Session 2 - Wellness & Healthcare

February 28, 2012

Session 2 also covered health and wellness issues.  In the morning Shelly Murray from Your Wellness Connection made smoothies and shared some ideas on personal wellness.  She’s a big proponent of the health effects of leafy greens and shared some tricks on how to include more in your diet.  The smoothies were mango green.  The green was spinach.  I enjoyed it more than I expected to. This philosophy of mixing greens into our every day foods has been in practice in my own house.  My wife will often sneak vegetables into the foods we eat at home so our kids get a few nutrients from foods they wouldn’t eat on their own.  There was even the time we had brownies laced with spinach.  Yes, that’s correct.  Thankfully that only happened once.  It’s always nice to find ways to increase health in our diets.   Lunch was provided by Rachel Ciordas of the Culinary Center of Kansas City, and included a presentation with some tips on ways to lighten up some classic foods, like using greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise in chicken salad. After lunch Patti Fuhrman from the Yoga Gallery gave some demonstrations on good stretches to do at your desk to help maintain health. It turns out sitting hunched over a computer all day isn’t all that good for us.  Sitting up straight, stretching and moving about can increase energy and posture.  All good things.

The day ended with a panel discussion of health care and human resource experts.  Speakers were Trevor Wright, Cathy Davis and Collier Case.  The focus was primarily about the changes currently underway in the implementation of the health care reform.   Two takeaways I got from those conversations are: that we are moving towards a system with more individual responsibility and that there will be increased transparency to the entire health care industry.  They are seeing more and more people opt for Health Savings Account (HSA) insurance plans instead of the traditional plans.  They said that HSA insurance results in insured folks knowing more about the details of what their health care costs really are and gives them more incentive to keep plan costs down.  All the panelists were in agreement that the changes to our health care industry are necessary and that while the benefits may not be as noticeable in the short term, they will bring costs down in the long run.

That concluded Session 2. Great speakers and content. Next up is Session 3 and State Government Day in Topeka on February 29th. See you then.

Disclaimer: This blog is not sponsored by The Leadership Overland Park Program or the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce and the author is solely responsible for its content.

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