Employee Enhancement Newsletter
June 2010
Page 1
June 16th 2010
Chat Topic:
Dealing With Difficult People
Every month you’ll have the opportunity
to chat online with a trained counselor.
These live chats are held from 12:1512:45 PM & 6:00PM to 6:30PM CST.
June 2010
At A Glance
Home Safety Month
1-30
www.homesafetycouncil.org/
homesafetymonth
National Headache Awareness
Week
6 - 12
www.headaches.org/
national_neadache_awar
eness_week_2010
National Men’s Health Week
14-22
www.menshealthmonth.org/week/
Helpful Resources From Your Employee Assistance Program
Healthy choices you can
live with for life!
Improve your mental and emotional
health by taking care of yourself
People who are emotionally healthy are in control of
their emotions and their behavior. They are able to
handle life’s inevitable challenges, build strong relationships, and lead productive, fulfilling lives. When
bad things happen, they’re able to bounce back and
move on.
Unfortunately, too many people take their mental and
emotional health for granted – focusing on it only
when they develop problems. But just as it requires
effort to build or maintain physical health, so it is with
mental and emotional health.
The more time and energy you invest in your emotional health, the stronger it will be. In order to maintain and strengthen your mental and emotional
health, it’s important to pay attention to your own
needs and feelings. Don’t let stress and negative
emotions build up. Try to maintain a balance between
your daily responsibilities and the things you enjoy. If
you take care of yourself, you’ll be better prepared to
deal with challenges if and when they arise.
Sources:Melinda Smith, M.A., Robert Segal, M.A., and Jeanne
Segal, Ph.D. Last modified: October 2008.
Source: 2010 National Health Observances, National Health Information Center, Office of Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion, U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services,
Washington, D.C.
Home Safety Tips
June is Home Safety Month!
Start planning now by reviewing
the below tips and learning
about the key actions needed to
protect against the leading
causes of injury at home.
The idea of a home safety
makeover can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.
Use the Home Safety Council’s
top ten tips as a starting point to
review your home and make
sure you have the basic safety
measures in place. June is the
perfect time to start working
with your family to tackle one
safety project a week.
Making safety an activity for the
entire family is a great way to
teach your children important
home safety lessons.
Top Ten Safety Tips
Deer Oaks EAP Services, our Employee Assistance Program, is always available to you and your dependents. If you are struggling with
children, finances, or just want some practical advice on health or the mind-body connection, contact
866.327.2400
eap@deeroaks.com
www.deeroaks.com
Employee Enhancement Newsletter
June 2010
Page 2
A good way to start your day is with a nutritious breakfast. A healthy protein shake
can help give you that morning boost of
energy to help get you through your day!
Try these simple shakes:
Matters of the Heart
Oatmeal Meal Replacement Shake
High-protein diets take a page from the
low-carb craze. The goal is to lose weight
by eating more protein-packed foods,
which often means consuming fewer carbohydrates. The portion of total calories
derived from protein is what defines a
high-protein diet. In a typical diet 10%15% of daily calories come from protein.
In a high-protein diet, this number can be
as high as 30%-50%.
Protein is the ultimate fill-me-up food —
it's more satisfying than carbs or fats and
keeps you feeling full for longer. It also
helps preserve muscle mass and encourages fat burning. Protein is important but
so are carbohydrates, fats, and total calories.
For a higher protein diet, include lean and
low-fat sources of protein at every meal
as part of a calorie-controlled diet. You
should also stock up on 'smart carbs'
such as fruits, vegetables, and whole
grains, along with healthy fats like nuts,
seeds, olives, oils, fish, and avocado.
Not all protein is created equal. Be sure
to look for protein sources that are nutrient-rich and lower in fat and calories,
such as lean meats, beans, soy, and lowfat dairy.
This is a homemade meal replacement that
contains all the nutrition of a hearty bowl of
oatmeal.
Ingredients:
A ½ cup dry measure oatmeal, or oat flour
2 scoops vanilla protein
3 dashes cinnamon
1/8 c sugar free maple syrup or equivalent amount
brown sugar replacement
1 tbsp chopped almonds (or flaxseed oil or natural
peanut butter)
12 oz. water or low-fat milk
Banana Bread Shake
Ingredients:
2 scoops Whey Protein
1 Banana
1/2 Cup Quaker Oatmeal (cook with boiling water)
3/4 Cup Kellogg's Bran Flakes
1 Bottle of Water
Sugar, Brown Sugar or Artificial Sweetener to taste
Berry Good Smoothie
Ingredients:
Mix 2 scoops of Raspberry Yogurt and protein
powder
4 strawberries
15 blueberries
16 ounces of nonfat
milk
1.2 cup of ice cubes
Blend & Enjoy!
Source:http://women.webmd.com/guide/highprotein-low-carbohydrate-diets
Source: http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/
goalprotein.htm
The Power of
Protein
Recipes to Shake
Up Your Day
Worlds Worst Tea Drink
Men’s Health made a list of
the 20 worst drinks in America.
The drinks are ranked by how
bad they are for your health,
not on taste. Some of the
drinks on the list have over
2000 calories!
Did your favorite drink
make the list?
SoBe Green Tea
(1 bottle, 20 fl oz)
240 calories
0 g fat
61 g sugars
Employee Enhancement Newsletter
June 2010
Page 3
Workplace Happiness: What Everyone
Can Do to Set a Positive Tone
You can’t do much about the economy or the state
of the world. But you can make your workplace a
little happier—maybe a lot happier, if others follow
your example.
Here is some advice from management experts and psychologists.
Small gestures count
Smiling and saying hello to co-workers takes
little effort and could have a big effect. Sigal
Barsade, a management professor at the
University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton
School, says such small gestures can be
like “striking the match in the workplace—
the match toward positive.” One person’s
body language and facial expressions also
can affect a group’s emotions, as Barsade
found in a laboratory study. Being nice to
other people also helps develop a culture of
reciprocity, where everyone tacitly agrees to
return the help and emotional support they
receive.
Curb your negatives
You can spread negative emotions as easily
as positive ones, especially if you are not
conscious of your effect on others. “Try to
understand how your behavior makes experiences” for others, says Purdue University psychologist Howard Weiss. “A lot of the
time, we create negative experiences in
other people because we behave in ways
that we know are wrong but we can’t control
ourselves,” he says. Weiss suggests replenishing your “regulatory resources” by taking
time off from the emotional work of selfregulation. Getting away from the workplace
social setting during the day can be useful.
Barsade says a short “time-out” can be helpful when you find your mood sagging and
don’t want to bring others down. Even just
stepping outside the workplace for a few
minutes of reflection can do the job.
Watch what you bring to work
If you start the work day grouchy, chances are that
you will end it that way. In a study of call-center
employees, Wharton professor Nancy Rothbard
and Steffanie Wilk of the University of Ohio’s Fisher
School of Business found that the mood people
brought with them to work had a stronger effect on
their day (and their performance) than anything that
happened at the workplace.
(They also found, happily, that positive moods have
a more potent impact on productivity than negative
moods do). Such research makes the point that
there’s not a sharp boundary between work and the
rest of life. “You don’t enter some sort of cloister
when you go to work,” says Weiss. But you can
work to soften the impact of your mood when it’s a
bad one. “The first thing is to be aware of it,” says
Barsade. “This goes a long way toward diminishing
it, because at least you’re paying attention.”
Writers: Tom Gray, Paula Hartman Cohen
Do you have
a particular issue that
you’d like to see highlighted?
Email us your
suggestions
and it may be a
feature article
in our
upcoming
newsletters.
eap@deeroaks.com
Employee Enhancement Newsletter
June 2010
Page 4
Financially Helping Your
Adult Children
Helping someone obtain his or her financial goals can be
very rewarding, especially if you are helping your own child.
When your adult child asks for financial help, they can be
difficult to refuse, however, you need to be careful. Every
child (even those within the same family) is different, and
you’ll need to assess each situation individually. If your normally responsible child needs help, that can be a very different situation than a not-yet-independent adult child needing
financial help yet again.
If you feel that your normally responsible child needs help
because of an emergency situation, you may consider assisting them, especially if you and your spouse are in agreement. Be very clear with your child about the kind of assistance you are providing, as well as the terms of that assistance. If you offer a loan that must be repaid, discuss loan
terms prior to giving any money.
However, if you find that your adult child needs help yet
again because he or she isn’t financially responsible, providing them financial education rather than money is going to
help them more in the long run. Try to talk with your child
about developing a long-term financial plan as well as possible solutions to their short-term problem. Constantly providing your child with the money they request will not teach
them financial responsibility.
Be especially careful if your child asks for help cosigning a
loan. Cosigning a loan carries many risks and very little reward. In fact, many financial experts believe that you should
never put your name on someone else’s loan. As a parent,
however, it can be hard not to help your own child. If you
have been asked to cosign a loan, understand the risks before you sign on the dotted line.
You are responsible for the debt
If the primary borrower does not pay the debt as agreed,
for any reason, the creditor will hold you responsible. You
should not assume that the lender will pursue collecting
from the primary borrower if the borrower in unresponsive. In most cases, collectors will seek payment from the
person who offers the best chance of recovering the
money, which is likely to be you, and if you do not pay,
you could be sued.
Your credit report may suffer
Any late payments made by the primary borrower will
appear on your credit report. This is true even if you were
unaware that late payments were being made. In addition, the cosigned loan could change your debt-to-income
ratio, making it harder to qualify for future credit.
Cosigning does not equal ownership
It is a common misperception that cosigning a secured
loan entitles you to ownership. However, if you cosign a
loan for a vehicle and your name is not on the title, you
are not entitled to ownership of the vehicle. This is true
even if you are the one making payments.
The decision to cosign a loan for someone comes down
to this: Are you willing to pay the debt? If you are not willing to assume totally responsibility, you should not agree
to sign for the loan. There are other options—you could
offer assistance in a different way, one that may help
your adult child get back on his or her feet in a more responsible way.
About Money Management International
Money Management International (MMI) is a nonprofit, full-service creditcounseling agency, providing confidential financial guidance, financial education,
counseling and debt management assistance to consumers since 1958. MMI
helps consumers trim their expenses, develop a spending plan and repay debts.
Counseling is available by appointment in branch offices and 24/7 by telephone
and Internet. Services are available in English or Spanish. To learn more, call
800.432.7310 or visit www.MoneyManagement.org.