Start! Walking at Work

“If you spend your day behind a desk you know hours can sometimes pass before you get up. ‘It's so easy to get tied down, you're so busy you think you really just don't have the time,’ said Simone Stone of Ferguson Enterprises in Newport News. She and her co-workers now make time to get up and walk, ‘We kind of pull each other away and say yes you do have ten minutes.’ Simone says The company is behind them 100%. They even painted red hearts along a one mile path where they say many walkers joggers and bikers spend lunch breaks. They've added healthy choices, like water and fruit to the vending machines and posted signs to encourage (or as Simone says guilt you into ) taking the stairs. Company communications Coordinator Amanda Wroten tells Ten On Your Side, ‘there's not a huge cost assoicated with what we've done but (again) its investing in our people. Our people are our most imporant asset, so if we can take care of them we're going to take care of the company.’ Ferguson started its program three years ago. The company doesn't keep any statistics, but the American Heart Association does. ‘Its going to be a benefit to you as an employer because its going to help you with your healthcare costs down the road,’ said Tracy Ashley AHA Hampton Roads Vice President. Ashely says even little changes can make a big difference, ‘for one thing you're moving you're gettng your heart beat up and racing second its setting the tone that you're changing your lifestyle.’ Simone says its changed her whole family Her boys help count calories and go to the gym with her in the evenings. ‘I defiently fell off the exercise wagon and once we started walking it puts it back into focus. It reminds you you need to get up and do something.’ and that's the whole idea. National Start walking day this year is April 8th.”

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/health_wavy_newportnews_startwalking_20090217