Lawndale Tribune AND lAwNDAle News The Weekly Newspaper of Lawndale Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - January 12, 2017 How Are You Doing on Those Resolutions? By Rob McCarthy Avoid sharing your goals with co-workers New Year’s resolutions are a chance to who will sabotage your inspiration for selfimprovement. hit the reset button and make a fresh start, Instead, look for trusted people yet the 9 to 5 routine at work can derail around work who share the goals and will these annual goals that many adults set for support them. Don’t talk about your goals themselves every January. to someone you believe is pulling for you It’s natural to reboot personal and to fail, Dr. Armstrong said. “You know who career goals at the start of a year, says Dr. those people are. Trust your gut,” she added. Julie Armstrong, a psychologist with an A recently published book for employers occupational practice in Marina del Rey. and employees about well-being in the People plan their lives using patterns, starting workplace cautions goal-setters to expect with the sunrise and sunset. The annual rite of challenges sticking to their fitness and food making resolutions is a healthy pattern even plans at the office. Author Leigh Stringer in though four in five people will fail, according her work and research for Harvard School to a recent poll done ahead of January 1. of Public Policy writes that nutrition at “Every single year there’s this opportunity work often takes a backseat to meetings to start fresh, and it speaks to us about hope and deadlines, both of which are beyond and change at a personal, internal level. the employee’s control. Because what we couldn’t follow through or A culture of wellness among employees finish last year, we now get to start again,” starts when employers and companies decide Dr. Armstrong said. to assist their workers in eating better, Nearly 40 percent of Americans make New exercising and not sitting at a desk all day, Year’s resolutions, and the most common and interacting more with their officemates promise they make to themselves is to lose and co-workers. She cites case studies of weight and eat a healthier diet. No other companies that encouraged employees to goal--to quit smoking, manage finances, find change their 9 to 5 habits and grew their love--comes close to Americans’ pledges to profits while lowering employee healthcare be fitter, trimmer and more selective about costs. what they eat. The danger of putting off exercise until after Yet, according to a Statisticbrain.com work or weekends is there’s not enough time poll of Americans’ success with resolutions, to meet the weekly target of 150 minutes, less than 10 percent of adults said they Stringer writes. Cramming workouts into achieved their goals last year. The failure Saturdays and Sundays increases the risk rate was 42 percent, some of which can be of injury for “weekend warriors” and do-ityourselfers blamed on unrealistic goals that set the bar with home improvement projects, too high. “Don’t make yours a marathon if yard work and family obligations to meet, you’re not running,” Dr. Armstrong said. she cautions. “The same goes for nutrition, There are two kinds of associates who stress reduction and sleep. Waiting for the can make or break another person’s will to weekend won’t cut it,” she writes in The succeed, in Armstrong’s experience. Friends, Healthy Workplace - How to Improve the relatives, co-workers and bosses either fall Well-Being of Your Employees - and Boost into the “support” or “thwart” category, and Your Company’s Bottom Line, published she says to watch out for the naysayers in last year by the American Management the latter group. Association. Some easy-to-do suggestions in the book can be adapted to fit the New Year’s resolutions that Americans made for 2017, based on the survey results at Statisticbrain.com. Number one on the list was to lose weight and eat healthier, followed by self-improvement and life changes, smarter financial choices, quit smoking, experience more excitement, and spend time with family and friends. Stringer suggests taking the stairs more instead of riding elevators, and walking across the room or down the hall for a face-to-face conversation with a co-worker or boss instead of calling or emailing. “But walking, by itself, is not always a recipe for creating radical new ideas,” she writes. “For that, we need to bump into people and break out of our comfort zone a bit.” One study Stringer cites in The Healthy Workplace touts the benefits of walking to stimulate creativity and problem-solving. While walking outdoors brings a change of scenery and fresh air, strolling indoors or in a small, enclosed patio area also unleashes brain activity that is missing when people concentrate on a single task, she found. Walking also has been linked to better attention and short-term memory. Eating habits suffer at work and Stringer’s data shows it. Only one-third of U.S. workers take a lunch break and a majority of them eat at their desks, according to an online survey done by Right Management. The human resources consultant learned that workers who ate as they worked felt less full after a meal compared with their counterparts who pushed away from the desk for lunch. “Eating while you work is not just bad for digestion,” Stringer writes. “You actually eat more and get hungrier later.” Stringer’s tips to improve energy, creativity and physical movement within the workplace See Resolutions page 8 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................2 Classifieds............................3 Community Briefs...............3 Finance..................................7 Food.......................................5 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals................................ 6-7 Pets........................................8 Seniors..................................2 Sports....................................4 Weekend Forecast Friday Mostly Sunny 61˚/49˚ Saturday Sunny 69˚/49˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 68˚/50˚ Wintertime in the South Bay A view from nearby Torrance shows the snow-peaked Angeles National Forest/San Gabriel Mountains in the background. Winter is here! Photo by Peter Thornton
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