Learning Engagements: Health and Wellness Seminars

Our Inova Well presenters are experts in their fields and affiliated with our Inova hospitals services. These professionals include registered dietitians, nurse specialists, exercise physiologists, physicians, and other clinical specialists. Our presenters look forward to working with your company or organization to help improve the health and wellness of your employee population or members.

Most learning engagements are one-hour programs delivered in the worksite/community facility at your convenience. We recommend that you plan your seminar three to four weeks in advance. Our programs can be customized for your audience. We can also extend the time period and/or group themes to meet your particular needs.

Shop by Seminar Type

"Eat Well" Programs | "Healthy Mind" Programs | "Get Active" Programs | "Live Green" Programs

"Eat Well" Programs

Good nutrition and healthy eating habits are cornerstones of health and can reduce the risk of chronic disease.

Eating for Success and Energy!

Do you struggle to get out of bed in the morning? Do you yawn your way through the afternoon, struggling to stay awake at your desk only to be wide-awake at bedtime? The food you eat has a tremendous impact on how you feel. This session will help you understand how food affects you and will provide strategies for getting more energy. Food and Energy can impact your level of success, as food influences mood and energy and even your ability to communicate effectively. In this seminar, you will learn about ways to bring more energy into your life and increase overall productivity and sense of well-being.

• Identify foods that “give” energy and foods that “deplete” energy
• How to select and plan healthy breakfast meals and snacks
• 10 Strategies for Getting More Energy

Sugar Blues: Breaking the Cycle of Sugar Cravings

“Sugar Blues” is the common experience of constantly craving sweets and suffering the highs and lows that result from eating sugar. This workshop will cover simple techniques to understand why sugar cravings arise and how to regain control without willpower or deprivation.

• Where do sugar cravings come from?
• Extreme foods vs. Balanced Foods
• Pinball dieting
• Health concerns resulting from sugar consumption
• Finding the sweetness in life
• Sugar and energy
• Sweet and healthy snacks and desserts

The Food and Mood Connection

Eating the right foods can balance your moods and keep you productive and energized, while the wrong foods can create mood swings and set you back. This workshop will examine the connections between diet and moods and how to choose food that will stabilize your emotions.

• Mood swings and their connections to diet
• Impacts of mood swings on work and relationships
• Getting a handle on feelings and emotions
• Tracking moods and foods
• Using a food diary

Quick and Healthy Meals on a Working Schedule

Working a full time job?  Find out how you can balance healthy eating and a busy schedule at the same time. The Inova Well team will demonstrate “hands on” how participants CAN fit healthy eating into a busy lifestyle.

• Feel more comfortable and confident about how to manage healthy cooking and food selection even on a working/traveling schedule! Learn timesaving measures in preparing, cooking and storing food
• Set goals on how to make healthy meals and snacks as part of the daily routine
• Know what resources to go to for tips, motivation and inspiration
• Discuss “the challenge” of eating healthy
• Discuss the 5 W’s and an H: Keys for healthy cooking
• Review fast cooking healthy foods/ meals
• Discuss seasonal eating and resources for inspiration

Superfoods Rx for Disease Prevention and Slowing of the Aging Process!

Food impacts your level of success in building strong immunity and fighting disease and illness. By choosing to incorporate “super foods” in your diet on a regular basis, you can avoid common sicknesses, help to prevent disease and slow the aging process. Based on the popular book Superfoods Rx: Fourteen Superfoods That Will Change Your Life. The book is based on the simple but profound premise: some foods are dramatically better than others for our health and longevity…come learn what they are. Whether you are 63 or 23 now is the right time to start eating the Superfoods Way, and possibly avoid type II diabetes, hypertension, certain cancers, obesity and Alzheimer’s.

• What are “Superfoods”
• Simple ways to bring Superfoods into the diet (including recipes)
• Tasty Superfood substitutes
• Superfoods vs. Junk foods
• Boosting nutritional content

Beyond Dieting: How to Lose Weight without Even Trying!

Many of the best weight loss tips are the simplest, the ones that take little or no effort. This workshop will help participants determine which simple weight loss habits work best for them and how to incorporate them on a daily basis. This class is about healthy lifestyle choices vs. quick or fad diet ideas. We will also address tips around holiday parties and meals. The purpose is to learn more about the value of lifestyle changes vs. "quick-fix" dieting.

• Tips to lose weight without trying
• Passive Exercise
• Why diets don’t work
• Portion control
• Breathing for weight loss

"Healthy Mind" Programs

Living life to the fullest is centered on having a healthy mind, which includes addressing stress management, altruism and connecting to our physical being.

A Balanced Approach to Stress Management for Optimal Wellness!

Learn how the effects of stress can impact your everyday life. The purpose of this session is to help participants understand the effects of stress in their lives and learn techniques for reducing the harmful impacts of stress through diet change, and the practices of yoga and meditation. At the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• Understand what stress is and the affects it has on their lives and their health
• Track the patterns of daily personal stress
• Identify how diet and lifestyle choices exacerbate the experience of stress
• Identify stressful foods in their diet and learn how to reduce or substitute them
• Understand the benefits of yoga and meditation for reducing stress
• Perform basic desk yoga movements
• Perform basic meditative exercises
• Create concrete steps for dietary and lifestyle change to reduce daily stress

"Get Active" Programs

Physical fitness is a core element of wellness that supports long-term health benefits and helps prevent chronic disease.

Corporate Fitness Classes

Give your employees the convenience of an on-site fitness class! Multi-week sessions or one-time classes are available. Choose from the following formats: yoga, pilates, Zumba, tai chi, and strength training. For more information or to schedule your corporate fitness class, please contact Christy Lormel.

"Live Green" Programs

A commitment to contributing to an environment that is safe and healthy for employees and community is implemented through a comprehensive sustainability program. Strategic operations and planning along with stakeholder engagement create a healthier environment both for now and for the future.

Antibiotic resistance—it’s what’s for dinner?

Join leaders from Inova’s Office of Sustainability as we explore the environmental and health concerns stemming from antibiotic resistance, and how our diet can be our best defense against antibiotic resistant infections.

What’s your body’s chemical burden?

Experts call the total amount of chemicals and pollutants that are present in your body at any given time our “body burden.” Join sustainability and wellness experts for a discussion around priority aspects of your life—from the food you eat and your local air quality, to the household products you use— and how you can minimize your exposure to chemicals of concern in your everyday life.

Transportation, The Environment, Your Health: Greening your work commute

In this session, participants will learn about the impact of the transportation sector on human health and environmental health. We will discuss the environmental, financial, and health benefits associated with a variety of alternative transportation methods. Participants will develop personalized plans for utilizing alternative transportation based on public transit options and resources available in the greater DC area.

Wellness Lab - Not your mother’s recycling class: A smart guide to waste reduction in a changing market

For many, knowing how to properly sort waste from recycling can be confusing. By the end of this session, participants will “know where to throw” waste and recycling, and will understand how proper recycling can make an impact for both our environment and our health.

Here comes the sun: Going solar at home

Solar is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. Buildings are responsible for 38 percent of all carbon emissions in the U.S., and going solar can significantly decrease that number. A typical residential solar system will eliminate three to four tons of carbon emissions each year—the equivalent of planting over 100 trees annually. Plus, you’ll eliminate (or at least significantly reduce) those pesky electric bills: with a solar system, you’ll generate free power for your system’s entire 25+ year lifecycle. Even if you don’t produce 100 percent of the energy you consume, solar will reduce your utility bills and save money. This session will explore how going green can save you green, while reducing your carbon footprint at home.

Water, water, everywhere: Water conservation in our daily lives

Americans use 80-100 gallons of water per person, per day doing activities such as preparing food, washing clothes, flushing toilets, and watering lawns. Water is essential to human health, but we have a responsibility to be good stewards of this resource. How we treat water—and how we dispose of our waste—has a huge impact on our limited supply of drinkable water, and it is already hitting close to home. In this session, we will explore the opportunities for us to take small steps for big impact when it comes to conserving this precious resource.

Healthy buildings for healthy people: The built environment and our health

We spend approximately 90% of our lifetime in enclosed spaces, and as much as 69% of that time is within the home. While cooking, cleaning or even comfortably resting on a sofa, we are exposed to millions of invisible air contaminants which can put us at risk for health problems. In fact, household air pollution was rated as the third cause of ill health for the world’s population. Join Inova healthcare sustainability experts in a discussion about the relationship between our built environment and our health, and how you can create spaces which contribute to your overall wellness while minimizing exposure to harmful contaminants.

Shopping for a better planet: A guide to environmentally preferable purchasing

Sustainable purchasing is an effort to buy greener, healthier, and more sustainable products from greener, more sustainable companies. Sustainable purchasing means buying products with improved sustainability footprints that also meet price, performance and quality requirements. In this session, we will discuss the environmental and health impacts that occur all along a product’s supply chain. Participants will learn about various environmental labels, and will be empowered to make greener, healthier purchasing decisions.

Healthy Climate, Healthy People: How a changing climate impacts our health

The burning of fossil fuels results in the release of greenhouse gases, which build up in the atmosphere; cause the Earth’s temperature to rise. The rising temperatures often referred to as climate change, cause a number of public health issues.  Join climate and health experts as we explore the ways in which our changing climate is impacting the health of Northern Virginians. Learn about actions you can take to mitigate yours and your family’s climate risks.