Health Blog

What Are Your Thoughts?

Doug Kronenberg, the Chief Strategy Officer here at Lumenos, has been writing about his weight loss efforts in The Weight Burn Off blog. If you haven't been following his posts, his most recent entry cited a story about one man's efforts to encourage weight loss for an overweight gentleman who was doing contracting work for his company.

Doug's comments and ideas around this story were thought-provoking for me because I need to drop a few (25 ) pounds myself - I'm curious what the rest of you out there think. Read what Doug wrote below and then post your comments and/or ideas.

I read an interesting article last week. Seems there was a rather successful real estate tycoon who was negotiating a deal with a contractor to complete a project for his company. In the middle of the negotiations the tycoon stopped and told the contractor that if he didn't lose 60 lbs he probably wasn't going to live to see the project to completion. If he wanted the job he needed to drop the weight. They agreed on 30 lbs and included an nice financial incentive if he hit the date. He did and the project moved forward. It sure would make life a lot easier if we could have those frank conversations. Not sure how many friends you'd make but ...... I'd be interested to see what others think. Should we be that direct with our clients, our employees, ourselves? Imagine an email campaign with the theme; "Lose that weight or say goodbye to the kids". Would it get people motivated or annoyed. Let me know. If you like it, I've got a couple of other ideas I'm working on.

Doug Kronenberg, Lumen Strategist (for today)

Published Aug 04 2006, 10:34 AM by cklasic

Comments

	astrader said: I think ideally we should be that direct with ourselves, at least. Although any such frank conversations (internal or external) should be based on healthy ambitions. An example of what I think is an unhealthy frank conversation would be from the most recent "Making the Band" season on MTV. Sean "Diddy" Combs comments negatively about his contestants/employees, but not out of concern for their health (he said D. Woods was "'one hamburger away' from being too big for the group"). Granted, this is a reality show, and he could be saying that for ratings, but I'm sure there are plenty of real world examples that are the same. http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/makingtheband3/episode/episode.jhtml?episodeId=106067#/ontv/dyn/makingtheband3/episode/summary.jhtml?episodeId=106067 I like the idea of being hard, frank, and realistic with myself and loved ones, but I would be wary of the same conversations with clients and employees. August 21, 2006 1:49 PM
	exerciseisfun said: I sure hope that what some cash could do in the short term for that contractor's weight somehow moved into actual lifelong habits and weight loss retention. Money as incentive is rather fleeting. I do think that genuine concern for others' health could help us to find words or creative ideas to help others who are not living within the healthiest lifestyles. But the concern must be genuine to be received favorably. November 28, 2006 10:36 PM
	donlsue said: I think it's very hard when other people give ultimatums on weight. For me I would just run to eat more. A more supportive approach might be better. If losing weight and exercising were just a matter of threats and motivation no one would be fat. There are emotional components to eating that override common sense. I believe there are true addictions to certain foods. Until you walk in someone else's shoes I think it's hard to judge that person. I think the concern expressed has to be out of concern, not threats. I've been overweight off and on for years, felt ashamed of it, know what I need to do, do it and then can't maintain it. Maybe this man has had the same problems. December 16, 2006 10:23 PM