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January 7, 2010
With-U Challenges OC to STRIP (Spare Tire Reduction Incentive Program)
New 8-Week Health Challenge Follows Popular Holiday Incentive Prize Program
Jan. 7, 2009, Orange County, Calif.—Wellness In Total Health University (With-U), an Orange County-based online health education program, will follow up its popular Holiday Health Challenge, featuring a $1,500 cash grand prize, with STRIP, the Spare Tire Reduction Incentive Program. The eight-week, team-based healthy lifestyle competition will promote health and wellness with bi-weekly weigh-ins, weekly assigned nutrition and exercise goals, online support services and $2,000 in cash prizes and other incentives.
The STRIP competition will kick-off with an initial weigh-in on Saturday, Jan. 16, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Runner’s High in Irvine, and will end with a final weigh-in on Saturday, March 13.
With-U CEO Lindsey Fernandez said the company decided to kick off 2010 with a new health challenge due to the success of its eight-week Holiday Health Challenge that ended Dec. 28. The 90 participants in that event lost a cumulative total of 475 pounds, with 92 percent of participants either losing weight or maintaining their weight during the often-fattening holiday season. The winning Pink Ponies team, comprising five members of a Tustin, Calif., family, lost a cumulative 100 pounds to gallop away with the $1,500 cash grand prize.
“We’re finding that the team approach is extremely motivating,” Fernandez said. “Most people don’t want to let their teammates down, so they work harder to complete assignments and stick to healthy behaviors than they might if they were not accountable to others.
“At the end of the Holiday Health Challenge, many of the participants were so pleased with their achievements they were sorry to see it end. The team competition worked so well that the With-U team decided to hold quarterly health challenges during 2010, beginning with the STRIP Challenge in January.”
In addition to a $1,500 grand prize, the STRIP Challenge will offer bi-weekly drawings for cash prizes based on weight loss, inches lost and completion of health and nutrition assignments. Registration is $40 per individual or $200 per team. Participants must be age 18 or older and may form their own five-person teams or be assigned to a team. Contestants will again have access to WITH-U’s proprietary online POG (Plan Of Goals) system for setting and tracking personal fitness goals. Each contestant will receive a weekly newsletter and assigned exercise and lifestyle goals. Contestants will weigh in bi-weekly at Runner’s High in Irvine. Individual weights will remain confidential. Participants who do not wish to lose weight may still compete by completing the weekly POGs, which are designed to benefit people of all fitness levels.
With-U specializes in employee and student wellness programs for businesses and educational institutions utilizing its proprietary online POG (Plan Of Goals) system. For more information about the With-U STRIP Challenge and other upcoming health challenges, visit or call 714-832-8590.
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July 30, 2009
New WITH-U vice president of sales combines sales, fitness expertise
July 30, 2009, Tustin, Calif. - Lisa Sindoni, B.S., CPT, has joined the staff of Tustin-based Wellness In Total Health University (WITH-U) as its vice president of sales. WITH-U provides Web-based health and wellness programs for corporations, educational institutions and non-profits.
Sindoni’s career experience includes 19-plus years in sales and sales management, marketing online solutions such as research applications, information management systems, internet marketing tools and litigation software to attorneys and law firms.
Even as she built a successful corporate sales career, Sindoni earned certifications as a massage therapist and as a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Certified Professional Trainer.
“We are very fortunate to have found in Lisa someone who has both great sales skills and a commitment to wellness and physical fitness,” said WITH-U founder and owner Lindsey Fernandez. “She has experienced first-hand the benefits of a health and fitness regimen in managing stress and coping with the demands of a fast-paced corporate environment. That makes Lisa the perfect person to communicate the value of an employee wellness plan to executives and administrators who are looking for ways to maximize workplace efficiency while keeping health and absentee costs down.”
Sindoni said grueling, 60-hour work weeks were typical in her previous position. “I lived the life that corporate America is living, struggling to balance a demanding career with home and family,” she said. “I experienced the importance of staying healthy and motivated and of having a healthy, motivated sales team in order to succeed in the corporate world.”
Sindoni, who describes herself as a recreational racer, has completed several 5K and 10K races and half-marathons. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.
WITH-U (Wellness In Total Health University) is a state-of-the-art health and preventive wellness system that aims to revolutionize the way individuals manage their personal lives and fitness goals and provide an effective management tool for corporations, non-profit organizations and educational institutions seeking to reduce employee healthcare and insurance expenses and reduce absenteeism and the negative impact of “presenteeism.” WITH-U offers self-paced, online courses designed to teach users how to create their own wellness plans, incorporating a proprietary online program called POGS (Plan Of Goals System). WITH-U is a division of Rough-Fit Inc., a successful fitness and training company founded by Fernandez in 2002. For more information, visit www.with-u.com or call 714-832-8590.
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June 15, 2009: NSG
Tustin-based Online Health and Fitness Education System
Key to Healthcare Reform Efforts
June 15, 2009, Irvine, Calif.—Faced with salary freezes, layoffs and rising healthcare premiums, National Services Group (NSG) found a proactive way to improve both employee well being and the corporate bottom line - a new online health education program for employees.
To help offset the cutbacks and boost the productivity and morale of the mostly 20-something employees at NSG’s Irvine, Calif., headquarters, the company enrolled in an online health education program, WITH-U (Wellness In Total Health University). “With economic forces creating a ‘lean’ corporate environment, we wanted to create some ‘value added’ for our employees,” said NSG Chief Administrative Officer Tracy Meneses. “WITH-U offered an easy-to-use program that fit our corporate culture and was fun for employees but also offered them the opportunity to focus on and improve their personal health and fitness.”
Elected officials and policy-makers of all persuasions agree that with rising rates of obesity, obesity-related health problems and skyrocketing healthcare costs, Americans must shift priorities to embrace healthier lifestyle choices and prevention. In a speech to the American Medical Association today, Pres. Barack Obama singled out Safeway’s “Health Measures” program, which he said has helped the company cut health care costs by 13 percent and enabled workers to save more than 20 percent on their premiums. “Five of the costliest illnesses and conditions - cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lung disease, and strokes - can be prevented. And yet only a fraction of every health care dollar goes to prevention or public health,” Obama said.
Last week, speaking in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Obama praised corporations such as Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson for implementing employee health and wellness initiatives, including online programs such as With-U, describing “a computerized system so you can check your progress on an ongoing basis, just by logging on through the company.”
Approximately half of NSG’s employees participated in With-U’s “5 Weeks to a Healthier You,” the first program in a planned series of four offered free to employees on a voluntary basis. Employees received online training in fitness and nutrition, then used With-U’s proprietary online POG (Plan Of Goals) System to set wellness goals, track exercise and healthy eating successes and receive incentives and support. Employees competed for weekly rewards of American Express gift cards and Subway gift certificates. A weekly newsletter reported on the group’s statistical successes and prize winners.
Employees who participated in the first five-week With-U program experienced significant health and wellness improvements.
- Employees started a walking club as a way of motivating themselves to meet their activity goals and continued the club even after the five-week program ended.
- Several employees lost significant amounts of weight during the five weeks and continue to progress.
- Employee morale, productivity and team spirit showed marked improvement.
Following an on-site fitness assessment by With-U’s team of certified fitness professionals, NSG employees are set to begin a second five-week session that will be focused on core strength.
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March 2007: KPMG
KPMG Team Fights Sarbanes-Oxley Stress with Physical Training
Partner initiates employee fitness program as antidote to high stress, long hours
Irvine, CA - KPMG executive Kimberly Roush saw high stress and long hours ahead for her group of 50 Southern California auditors. In spring 2005 KPMG client companies would face for the first time extensive new audit requirements mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. “I knew that we were heading into unprecedented times,” Roush says.
Enacted in response to the Enron and other corporate accounting scandals, the new law requires detailed audits of companies’ internal controls, in addition to traditional financial audits. As audit deadlines approached, Roush’s group, which specializes in auditing information technology systems, was anticipating weeks of high stress and 16-hour days. Based on personal experience, Roush was convinced that her employees, many of whom are recent college graduates or new managers, would benefit from a program to help reduce stress and improve the balance between their work and personal goals.
With support from KPMG, Roush enrolled each of her employees in Rough-Fit, a Santa Ana-based company that provides personalized, holistic outdoor fitness training programs for adults, with a focus on helping individuals achieve health and fitness in body and mind. In addition to access to group training classes at a subsidized cost and one-on-one counseling, KPMG employees had access to the online Rough-Fit iTool, which assists with customized goal setting, and Body Map™, a state-of-the-art Web-based assessment tool developed by the National Academy of Sports Medicine to help trainers identify clients’ muscle imbalances and design individually tailored corrective programs. A point system measured the level of employees’ participation and their success at achieving personal exercise and lifestyle goals.
Roush took the Rough-Fit program a step further by personally monitoring employees’ participation and applauding their successes. What she learned in the process affirmed her belief in the importance of physical exercise and work-life balance: those employees who worked hardest and were most productive during the hard-driving weeks of Sarbanes-Oxley preparation were those who participated most fully in the Rough-Fit program. In addition to helping employees attain personal goals, the program also emphasizes setting clearly defined goals and prioritizing time use, skills that are valuable in business and management.
Surveys have shown that employees want a balance between work and other areas of life, such as time with family, health and recreation. However, in high-stress corporate environments, such balance often is difficult to achieve. “I wanted to do something to help them achieve that balance,” Roush said. “KPMG wants to be an employer of choice. We benefit from better employee retention, and our clients benefit from services provided by experienced, long-term employees.”
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