Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel Wins the PureWellness BEAT THE HOLIDAY BULGE Weight Loss Challenge

BURLINGTON, Vt., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- PureWellness, Inc., a leading provider of online wellness solutions, announces the winner of the Beat the Holiday Bulge weight loss challenge.

PureWellness, a provider of online corporate wellness tools, announced the winner of the Beat the Holiday Bulge Challenge this week.  Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel (ERMS), located in Pueblo, Colorado, took a strong lead at the beginning of the challenge and maintained a high percent participation throughout the challenge to win a free year of the comprehensive PureWellness online wellness platform!  ERMS completed the online weight loss program with over 30% of the participating employees completing the twelve week program.  "It was great to see our employees take this weight loss challenge so seriously.  From day one, it was clear they found the online weight management workshop easy to understand and interact with.  Their results speak for themselves with an overall weight loss of 3.3 lbs per person," said Wellness Chair Jon Kinnischtzke.

PureWellness launched a free promotional online weight management challenge to twenty organizations in  early November in an attempt to assist employees to maintain their weight over the holidays; a period of time in which many individuals tend to gain a few pounds (never to be shed!).  Two main metrics were highlighted throughout the twelve weeks of the program:  percent of employee participation and overall weight maintenance.  

"We couldn't be any more pleased with the performance of all the companies participating in our recent Beat the Holiday Bulge Weight Loss challenge," said Ron Keen, president of PureWellness.  "ERMS not only maintained a high percent participation during the 2009 holiday season, they actually lost weight," said Keen.

The Beat the Holiday Bulge weight management challenge was launched just before Thanksgiving and extended through early January.  Wellness coordinators met weekly to discuss ways to motivate employees to stick with the program and maintain participation.  PureWellness offered materials and planning information for on-site wellness events that each organization could run at their place of business.  Healthy Holiday recipes were available for participants to use to access and create healthier holiday food options.

During the first week of the wellness challenge, all participants were asked to complete a comprehensive health risk assessment (HRA).  The aggregate data from the HRA was shared with the organizations to give them an overall picture of the health of their employees.  The readiness to change assessment showed that about 41% of all participants planned to change during the first month of the program.  At the completion of the program, 30% of participants had a weight loss of one to ten pounds, while 65% maintained weight.

About PureWellness:

PureWellness, founded in 1997, provides a comprehensive, scalable, online wellness platform. The PureWellness platform integrates with existing corporate wellness programs and allows for efficient administration and management of all wellness initiatives within each organization. This corporate wellness platform provides numerous resources, including an online health risk assessment (HRA) tool, health tracking, pedometer programs, employee incentive programs, device integration, and a full reporting suite to ensure that every wellness initiative will not only succeed, but will be able to document success in a structured manner that demonstrates return on investment.  For more information, go to www.purewellness.com.

ERMS, a subsidiary of Evraz Inc. NA since 2007, is part of the Evraz Group S.A., one of the largest vertically-integrated steel, mining, and vanadium businesses in the world.  ERMS, formerly CF&I Steel was originally established in 1881 to make rail to build the American West and continues to make some of the finest steel products in the world including rail, seamless pipe, rod and coiled reinforcing bars.  Additional information on Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel and other Evraz North America companies is available at www.evrazincna.com.

SOURCE PureWellness, Inc.