Abstract:

Effective physical and emotional stress management is central to ensuring the well-being of working professional students. As corporations and education systems seek to prioritize the well-being of their constituents, devising a wellness program structured to the unique needs of the individual is essential.

The solution lies in “Live Well: The Habit-Based Wellness Program”, designed for working professionals to improve physical wellness by implementing nourishing nutrition, movement, and sleep/self-care habits that support an energy balance that sustains a healthy body while enhancing the quality of life. Each of these three pillars of physical wellness, nutrition, movement, and sleep/self-care, are addressed in a progressive, scaffolded approach consisting of three phases: Awareness, Baseline, and Customization. These three phases are the fundamental components, or the literal ABCs, to progress. To help with follow-through, this program encourages engagement while leveraging competition and teamwork between participants through team challenges that address one of the three pillars. During Live Well, participants focus on one new habit a week, for a total of 15 weeks. Throughout their experience, a Fitbit smartwatch will measure the impact of the program on quantitative health variables, such as heart rate, sleep time, sleep stage, daily activity and step count. Although the program is still under current development and data is only in the early stage of collection, investigating heart rate further is of interest. Minimum heart rate can give a glimpse into cardiovascular efficiency.

If acute stress is experienced, the smartwatch could serve as a diagnostic tool to advise appropriate action (I.e. take 5 deep breaths, or walk briefly). If the stress persists and is wide-spread (systemic?), intervention at an administrative level of the corporation or scholastic institution could be more effective in addressing the underlying cause of the stress (I.e. providing helpful resources or scheduling a meeting). Live Well is the future of effective stress management by improving physical wellness of the individual and providing the missing link between working professionals well-being and effective leadership.

Keywords:

Well-being, Habit-based, Customization, Smartwatch.