A representative from my employer’s insurance company came to speak at a faculty meeting yesterday about a wellness initiative being undertaken in the school district. Who knew teachers had so many health problems?
Because of an earlier email, I had logged in and set up an account on the preliminary Web site for the program, but, now that the program is in full swing, the full site is open to the employees. Like many other wellness programs, there are rewards & such with partners like iTunes, Amazon, and so on, and the ability to log exercises via pedometer. What is new to me for this program (the district tried a similar program a few years ago without success) is the ability to import data from HRMs. Trouble is, Suunto data – the brand of HRM I have – is not supported, only data from Polar, Garmin, & Nike+. A message dropped to Suunto yesterday has not been returned.
So my quandary is this: Should I look into a different brand of HRM in order to maximize my participation in the wellness program? Sure, I can manually enter stuff, but the point values are much lower than for imported data (examples: Olympic, half, & full IM triathlons all have the same, relatively low, point value; runs are listed only up to 12 miles – which holds the same point value as a full IM). The goal of the program is to generate more physically-active, health conscious employees, leading, eventually, to a reduction in insurance costs to both the district and the employees, and there seems no better time to start shopping around than at the San Antonio Marathon Expo this weekend. Kind of kidding on that last part, but I am eyeing a 310xt, if prices are lowered due to the release of the 910xt (my other choice).
Drop a line for how you maximize your participation in your employer’s wellness program, and/or musings on upgrading hardware in order for me to maximize participation in this one.