But her own wellness was far elevator
companies track. She drank the equivalent of six sodas a day, loved fast
food and didn't exercise much. So she decided to take advantage of one of the
hospital's new benefits – health coaching. are a new kind of health
professional, and it's their job to help people make those easy-to-say,
hard-to-do behavioral changes that promote good health — getting enough
exercise, eating a balanced diet, and managing stress. At first, the lifestyle
changes Orley made were very small. "<br />
We started out where my goal was to
take the stairs instead of the elevator once a day. Not even more than that but
just really manageable," she said. Soon Orley was drinking more water and less
soda. She began walking regularly and attending Pilates classes. She kicked her
fast food habit. She lost 50 pounds. Last year, 300 of Providence's 2,800
employees in Anchorage tried health coaching. Orley's coach, Kelly Heithold,
says her clients have finally made the decision to change. "<br />
When they
actually make that step and make an appointment with me, they're ready,"
Heithold said. "And they say, 'Help me. I know what I need to do, I just don't
know how to get there.'" Health coaches are still rare in the medical
profession. But they are becoming more popular as chronic and often preventable
diseases like consume more and more . Tammy Green heads up Providence's
extensive employee wellness program. She thinks coaches are an important piece
of the health care puzzle that's been missing. <br />
"Everybody wants to be
healthy," Green says. "We just have not been able to help them achieve those
goals with our traditional approach." In three years of health coaching,
Providence has seen a small but steady decrease in the number of obese employees
– from 36 percent in 2009 to 32 percent in 2011. Green says blood pressure and
cholesterol levels are lower, and fewer employees are smoking. "Something's
happening and you can pretty much assure yourself that if we hadn't been doing
anything, we certainly wouldn't be seeing those trends," Green says.