Whatever your lifestyle and goals, there’s a good chance that there’s something you’d like to improve. It could be that you want to be a bit more active, lose a few pounds or eat a little more healthily. Maybe you’d like to reduce your stress levels or get more sleep. Maybe you’d like to improve your money management and take control of your finances. If you’re one of Orange Genie's umbrella company employees, the good news is that our Fitness and Wellbeing service is designed to help you succeed, whatever your particular situation.
Why we want to help our umbrella company employees improve their health
You don’t need us to tell you that improving your health is a good thing, or that in the long term it really is worth the effort. But what you may not have realised is how much your health impacts the rest of your life.
Once they start looking after their health, many people report unexpected improvements in many other areas. Just being a little stronger or fitter can make everyday tasks easier, so your day just takes less out of you. More robust general health could see you taking less time off work and performing better while you’re there. Increased energy and better sleep can help you think more clearly, reduce your stress levels and make it easier to manage, whatever life throws at you. In other words, improving your health can literally transform your life, and we want all of our employees to have that opportunity.
Finding out your present position
Before you set about making changes, you need to know where you’re starting from so before we talk about the benefits of our Fitness and Wellbeing service, we’re going to introduce yet another lifestyle tool that our umbrella company employees have access to: Your Health.
There are two main parts to the Your Health service – a detailed online questionnaire to help you assess your present position, and a database of trustworthy information you can use to plan useful action once you know where you are. And you can revisit the questionnaire at any time to check your progress.
Fitness and wellbeing
Once you have a clear idea of where you are, and where you want to get to, it’s time to check out the Fitness and Wellbeing service. Before you get to the homepage, you’ll be asked to choose whether you’re looking for gym discounts or fitness and wellbeing advice. The gym discounts option takes you to a post code search so you can find participating gyms in your area. There are now over 3000 all over the UK, so there’s a good chance of finding a deal that suits you.
The Fitness and Wellbeing advice hub is split into four sections; Move, Munch, Money and Mind, with recent highlights picked out below the menu.
Move
In the Move section you’ll find a wide selection of free to stream exercise videos, organised by goal and individually labelled for duration and intensity, so you can choose a video to match your level of fitness, and how much time you have. There are sections for Strength and Toning, Cardio and HIIT and Yoga, Barre and Stretching. They range from 10 minutes to a little over half an hour.
Below the video section there are a selection of featured articles covering various fitness issues, written by a variety of respected industry experts.
How will you use the Move section?
If you’re the kind of person who likes exercise classes, or you’d like to try something like HIIT or yoga and you need some instruction to get you started, the video section will be invaluable. You can stream the videos as much as you like from any device, anywhere with an internet connection, which gives you a lot of flexibility regarding when and where you work out.
Even if exercise classes or videos are not your thing, you’ll probably find some useful information in the articles. Just browsing the first page reveals tips on how to approach your first weights program, advice for runners and cyclists, as well as myth-busting articles on backpain and weight-loss. Trustworthy information can be a rare commodity in the fitness industry, so be sure to make use of this resource whenever you need it.
Munch
The Munch section contains literally thousands of healthy recipes, with step-by-step instructions and a full nutritional breakdown. They’re organised into sections such as “family favourites”, “low calorie meals” and “quick and easy recipes”, or you can browse under a specific regional cuisine.
Beneath the recipes you will once again find a selection of articles, this time focusing on nutritional questions and again written by a variety of industry experts.
How will you use the Munch section?
If you already know how to cook and you’re generally happy with your diet, the Munch section will be most useful when you feel like making something new. You can browse for ideas, and you’re almost certain to find something exciting among the thousands of options available.
If you’re not an experienced cook and/or you want to change the way you eat, that’s when the Munch section really comes into its own. The nutritional information and clear instructions make it much easier to plan varied and satisfying meals that fit in with your goals. The variety on offer also makes it easy to shake up your diet before you get bored, and to adapt it as your goals change.
Money
The money section leads with expert articles on a variety of financial topics. They’re organised into five sections: Budgeting and Spending, Credit and Borrowing, Family and Protection, Saving, investing and Retirement and Home, Car and travel. If you have a financial question, there’s a good chance an industry expert has written about it for us.
Beneath the articles you’ll find a section called Money Tools, which includes useful budget planners and calculators for mortgages, loans and pensions provided by the Money Advice service.
How will you use the Money section?
The Money section is most useful when you have a financial question, or a specific project in mind. For example, you might want to know the timetable for buying a house, create a budget to help you pay off your credit card, or calculate your likely retirement income. Whatever your circumstances or financial goals, the will be some no-nonsense advice or a useful calculator to help you succeed.
Mind
The mind section has a series of audio recordings designed for meditation, some to help you sleep, and “soundscapes” to help you tune out and relax.
Below the audio menu you will once again find a series of expert articles, this time covering mental health issues like stress management, good quality sleep and a healthy work-life balance.
How will you use the Mind section?
If you want to explore mindfulness meditation, or if you’d like a little extra help nodding off to sleep, the audio library is extremely convenient and easy to use, and of course you can use it from any device, anywhere you can access the internet.
The articles in this section perhaps have a more universal appeal. It’s impossible to separate your mental and physical health, and we all need a little help from time to time. The tips and advice on stress management and finding balance will be useful to almost everyone at some point.
What happened when Jimmy used Fitness and Wellbeing
A series of injuries and a combination of “real life” issues had left Jimmy very overweight and extremely unhappy about it. The weight gain and his history of injuries meant he felt unsafe taking part in martial arts training, which had been his main source of physical activity and stress relief for many years, and his diet can be generously said to have been “unhealthy”.
Following what he describes as a “frightening” result in the Your Health survey, Jimmy used the Your Health database and articles in the Move section to research his options. He settled on a combination of running and barbell training as the best way to lose weight, improve his fitness and, crucially, to reduce his risk of injury. He used the gym discounts section to find a suitable gym and saved even more by finding one close to work that offered free parking. He also used the Munch section to create a weekly meal plan and to brush up his rusty cooking skills, and the videos in the Move section to keep working out when lockdown closed his gym.
It has not always been “plain sailing” and life has occasionally stalled Jimmy’s recovery. However, over the last two years Jimmy has lost more than 4 stone in weight, while getting considerably fitter and stronger. He’s taken 10 points off his BMI, which has gone from “a serious risk” to “slightly overweight”. Perhaps most importantly he’s made a safe return to martial arts training and so far, remains injury free. He still lifts, he still runs, and he still eats well. He says he never intends to stop.
Jimmy enthusiastically recommends that anyone with access to these tools makes full use of them. He says life is easier, better and more fun now he’s consistently looking after himself, and that was much easier to achieve using Orange Genie Edge.
If you have questions or if we can help in any way, please call our expert team on 01296 468483 or email info@orangegenie.com