(UT Fitness Institute Trainer Meleah Rubio):
OK we start jog in place Ready? Go.
These people working out together,
work together too.
Its a worksite wellness program
at the Texas Medical Association called Get FIT.
This class meets in the staff lunchroom,
and the fitness room next-door.
(UT Fitness Institute Trainer Meleah Rubio):
Hustle!
Twice a week for an hour,
University of Texas GetFIT trainers
put about 50 TMA and TMA Insurance Trust
employees through the ropes.
They combine high-intensity exercise
with nutrition education
to help participants reach their health goals.
(UT Fitness Institute Trainer Meleah Rubio):
5,4,3,2, go!
(Lou Goodman, PhD, TMA EVP / CEO):
This program not only is great for the staff
but its consistent with what we believe in-
which is improving health
and helping our doctors
provide the highest kind of quality care.
(UT Fitness Institute Trainer Meleah Rubio):
Ready, go!
Texas obesity epidemic weighs heavily
on health-- and health care budgets.
TMA has long advocated worksite wellness
and it invested by first offering this program
to employees in 2010.
Participants pay to join, but if they stick
to the 4-month session,
they get their money back and better health.
(UT Fitness Institute Trainer Meleah Rubio): Time!
Its paying off. Collectively, TMA participants
have shed more than 368 pounds since the start.
This is Dale Kilsby, a few years ago.
Heres Dale today;
hes one of the programs many success stories.
(Dale Kilsby, TMA GetFIT participant):
I've always worked out - never had great results
I thought maybe this is the thing I need
to get me where I wanted to be.
And it has. This image is called a DEXA scan
for Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry.
UT uses it to measure GetFIT participants fat,
muscle and bone mass.
This is Dale Kilsby before he started in GetFIT.
Here is Dale, 9 months later,
after two 12-week GetFIT sessions.
(Dale Kilsby, TMA GetFIT participant):
I lost 62 pounds on the program
over about a 9-month period.
I went from 240 to 178. I'm currently holding
right around that and that was over a year ago.
And the company gets healthier too.
Studies show every dollar companies invest
in worksite wellness programs like this
saves more than three times that
in medical costs.
And when it comes to reducing absenteeism,
companies save almost six times
their investment.
(Lou Goodman, PhD, TMA EVP / CEO):
If they looked at the cost benefit not just
in terms of the economic,
but the noneconomic benefits
healthier happier workforce,
reduced absenteeism,
reduced sickness rates that they would certainly
want to invest in participating
in this kind of program.
The program certainly has believers here.
(Dale Kilsby, TMA GetFIT participant):
To work out with everybody here at TMA,
I see the results throughout the whole company;
everybody just changing, and its just great.
(Applause)