SuperWellness programme lead Lucille Bleekers interviews Jasmyn Small about her experience of the 6-week metabolic kick-start programme run by SuperWellness for the team at Real Estate Management (REM). The programme was branded ‘Spring Into Summer’ and run in conjunction with a step challenge introduced by REM. Watch the interview below and read further down for a summary of the conversation and some of the key points shared by Jasmyn.

• “The 6-week programme got many people together across departments. It’s been fantastic for the team and obviously we haven’t seen each other for a while due to various restrictions and lock down so it’s been a really nice experience just to meet up with people and to share this experience together. Trying to focus on our health and wellbeing gets us back out into the outdoors.”

• “The step challenge has been fantastic across the board. A nice bit of healthy competition, but also if you weren’t the fastest walker or did the most steps, there were lots of other things along the way, including like competitions with photography, taking a picture of water and a nice little prizes along the way. It’s been really, really good.”

• Jasmyn’s reasons for joining the programme: “we’ve had some time where we’ve been indoors, we’ve been not so active. There’s been a lot of changes in our lifestyles, a little bit more sedentary in some ways and it was quite a nice time to assess our own health and where we are with it and then try and make some positive changes.” “I think I kind of got into a bit of a rut. Food-wise, definitely ordering lots of takeaways personally and the family. And I think just the thought of kind of having to come back into the real world, come back into the office. So it was quite a nice way to assess where we are and then try to make positive changes.”

• Some of the benefits: “Looked at the amount of takeaways and fast foods we were eating in our household and really tried to cook a lot more, nice fresh foods. And then just getting back out, making sure we get the 10,000 steps a day. It’s been a really positive impact just generally. And the webinars really helped us as well – really informative and a focus on the different nutrients that we need, Vitamin D for example. It’s been really good overall.

• “It was really nice healthy competition between people that wouldn’t necessarily interact in the office or departmentally. We have meetings with people, but they often the same people weekly, the same departments, because we’re working on certain projects and you wouldn’t necessarily see somebody who works and in accounts for example. This was quite a nice way to actually see them again after a while and catch up with them.”

• “In my household generally, we’ve been having a lot more fruit and vegetables, which I think makes a difference. And if I cook, it’s always the healthier option. And it’s definitely had a positive effect on my husband. He’s actually training for a marathon so I don’t know if that’s a by-product of this programme. I think he saw me out and about getting up and walking and hefelt he needed to do something for his own health too.”

• What would you say to someone whose company is putting on a similar program? “The feedback from our team has been fantastic. It’s been really nice to do something that’s not just work as well. They’re investing in your wellbeing and you as a human as well, not just as an employee and I think that’s been really, really beneficial. It’s quite a nice thing for people to get together socially, but you also get to focus on your health and your wellbeing. We’re lucky at REM to have a great health and safety team with Mark and Ella. They’ve been really pushing for it and investing the time and the effort into this program. It’s been brilliant.

• What would you say to an organization  that’s thinking of embarking on this kind of a program? “I think it’s absolutely something that employers should be doing for their staff, especially as we’ve been through a lot over the last 18 months or so, but just generally to give some time to your employees, to give some time for them to look at their health is only going to be beneficial for a company.

• What made you decide to join the SuperChamps Programme as a next step? “It was definitely off the back of the program. After the six weeks, I wanted to carry on promoting health and wellbeing in our company and then also selfishly to have a focus on my own health I think is, is really important. And we’ve had some great handouts, posters and information from the toolkist provided from the SuperChamps Program. So we’ve been using that in our intranet internally, it’s fantastic content for me as I run our internet as well, so it’s been really, really positive.”

Find out more about the 6-week metabolic kickstart programme

Read about our SuperChamps programme

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