7 tips to survive Thanksgiving and a recipe from our team to yours
Thanksgiving can pack a punch to your diet, but it doesn't have to completely derail you. There are a few things you can do throughout the day to make sure it's not a tragedy.
Once you read through the tips, make sure to check out the recipe for one of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes.
1. Don't starve yourself before the big meal
It may seem like a good idea to "save" room by skipping breakfast and possibly lunch before the big meal is served. But if you show up starving, you're likely to eat like you've been deserted on an island.
It's suggested eating about an hour before the big meal can help. Try one of these options: 2 to 3 ounces of lean protein (e.g. a 3-ounce can of tuna), two boiled eggs, a bowl of vegetable soup or some raw veggies.
2. Keep it green
Thanksgiving isn't known for piles of green vegetables, but it's a good way to balance out all the starches and heavy meats.
Some options: raw baby kale, baby spinach or a collard green salad with red onions, sun-dried tomatoes and real crumbled bacon on top.
3. Upgrade your grains
White rolls and pasta are delicious, but you can upgrade your meal by choosing whole grain options instead. Whole-grain rolls, artichoke pasta or brown rice are good options. Or if you're adventurous quinoa, amaranth or buckwheat are also great.
4. Eat mindfully
Slow down and enjoy each bite and when you feel about 80 percent full- take a break. You can always go back for seconds.
5. Stay active
While Thanksgiving is a day for eating and football, starting your day with a bit of exercise will get the blood flowing and make you feel a little less guilty about sitting down to a massive meal.
Some options: many communities will hold Turkey Trot 5k events, or head to the local park to toss the football and take a walk, or you could just head outside for a walk/run in the neighborhood.
6. Light on the alcohol
Unfortunately, alcohol is packed with excess calories. For example, that glass of wine could pack on an extra 150 calories to your meal.
7. Indulge your sweet tooth
Go ahead and have some pie, but grab the small plate for your sweet tooth sampling.
Still planning your Thanksgiving meal? Here's a recipe favorite of Saxon's team:
Caramel Apple Pie
1 whole pie crust
6 cups (to 7 cups) peeled and sliced Granny Smith apples
½ whole (juice of) lemon
½ cup sugar
4 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup flour
1-1/2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup quick oats
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup Pecans, chopped
½ jar (or more) Caramel Topping
- In a bowl mix peeled apples, lemon juice, sugar, 4 tablespoons of flour, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Set aside.
- For crumb topping, cut the butter into the ½ cup of flour with a pastry cutter, then add in brown sugar, oats, and ¼ teaspoon salt.
- Add apples to the prepared pie shell and top with crumb topping.
- Cover crust edges with aluminum foil and bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes.
- Remove foil from crust and place back into the oven for another 30 minutes.
- Chop pecans, and when 5 minutes remain, sprinkle them over the pie.
- Finish baking.
- Remove the pie from the oven and pour ½ jar of the caramel topping over the top.
Be ready to weather any storm
No matter where you live in the United States, a storm's aftermath could leave you scrambling if you aren't prepared. Most people cover the basics in their storm preparation: fill your gas tank, flashlight, portable radio and stock up on non-perishable items.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency recommends having 3 days worth of food and water on hand. But which foods are best? And what can you buy now that will keep?
Health.com offers a list of "18 Crucial Foods and Health Supplies You Need Before a Big Storm". We've boiled the list down to four main categories.
Water
Winter storms and hurricanes can sometimes make access to drinking water a tough find. It's suggested to store 1 gallon of water per person in your home for a three-day supply. That's because the average person drinks 1 gallon of water per day depending on age, physical activity level, and overall health. You may need more than 1 gallon per person if it's hot outside.
And to make sure your bottles of water are used for drinking, fill up a bathtub or sink with water for washing, bathing and flushing the toilet.
Food
Non-perishable food items can be kept on hand for weeks or months. And if you're stocked, there will be no reason to go out in the last minute rush to fill your pantry.
Suggested foods:
- Apples and oranges can hold for several weeks and are both more than 80 percent water, and are rich in nutrients.
- Dried, canned fruits with no gels, syrups or added sugar are the next best thing to fresh fruit.
- Ready-to-eat canned vegetables are a quick grab when you need a snack. But be sure to grab the "low sodium" options.
- Canned tuna, salmon and sardines may not be your first choice, but it can make a quick an easy meal when natural disaster is looming. Not to mention the long shelf life.
- Comfort foods aren't very nutritious, but it's called comfort food for a reason. FEMA recommends having some on hand to soothe you and your family during a potentially stressful situation.
- Nut butter and nuts can help fill you up on protein and healthy fats. Just be sure to buy unsalted nuts. No need to increase your thirst.
- Protein bars offer a big dose of calories when you can't cook full meals.
First-Aid
- A first-aid kit is a must all year round. But when disaster is looming it's best to check your supplies. Make sure to have band-aids, bandages, and antibiotic cream.
- Hand sanitizer is great way to fight germs when the water supply is limited. A bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer that's 60-95 percent alcohol is recommended.
- Body wipes are a great way to clean up when a shower may not be an option.
Miscellaneous
- A dust mask is a good add to your emergency kit. It can protect your lungs if the air around becomes contaminated.
- Garbage bags aren't just for containing the trash. The bags can be used for ponchos, to cover broken windows, carry supplies and even collect rainwater.
- A portable battery charger is a sure way to keep your phone and tablets charged when the electricity is out.
- Paper plates and plastic utensils
- A good book, playing cards, and board games are great ways to fill the time
Can employers access an employee’s social media account?
Original post ebn.benefitnews.com
The water cooler, it seems, is a thing of the past. Or at least the actual physical water cooler is. These days, many of the office conversations take place online. Employees air their grievances, connect with each other and catch up on each other’s lives through social media.
As technology plays a bigger role in our lives and simple statements that were previously private now become public, employers have an increased interest in what their employees are doing and saying online. Are they disparaging the company? Are they harassing other employees? Are they divulging company secrets?
While these are all valid questions that an employer may want answered, employers need to tread carefully when developing policies regarding their employees’ use of social media. As the technological landscape and employee behavior is changing, so too are the laws governing permissible employer actions in relation to social media.
It is a temping proposition for employers to want access to their employees’ social media accounts. There are some valid reasons that an employer may want and need to know about their workforce’s social media activities. However, there is a growing population of states that have prohibited employers from asking employees for their social media account information.
Most of these state laws, where they exist, prohibit an employer from requiring, or requesting the employee’s social media username and password. Many, including California, Connecticut, Oregon and others also prohibit the employer from asking the employee to access the social media account while the employer is present.
Still others, like New Hampshire, Maine and Delaware, prohibit the employer from asking or requiring employees to add the employer as a friend or to invite the employer to a group that gives the company access to non-public information. In addition to prohibitions on requesting or requiring employee social media account access, nearly all these laws also have an anti-retaliation provision prohibiting employers from taking adverse action against an employee who refuses to divulge his or her social media account information.
Some exceptions exist
Nevertheless, in a nod to the legitimate reasons an employer may have to access information an employee has posted on social media, many of these laws have exceptions for formal internal investigations of employee violations of law or company policy. The laws also frequently make exceptions for social media accounts created by the employee on behalf of the employer, at the request of the employer and/or that are used for company purposes.
Many of the laws also specifically state that a company retains the right to review any publicly available information that an employee has posted on social media, an important exception in light of the fact that many employers research applicants online prior to hiring. As long as all of the information is publicly available, this practice is still permitted under the laws discussed here.
Because so much employee activity now occurs online, employers are wise to stay knowledgeable not only on various new technologies, but also the developing law surrounding protecting the privacy of employees’ online lives. States continue to add these types of laws — the latest being a Connecticut law prohibiting employer requests for social media account access that goes into effect in October of this year.
These laws, while similar, are not all alike, and not all states have them. Employers, especially those with employees in multiple states, should familiarize themselves with the rules governing the areas in which they operate because employee use of social media is likely to only increase as time goes on.
O’Connor, an associate and litigation lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, is a member of the labor and employment practice and the automotive industry team. The information in this legal alert is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as specific legal advice.
EEOC proposes amendment related to Genetic Information and Wellness Programs
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commision (EEOC) issued a proposed rule amending Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) to allow employers to offer financial incentives and inducements to spouses as part of a wellness program. The rule proposed on Oct. 30, 2015 is currently open for public comment.
The proposed regulations would clarify that GINA does not prohibit employers from offering limited inducements for the provision by spouses of information about their current or past health status as part of an HRA. This may include a medical questionnaire, a medical examination (e.g. to detect high blood pressure or high cholesteral) or both. However, the provision of genetic information must be voluntary with written authorization.
The EEOC further proposes to add a requirement that any health or genetic services in connection with which an employer requests genetic information be reasonably designed to promote health or prevent disease. This addition will make the revised GINA regulations consistent with the proposed rule amending the ADA's regulations as they relate to wellness programs, which permits employers to collect medical information as part of a wellness program only if the program are reasonably designed to promote health or prevent disease.
This proposal would not alter the absolute prohibition against the use of genetic information in making employment decisions.
There are 6 substantive changes to the GINA regulations. Click here to read through those changes.
The EEOC invites the public to comment on the proposed regulation amendment.
What does it take to be happy at work?
Original post eremedia.com
Can we be happy at work?
The best people to answer this question might be our friends in the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) as they are consistently ranked as the happiest countries on Earth. In fact, they are the only people on the planet that actually have a word for happiness at work — arbejdsglæde.
How do we capture the same sentiment in the U.S. so we can move up in the happiness rankings from No. 15 (source: World Happiness Report 2015)?
What is happiness?
In the world of work, happiness does not necessarily equate to never-ending bliss, nor does it mean the absence of stress or discontent.
Take professional sports, for example. We complain that professional athletes make obscene amounts of money for doing nothing more than “playing a game.” But when you analyze the incredible sacrifices they make (demanding workouts, limited diets, physical pain), and then compare them with the amount of time they are actually “playing their game,” you recognize that most of their time is actually spent preparing to play the game – not doing what actually makes them happy.
Few of us would find their activities preparing for their games enjoyable.
So, if happiness at work isn’t walking around all day with a huge smile on your face, what is it? The short answer is — it depends on you. But there are some fundamental elements that contribute to it.
For some of us, happiness at work is equivalent to being passionate about what we do. In fact, passion is arguably the element most frequently cited by successful people as the main contributor to their success. But this also needs to be rooted in reality. You may be incredibly passionate about football, but the likelihood of playing in the NFL is pretty slim.
Passion is a great start, but it may not be the key to happiness for everyone.
When a job becomes a calling
For others, the most important contributor to whether or not we are happy at work hinges on whether or not we feel like the work we are doing has significant meaning. We see this often in non-profits, religious organizations and health care.
Nursing in particular is a good example. Being a nurse is not a glamourous role when you consider their (many) unpleasant responsibilities and the immense stress of having someone else’s life in your hands – hence the high burnout rate associated with this profession. But there are few roles that have more intrinsic meaning, and if you ask nurses and others who have dedicated their lives to professions in health care, they will tell you that they don’t see it is a job, or even a career – it is a calling.
This happiness relies on individuals feeling as though they personally can (and do) contribute to a larger mission – without this connection, you might lose confidence in the effect of working for a meaningful organization.
Many individuals find happiness less in the work itself, and more in being challenged and achieving results. They are the “Type A” personalities that love to work on something that others have deemed impossible. They literally blossom in adversity and receive their reward when a seemingly unattainable goal has been reached.
We also see this play out in what has frequently been referred to as gamification– specifically the use of “progress mechanics.” It is a basic psychological precept that we respond well to regular visibility to progress and improvement we make. This takes the form of points, badges and leader boards in addictive games like Candy Crush.
Corporate America is starting to take notice by implementing comparable point platforms, similar to those we have used in the hotel and airline industry for many years. The ability to grow and develop new skills and abilities is also innately rewarding for these types of people.
Finding meaning in work relationships
And then there are those who also find meaning outside of the work itself, or rather, their happiness is rooted in the relationships that they form and maintain.
These individuals could be happy sitting in a jail cell as long as there are people around to interact with. They tend to be in professions that intrinsically require constant communication and collaboration with others, and they extract meaning and happiness from these interactions.
For individuals in “people-oriented” professions like social work, the people are the work – and therefore happiness at work is inextricably linked to their personal interactions. They even have a strategy (and name) for this at online retailer Zappos.com – they encourage their employees to find a PEC (personal emotional connection) with each customer.
Whatever contributes to your happiness at work, a good litmus test to determine if you are in the right role is to answer this simple question – how often do you experience “flow”?
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist who coined this term, believed that:
People are happiest when they are in a state of flow— a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. It is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter, and is characterized by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill — and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored.”
I can honestly say that I experience this “flow” daily, although certainly not all day as any job has frustrations, but most organizational psychologists will tell you that this “flow” is very important when it comes to happiness at work.
So how can we be happy at work? What do we need to do to be happy?
The bottom line is that the path to happiness at work is different for each and every one of us. Some people prefer to spend the majority of their lives following strict accounting rules and guidelines. They take comfort in the guardrails that define their work and ensure a predictable outcome.
Others prefer to spend their time helping people with their emotional problems, a field that requires a completely different temperament and far fewer delineated results. Thank goodness we have people interested in both.
To be happy at work, we must align our personal triggers to available jobs and careers. Some of us may need help with this… the book What Color is Your Parachute has been used for many years to help people determine (in a nutshell):
- a) What are you passionate about?;
- b) What are you good at?; and,
- c) What professions exist that would give you the ability to incorporate both “a” and “b?”
Life is too short to be unhappy
There are newly available assessments and tools available to help you determine your “behavioral fit” to various jobs and professions. I find it interesting that we allow sites like match.com to pick a spouse for us but we have yet to allow big data and complex algorithms to do the same for our professions.
Life is way too short to spend our time doing something we don’t enjoy. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, has been quoted as saying, “While there’s been a lot of talk over the years about work life separation or work life balance, our whole thing is about work life integration … because it’s just life.” And similarly, Richard Branson provided his perspective when he said, “I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all living.”
Does your life begin at the end of your work day, or when you wake up in the morning? If we can be happy at work, maybe the blurring of our personal and professional lives isn’t such a bad thing after all.
FAQs on the PACE Act's impact
President Obama signed off on the Providing Affordable Coverage for Employees (PACE) Act at the beginning of October. The PACE Act amends the definition of small employers in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Now, small employers are defined as those with 50 or fewer employees. States also have the option to expand the defintion to include employers with 51-100 employees.
To help employers understand the changes, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an FAQ on the impact of the PACE Act on small group expansion.
Q1: What constitutes a State election to extend the definition of small employer?
A1: Any State action that extends the definition of a small employer to include employers with up to 100 employees that is legally binding on health insurance issuers in the State will constitute an election to extend the small employer definition for purposes of the PACE Act. Such an election may be made through any State action within the authority of the applicable State regulatory agency that makes the definition legally binding on health insurance issuers in the State. If a State makes this election, the definition of small employer must be applied uniformly to all health insurance issuers in the State, including those in the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP).
States that elect to extend the small employer definition to up to 100 employees for coverage effective January 1, 2016, are requested to notify CMS of their election by October 30, 2015 at marketreform@cms.hhs.gov. States that elect to extend the small employer definition with another coverage effective date are requested to notify CMS as soon as soon as practicable.
Q2. Given the recent change to the federal definition of small employer promulgated under the PACE Act, may States allow carriers to modify their rate filings for small group coverage for 2016?
A2: States with a State-based SHOP that do not rely on the Federal platform have the discretion, consistent with state law and regulations, to allow resubmission of small group coverage rate filings, including changes to rates for the first quarter of 2016. Due to technical constraints, issuers offering small group coverage in States with a Federally-facilitated SHOP (FF-SHOP), and in State-based SHOPs using the Federal platform, cannot make changes to rate filings for the first quarter of 2016. Consistent with 45 CFR 156.80(d)(3)(ii), issuers offering small group coverage in any State may adjust rates for the second quarter, for rates effective April 1, 2016, to the extent otherwise allowed under applicable State and Federal law.
Q3. Does the enactment of the PACE Act affect the counting methodologies to be used by the SHOPs in accordance with Internal Revenue Code section 4980H(c)(2), and for purposes of the medical loss ratio (MLR), risk adjustment, and risk corridors programs?
A3: No. The requirements regarding the employee counting methodologies for the FF-SHOPs and State-based SHOPs, and for the MLR, risk adjustment, and risk corridors programs remain the same, and are not changed by the PACE Act.
Q4: How does the PACE Act impact employer size for MLR, risk corridors, and risk adjustment reporting purposes?
A4: The definition of a small employer for purposes of MLR, risk corridors, and risk adjustment will follow the State definition. Since States that elect to increase the upper limit of small employer must do so uniformly for all ACA programs, and given the greater distinction between the small and large group markets as a result of the 2014 market reforms, CCIIO’s May 13, 2011 Guidance, Q&A #1, in which we permitted States to increase the upper limit of a small employer for MLR reporting purposes only, is no longer applicable. Nonetheless, if, for example, during a transition in the state definition of small employer from 100 employees to 50 employees, a small group policy is issued to a large employer, the experience of that large group employer should be reported with the small group market for that State for the purposes of those programs for the applicable reporting year. In other words, reporting for those programs during a transition in the state definition of small employer in the applicable reporting year should align with the policy issued to the employer, regardless of actual employer size.
Q5. If a State with a SHOP that uses HealthCare.gov elects to extend the definition of small employer to 1-100 employees, when will CMS make the applicable changes to the employer eligibility screens on HealthCare.gov?
A5: On November 1, 2015, the beginning of Open Enrollment for 2016 coverage, all FF-SHOP eligibility screens on HealthCare.gov will ask employers if they have 1-50 employees for purposes of SHOP eligibility. Because the PACE Act was signed into law so close to the start of Open Enrollment, CMS will be unable to change these eligibility screens for specific States until sometime after November 1. CMS intends to make the applicable eligibility screen changes as quickly as possible and work with the SHOP Call Center and stakeholder groups to communicate options for employers in these States until the changes have been made to the online system.
Moving forward, CMS will be able to make changes to the online system as soon as one month after being notified by a State of its election to extend the definition of small employer.
Work culture trumps benefits for millennials
Original post benefitspro.com
Millennials don’t just work for money. They also like doing things that they believe in.
That’s according to a new report from Virgin Pulse, which surveyed over 1,000 full-time millennial employees to get a sense of what they’re looking for in a job.
That’s not to say that today’s youth are all devoted philanthropists. In fact, only 39 percent believe that charity is very important at work.
But what they do want is a culture and mission they can get behind. The report found that 77 percent of young workers believe that company culture is at least as important as pay and benefits. Three-quarters of them can identify their company’s mission and nearly just as many believe it is important that their employer have one.
The survey also suggested that most millennials aren’t stressed that technology is eroding the barrier between work and personal time. Ninety-three percent said that it’s OK to work during off-hours. Two-thirds of them say they have texted with their boss about work. And a slight majority — 55 percent — say that tech helps balance their work-life priorities.
And yet, the survey suggests that millennials expect their responsiveness to emails and texts to be rewarded with some slack from their boss, as 80 percent identified flexible work hours as important.
The report warns employers to watch out for burnout among young workers, no matter how infinite their energy or availability may appear: “24/7 accessibility does a number on their stress levels and your business, so encourage employees to put up some tech parameters.”
ACA's auto-enrollment requirement repealed
President Barack Obama signed the "Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015" on Monday.
The bill's main focus is a two-year budget deal increasing spending limits to averg a damaging deficit.
Nestled in the fine print of the bill is a change to the Affordable Care Act. The bill repeals the ACA's auto-enrollment requirement. This means, employers with more than 200 employees and more than one health benefit plan will not automatically enroll full-time employees into one of the health plans.
Employers are still free to use default or negative elections for employee enrollment.
RELATED: Congress passes budget bill, what does it mean for employers?
Over-screening could be killing your wellness program
Wellness programs are seen as a way to hold down healthcare costs for companies. The idea is you give employees a helping hand to better their health and eventually their need for doctor visits and medications lessen.
But is it working?
Al Lewis, CEO of Quizzify and author of Surviving Workplace Wellness, believes the U.S. is "drowning" in over-diagnosis and over-treatment and wellness programs are partly to blame, according to EBA's article, 'Wellness programs ‘massively over-screening’ people'.
“This country is drowning in over-diagnosis and over-treatment, raising health care costs,” Lewis said.
Lewis believes the over-testing done on employees as a requirement in a company's wellness program could lead to false positives, unneeded medications or higher expenses for employers and employees.
Ron Goetzel, senior scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, agrees there are a lot of lousy wellness programs out there, but there are some good programs too.
“What we’re trying to do is figure out what works,” Goetzel said. “The most effective way is creating cultures of health where people go to work every day and come out healthier because of the culture, through leadership support and commitment, and a culture of doing everything to promote health.”
Lewis and Goetzel comments come from debate during the Population Health Alliance Conference in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 2, 2015.
What can an on-site or near-site clinic do for your company?
Some companies are redefining how their employees visit the doctor by providing on-site or near-site clinics.
MillerCoors' clinic employs 10 people, including a full-time physician, a full-time physical therapist and a part-time physician assistant. The clinic offers convenience with appointments scheduled for a minimum of 20 minutes.
Last year, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the clinic had about 2,600 patient visits for primary care, 1,900 visists for physical therapy and 2,20 ancillary visits, such as getting a blood-pressure test.
"We think it's been quite effective in slowing the rise in health care costs," said James Sheeran, director of corporate benefits for MillerCoors. "We are very confident of that."
The MillerCoors clinic is run by QuadMed which emerged from a clinic Quad/Graphics opened almost 25 years ago. QuadMed president Sue Buettner explained the savings can vary by employer, because they depend on the workforce and services offered.
Near-site clinics are also a growing trend. These clinics are shared by several employers. For example, Wisconsin's West Bend School District has a clinic at the school district's central office.
The clinic is open 30 hours a waeek and staffed by a physician assistant. The majority of the PA's time is spent on wellness and providing basic primary care.
The school district's health plan covers a visit to the clinic and includes lab tests and prescription drugs from the clinic's limited pharmacy.
Valley Elliehausen, chief operating officer of the West Bend School District, said a visit to the clinic costs on average $129 compared to $226 for an office visit.
But, Elliehausen said, the real savings are expected to come from helping some employees and family members change their behavior and live healthier lives.
RELATED: Employers' on-site health clinics provide convenience and control costs