Keep Your Holidays Healthy and Happy with ‘Festive Fit Focus’

A self-guided initiative from Duke’s employee wellness team offers weekly support to help staff and faculty eat well, move more and manage stress during the busy season

A graphic reads Festive Fit Focus

Seven years ago, Cheryl Bolton learned she had uterine cancer. She completed treatment for the disease, passed the five-year cancer-free milestone, but still struggles from the effects of surgery and lymphedema in her legs.

Bolton, an Advanced Respiratory Therapist at Duke Pulmonary Rehab in Raleigh, tries to maintain healthy habits to alleviate any lingering symptoms. When she learned that LIVE FOR LIFE, Duke’s employee wellness program, offered a self-guided Festive Fit Focus to help staff and faculty stick to a healthy lifestyle over the holidays, she didn’t hesitate to sign up last year.

“The holiday season can be very stressful,” Bolton said. “It helped me stay on track with my health journey.”

Cheryl Bolton, center, stands with her daughters
Cheryl Bolton, center, stands with her daughters Sofia, left, and Monica, right. Photo courtesy of Cheryl Bolton

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The program, which begins Nov. 3 and runs through Jan. 2, provides support, tips and encouragement for employees who want to maintain their weight and overall wellness during the winter holiday season. Registration is open.

Throughout the program, participants receive weekly emails with tips for adopting or maintaining healthy behaviors. The emails include healthy recipes, stress management tools and physical activity suggestions – along with encouraging messages.

Each week, employees confidentially report their weight online by the end business day every Monday. At the conclusion of the program, participants receive LIVE FOR LIFE Dollars that correspond with the number of times they reported their weight.

For Bolton, encouragement last year through the program helped her manage the stress that comes from juggling the demands of visiting relatives in Chicago and Boston while also squeezing in time with her two daughters and twin granddaughters, who turned 3 in June. That added pressure came amid her efforts to get back into shape following her cancer treatments.

The healthy recipes included in the weekly emails were particularly useful, Bolton said. With so many tempting tasty treats during the holidays, the average person gains 0.8 to 2 pounds in the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, the Journal of Obesity estimates.

“It helped keep me focused and not get overwhelmed with work and the holiday season,” she said. “It reminds you to not forget your own health.”

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