On September 7, Jay Seifert, co-founder of the LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative will present the LoneStart 21-Day Challenge to more than 80 Otto Kaiser Memorial Hospital employees. The program kicks-off the hospital’s own commitment to lasting weight loss and long-term health and wellness.

Nancy Kinkler, chief executive officer at Otto Kaiser Memorial Hospital, says the LoneStart program is important to the hospital because it "promotes what we’re all about—taking a proactive approach to health and wellness. It’s more than just losing weight or exercising, it’s making a permanent change in lifestyle."

The LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative is a common-sense program that provides participants with the opportunity, information, motivation and support to achieve their weight loss and healthy lifestyle goals, to overcome the inertia of inactivity, make better dietary choices and take charge of their personal health. It is a first step, a jumpstart, that changes the way participants think about their health and wellness, enabling them to go from negative, passive and frustrated, to positive, active and empowered. It is the first program of its kind that addresses the serious effects of obesity, overweight and lack of physical activity on our society and health care system—and proposes a strategy for real and lasting change based on individual choice and responsibility.

Kinkler says, "Tying a wellness program to individual responsibility means everyone benefits, employees, families and patients. Absenteeism is reduced and the hospital’s overall healthcare costs are reduced. Everyone wins."

While the LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative is a weight loss program, it is much more. It is the first step to long-term health and wellness. The Initiative focuses on how fundamental changes in dietary choices and level of physical activity can produce real and perceptible improvements in health, energy levels, weight loss, sense of wellness and appearance. It is based on established principles of social psychology and social psychophysiology and is designed to enable the participant to recognize motivational triggers, build momentum and increase confidence through moment-by-moment, day-to-day choices.

According to Seifert of LoneStart, "The LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative is personally challenging yet easily achievable. It requires a small commitment of time but a major commitment to self. It is a jumpstart three-week program, and can be repeated over and over. It’s a small-step challenge to long-term success. The program focuses on lifestyle changes that change lives."

"This is an opportunity for us to not only reinforce our role as the wellness resource in our community, but to make an investment in our most important resource, the employees and staff of our hospital," says Kinkler.

For additional information, please contact Nancy Kinkler at nkinkler@okmh.net, or call: 830-583-3401.

For more information on this, visit the LoneStart web site at www.LoneStartNow.com.