What did I get myself in to???

Hi everybody! I haven't posted in a while but, I need some help. I had surgery on September 20th. Ever since I had surgery, I have been wanting to attend a support group meeting however; there is no support group in our city right now. I was told by the hospital that they are currently, "restructuring" and would start it up again soon. Well, 4 1/2 months after surgery I am still waiting.

So, I clocked out at work today and ran into a co-worker who complimented me on my weight loss. I told her that I had WLS and she told me she had the lap band 2 years ago and she has gotten off track. I told her that we needed a support group in our area and that I would talk to our boss and ask if I could start a support group at work for bariatric patients. Since I had surgery, I am finding more and more people saying that they had surgery too. I went into my boss' office and told him about what I would like to do. He told me that he wanted me to go bigger than the bariatric support group for our agency....
he wants me to start a wellness program!!!

We are getting gym equipment brought in for us to exercise at work (decision made before this conversation today). He wants the bariatric group to fall under the wellness program but, he wants me to bring in dieticians, etc and get this up and rolling. If anyone has any experience at any of this, please let me know. I need help. This is something that I know I can do but, wow, this is big!

Please, brainstorm with me. How can I make this a success and help my co-workers towards a better way of life and stick with it??? What would you want out of a wellness program?

Thanks everyone! 

I would call the local hospital or even your doctor that did your surgery, maybe they can point you in the right direction.  You may also want to find out you or one of your co-workers would be interested in doing some motivational speaking for some of the groups.  I hope this helps, but this is great that your job is so interested in having healthier employees.  Healthier employees are defintely Happier employees.

Thank you. I will definitely call my surgeon tomorrow and get his ideas. It would be really cool if he could come up there and give a seminar too. Sorry, my brain is all over the place right now!

No advice but this is fantastic!  I would love to do something like this where I work.  Good luck, I'm sure you will have lots of fun with this.

Thank you! My boss is a great man and open to ideas. I am very lucky to work for someone like him.

 Wow, congratulations on being the inspiration for a company to take good care of their employees!!  Here are a few ideas based on the support program I am involved with:

1.  Two meetings a month.  We  meet for an hour or so.  It starts by going around and doing a quick share for each person, which invariably triggers a lot of questions that the group answers.  The psychologist chairs it.  Toward the end is a handout and a discussion on a worthy topic.  Last week was emotional eating.  

2.  Nutrition classes.

3.  Cooking classes.  You may not have a kitchen, but if you have access to a sink that should do it.  Teachers can cook for 30 in a classroom setting.

4.  Start an exercise club/program.  Even better if you can somehow incentivize this.  I heard throught the grapevine that Walmart has some program out there that may be a source for you.

5.   Create a buddy system.  If people want assistance in partnering up for support then the Wellness program could work as a liason to get them started.

6.  At the Dh's school they had enough people interested in Weigh****chers to bring in a leader right to the school for meetings.  Worth a shot!

7.  At our job once a year in January an email goes out to all employees to join in a weightloss contest.  Everybody pays in $5 to start.  If you gain pay in a $1 a pound.  (No money back for weight loss).  At the end the top 3 split the money with first getting more than second, and second more than third.  Popular program in our district and easy to run.  Everybody has to email in only the pounds lost or gained- not the actual weight.  The fat chick here appreciated that!

8.  My Dh started waking on his lunch break.  At first he was teased.  Now other teachers have joined him!  Maybe do a walking club if your building is large enough to do inside or has enough area outside.  Measure out a distance to people know how to gauge.  

How fun- something like this would be right up my alley!  Have fun with this!

Wow!!! Thank you so much for all of the advice! These are wonderful suggestions. I am really starting to get excited about how far we can go with this. I am going to get on the phone tomorrow and start getting my resources pulled together. I feel like I can actually do this! Thanks again!

The hospital I work at offers free Zumba classes once a week. We have a skywalk that is measured in laps for mileage.
Do you have a parking lot that could be measured and posted? I think that is a great work environment to be in!

I love the zumba idea! One of my co-workers is a certified zumba instructor. Thanks for the suggestion!

And to add to all the other suggestions, maybe check with one of your local gyms (planet fitness, etc) and talk to the manager of the personal training department.  Since you will have your own equipment, maybe they would be interested in giving a lecture/seminar and possibly picking up some future clients.  You can also check with the Nutritionist office connected with your bariatric surgeon, maybe he or she would be interested in speaking... What a great opportunity!