class (Fee is donated to the food bank). No registration is needed and class is taught by Glenda Moum. If you have questions, email Glenda.

Get moving in March—participate in a 5K!
Support your health and the Health Sciences Graduate Student Association by participating in its HSGSA 5K on Mar. 10th at 9 a.m. Packet pick-up and race day registration is from 8-8:45am on race day at the North entrance of the Veterinary Medicine Building. Race begins and ends at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. Parking is available. Early registration (by Feb.18) is $12 and guarantees a race T-shirt. Late registration (Feb. 19-Mar. 9) is $15. Event day registration is $20. Contact: Leryn (e-mail ljbq58@mail.missouri.edu; phone 573-882-6892) for registration form.

“Food Sense” taking registrations
Join the MU Life Sciences & Society Program at its annual symposium “Food Sense,” Mar. 16-18, 2012 on the Columbia campus. The department’s website says this about the event:

“Can sensible eating be reconciled with the sensory gratification of taste? And where does our sense of a normal or a healthy diet come from? This symposium will investigate how our taste for food is shaped by biological triggers, cultural norms, economic activity, and social surroundings and will examine how individuals, communities, and societies can make healthy choices about food in this context. We will gather experts in nutrition, taste science, psychology, cultural studies, marketing analysis, and food-science journalism, as well as chefs, to explore why we eat the way we do.”

Register on the department website: http://lssp.missouri.edu/foodsense

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