Bryan Urakawa, QA Manager, Quality Assurance:

In mid 2010 I was asked if I’d like to join our Employee Advisory Board (EAB). When I received the invitation, I wasn’t sure what the EAB was. By name, it sounded like a mentoring program for employees trying to decide where to go in their jobs or careers - sort of like a group of school counselors, but for the workplace. As I read on, I found that it was a group of employees representing diverse departments and roles in the company who gathered every month or two to develop, support and drive our company’s internal wellness initiatives. It sounded like a great way to help make a positive impact on the health of the employees that make my company great. I was in.

I was not new to the ideas of health and wellness through exercise and good nutrition: year-round, 5 days a week, I commute 7 miles to work by bicycle (sometimes on foot) and only 2 months earlier I had completed my 6th Ironman triathlon. Long-distance triathlon racing, and Ironman in particular, is a sport where the science and practice of exercise and nutrition has been taken to levels that a mental health expert might diagnose as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A large population of the participants, especially those working towards their 2nd or subsequent finish, has adopted habits of swimming, biking and running for hours a day while also performing cost/benefit analyses of the caloric and nutritive makeup of nearly every bite of food and nutritional supplement taken.

I have spent most of the last 8 years living as one of these people, but I wasn’t always this way.

In 2001 I had been leading a predominantly sedentary life for years and had severely injured an ankle, reinforcing that lifestyle - I couldn’t run 2 steps to avoid a falling piano. Although I hadn’t ridden a bike in years, had never been a runner of any sort, and had a swim stroke that was geared more towards preserving life than as propulsion through water, the limitations imposed by my ankle injury made me consider all of the activities that I was now unable - and possibly never would be able - to do. But every path begins with the first step, no matter how small. My first step was to see a doctor, who prescribed physical therapy to get my ankle functioning again. As my ankle improved, I began riding an old bike for short trips and felt physically and mentally happier - it was addicting. Through many small steps - slowly increasing activity and gradual modifications to my eating habits over the next 3 years, I progressed from my first sprint triathlon to my first Ironman triathlon and lost over 30 pounds in the process. As an added benefit, I found that I was happier and more productive at work and far less stressed in general. Through experience, I had found my own proof that small changes to diet and exercise could easily translate to big changes in my health. Researchers are finding ever greater links between diet and exercise and decreases in many common health conditions as well as improvements in many other areas of life.

These experiences have given me a wealth of knowledge and experience that I could use to positively impact and motivate others around me. What better place than to help those who I spend nearly ⅓ of my week with.

This is where the EAB comes in. One of the wellness initiatives that the EAB has brought to the company is monthly walks. I have participated in these walks a few times in the past and, each time have met a few more people from the company that I hadn’t met before, often in areas that are beneficial to my job as the QA Manager. For January, we needed a walk-leader and I volunteered to lead an outdoor walk (we also do stair climbs in our building). January in Seattle is a questionable time to hold an outdoor walk with an average high temperature of 41 degrees and 5.4 inches of rain, but the chosen day turned out dry with a high near 50. Turnout was small with only a few people at each walk on that day, which could be considered disappointing. But I saw it in another light: the best way to motivate a group of people is the same as motivating ones self - a little at a time. While the number of people involved was small, there were people involved, in the middle of winter in Seattle and if it weren’t for the organized walk, those people might not have walked little more than the from their desks to their next meeting.

So how do we motivate more people to participate? Much of the discussion by the EAB is around exactly that. I haven’t always been motivated to be active or eat healthy. I have as many internal excuses as everyone else to not get off the couch and exercise - to eat what’s easy and tasty over what is healthy and nutritious (and usually also tasty!) - but I have found ways to motivate myself and more-frequently defeat my inner slacker and junk-food lover, going from couch potato to Ironman finisher in a few years’ time. Ideally, I can use what I have learned from my experiences, while continuing to set a healthy example, to help others at work lead healthier, happier and more productive lives. However, I will judge my success as an EAB board member the same way I judge success in changing my own habits - one small step at a time.