Live Well Kosciusko celebrates successful program cohort

Live Well Kosciusko held a celebration dinner Tuesday, March 14, to reflect on a successful first cohort of their Clock Into Potential program.

Live Well is a local nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of the health and well-being of Kosciusko County residents. The Clock Into Potential program is a part of its healthy community initiative and was created and intended to ensure members of the community are thriving in their personal and professional lives.

The program consisted of three monthly workshops and one-on-one coaching from a mentor to help participants determine the areas they can grow in, develop a better un- derstanding of themselves and their strengths and develop fiscal responsibility and habits to set them up for financial success and maximize their network within the county.

Between September and October 2022, 5,000 Gallup wellbeing surveys were distributed in Kosciusko County in an effort to evaluate how residents felt about their physical, financial and professional standing, fulfillment of their purpose and their place in the community.

Twenty-six percent of survey recipients responded, which revealed when compared to 156 metro surveys, Kosciusko County scored 20th in the country.

Live Well President and CEO Lisa Hartman stated although the survey reflected “good” statistics, Live Well wanted to create an initiative that would improve them further.

How to build a balanced breakfast

Making healthier choices can be difficult, overwhelming or even frustrating. However, it doesn’t have to be. If we find something we like and it is easy to follow, we are more likely to stick to it.

For some people, they don’t like to eat breakfast. On the other hand, some people rely on breakfast to get them through the day. Research has shown you are not fueling your body when you are depriving it. The goal is to fuel your body to improve your mental and physical health throughout the day. This usually means combining a multitude of things in your daily morning routine including breakfast.

Sometimes it just takes a bit of intentional planning for something to stick long term. Eating a toaster pastry or donut won’t fuel your body or your brain until lunch. The key is to include all five food groups in your breakfast (or any meal). By including complex carbohydrates, proteins and whole grains, you increase your chances of staying fuller longer.

If you eliminate heavily processed foods such as items with a lot of sugar, you decrease the risk of excessive hunger, heart disease and more. By balancing your breakfast in the morning, you are helping regulate and reduce the urge to snack throughout the day.

One example of a healthier breakfast option could be whole wheat toast, peanut butter and a banana. Another option could be oatmeal, blueberries and chia seeds. You can incorporate foods you like but that don’t take a lot of time to prepare. In many cases, there is an option to make certain foods overnight so they are readily available in the morning such as overnight oats. These can be prepared the night before and stuck in the fridge with no cooking needed. It doesn’t always need to be complex. It needs to work for you and your lifestyle.

Hartman also expressed her gratitude for the role many local businesses played in the startup of the program as they contributed to the cost of the Gallup survey.

Amanda Eshelman, HR leader of Global IT at Zimmer Biomet and Live Well Career Purpose Committee member, spoke at the event.

“As we were exploring the data (from the survey), this program kind of revealed itself to us through the needs of the community,” she said. “We looked at our collective talents and what we had experience doing and came up with this curriculum.”

Eshelman was responsible for the introduction of Discovery Insights to the program, which is a type of personality test used in one of the workshops dedicat- ed to relationships and community involvement.

“One of the things I love about Insights is that it helps us see, at a deeper level, that people naturally see the world differently,” she said. “When you can figure out where and why you come from a certain place, you learn to identify why and how other people tend to view the world.”

The participants were asked for feedback, as it was the first session of the program. They all expressed they enjoyed the personality test, had meaningful breakthroughs with their mentors and were able to make changes in their lives, both small and large, that have benefited them immensely.

Program Mentor Karen Erba, who attended the dinner, stated, “Understanding your purpose and the greater meaning is really what drive everything in your life, so it was really powerful to give the mentors and mentees the opportunity to really examine that.”

The Live Well Career Purpose Committee stated they plan to hold another session of Clock Into Potential in the future and expressed their gratitude to all the volunteer mentors from the community.