I’d like to invite you to consider a different approach to your health and wellness program by helping your employees shift to a healthy plant-based diet and lifestyle.
Reduce Health Care Costs
Wellness programs have shown the potential for cost savings in the form of:
- An average of 28 percent reduction in sick days
- An average of 26 percent reduction in health costs
- An average of 30 percent reduction in workers’ compensation and disability management claims
- An average $5.93 to $1 savings-to-cost ratio.1
Plant-based diet and lifestyle has shown significant health advantages over meat-based diets:
- Vegetarianism can reduce the risk of heart disease by 32%2
- Vegetarians typically have a BMI approximately 1-2kg/m2 less than non-vegetarians3
- Vegan diet has a lower incidence of all types of cancers4
Reduce carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions, water and land usage:
With the focus of global climate change conferences and agreements focused on greenhouse emissions, showing that your company is making it a priority to reduce emissions and resource usage is great internal and external PR.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation.5 Even without fossil fuels, we will exceed our 565 gigatonnes CO2 limit by 2030, all from raising animals.6 Growing feed crops for livestock consumes 56% of water in the US.7
A person who follows a vegan diet produces the equivalent of:
- 50% less carbon dioxide,
- uses 1/11th oil,
- 1/13th water,
- and 1/18th land compared to a meat-lover for their food.8
Each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sq ft of forested land, 20 lbs CO2 equivalent.9 For all the effort and time and money we put into reducing emissions from our cars, and minimizing water usage with low-flow shower heads, we can make a comparitively massive difference simply by eating less animal products and replacing them with plants.
Having fun Around Serious Topics:
So much of the health and nutrition info out there is super serious and pretty dull… Particularly when you get into vegan and environmental activism.
My focus is on the energy we can create, and the fun we can have cooking up an amazing variety of delicious and healthy vegan dishes. You’ll find more info on my online meal plans and cooking classes below.
Since I work online, and can offer live webcam feeds for lunch-time or evening classes rather than travelling to you, I can keep costs (and carbon emissions) much lower than in-person classes.
If you’d like to talk further about how we might put together a package for the needs of your employees, let me know! I’d love to create change in their lives, in our planet’s future, and show them how to have a blast doing it.
Just send me an email at heather {at} heathernicholds.com and let’s talk!
Online Healthy Meal Plans
Your ticket to a life full of energy & vibrance! Quick, healthy, delicious and balanced vegan meals, that are easy to put together–and actually taste good. What makes these plans unique:
- Nutritionally-balanced vegan recipes for all of your meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus snacks – so you’re never left wondering what to make at any given point. Plans range from 7 days to 6 weeks.
- Dynamic Portion Sizes: Input your height, weight, age, gender, exercise level and weight goal, and the meal plan automatically adjusts all the recipes and grocery list, so you know exactly what–and how much–to eat.
- For Busy People: Ingredients are all things you could find in regular stores, or order on Amazon. Meal prep time is minimized by planning ahead and creatively using leftovers.
- Dietary Restrictions: Check a box, and the meal plan can shift to gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, oil-free and/or athletic–so you have a meal plan no matter what dietary restrictions you have.
- Exclusive video tutorials to show you some key concepts and techniques to make cooking and meal prep easier so you can spend as little time on it as possible.
Online Healthy Cooking Classes
Become confident in your kitchen skills! Learn to easily pull together healthy, tasty vegan meals that you and your family love every day. A combination of video tutorials and written recipes make classes ideal for:
- New cooks who want to learn how to make meals at home rather than buying take-out;
- Experienced cooks who want to learn healthy vegan cooking techniques;
- Health-oriented people who want to learn to cook with whole foods;
- People with dietary restrictions or who want to reduce gluten, wheat, dairy, sugar, and oil;
- Vegans and vegetarians who want to cook healthier meals;
- Meat eaters who want to incorporate more plant-based meals or cook for a vegan/vegetarian spouse.
Available classes: Salads & Dressings, Soups, Sauces & Dips, Pizza, Veggie Burgers, Raw Food, Breakfasts, Healthy Desserts, Healthy Holidays, Vegan Protein, or a full 8-month course teaching intuitive cooking.
NOTE: All of my programs come with a built-in forum for members to ask me questions, and start discussions amongst themselves.
Custom Programs and Packages
I can work with your company’s specific needs to come up with a custom program or package that fits your goals. Some of the potential options would be:
- Live online session(s) with interactive exercises and Q&A time
- Targeted nutritional packages for specific issues (e.g. diabetes, adrenal fatigue, energy, etc)
- Targeted cooking tutorials for specific challenges (e.g. packed lunches, eating out, traveling, holidays, etc)
- One-on-one sessions to strategize the best solution and go into more depth with individuals
References and Sources:
1: Tillman, Audrey. Executive Vice President, Corporate Services, Aflac. “The Impact of Wellness Programs on America’s Workforce” The Institute For Healthcare Consumerism.
2: Crowe FL1, Appleby PN, Travis RC, Key TJ. “Risk of hospitalization or death from ischemic heart disease among British vegetarians and nonvegetarians: results from the EPIC-Oxford cohort study.” Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Mar;97(3):597-603. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.044073. Epub 2013 Jan 30.
3: F. Phillips, A. F. Hackett, G. Stratton and D. Billington. “Effect of changing to a self-selected vegetarian diet on anthropometric measurements in UK adults” Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Volume 17, Issue 3, pages 249–255, June 2004
4: Tantamango-Bartley Y, Jaceldo-Siegl K, Fan J, Fraser G. “Vegetarian diets and the incidence of cancer in a low-risk population.” Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2013 Feb;22(2):286-94. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-12-1060. Epub 2012 Nov 20.
5: Fao.org. Spotlight: Livestock impacts on the environment.
6: Oppenlander, Richard A. Food Choice and Sustainability: Why Buying Local, Eating Less Meat, and Taking Baby Steps Won’t Work. . Minneapolis, MN : Langdon Street, 2013. Print.
7: Jacobson, Michael F. “More and Cleaner Water.” In Six Arguments for a Greener Diet: How a More Plant-based Diet Could save Your Health and the Environment. Washington, DC: Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2006.
8: CO2: “The Carbon Footprint of 5 Diets Compared.” Shrink The Footprint.
“Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK.” Climactic change, 2014. Oil, water: “Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2003.
One Green Planet, “Meat The Truth”.
Robbins, John. “Food Revolution”. Conari Press, 2001
Land [xvii]: “Our food our future.” Earthsave.
9: “Water Footprint Assessment.” University of Twente, the Netherlands.
“Measuring the daily destruction of the world’s rainforests.” Scientific American, 2009.
“Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK.” Climactic change, 2014.
“Meat eater’s guide to climate change and health.” The Environmental Working Group.
Oppenlander, Richard A. Less Meat, and Taking Baby Steps Won’t Work. Minneapolis, MN : Langdon Street, 2013. Print.