Kindness Calendars Available

UW-Green Bay has received 100 full-size 2022 Kindness Calendars as part of UW-System’s wellness initiative!  Each day includes an activity/thought/suggestion to help improve your life.

  1. Please email wellness@uwgb.edu to request a calendar and we’ll send you one!
  2. Complete and check off at least 21 of the activities.
  3. Complete this survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ESA2022) to receive your code.
  4. Enter that code on the Rewards tab at https://webmdhealth.com/wellwisconsin/ under “My Reward” and “Employer Sponsored Activity” before October 14, 2022.  This would take care of the “Activity” step to get your $150 wellness incentive!

If you have any questions, please email wellness@uwgb.edu.

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud”
~ Maya Angelou

August Wellness Activity: Sustainability Bingo

Have fun with Sustainability Bingo for August and learn sustainable habits. Use the bingo card to keep track of activities you complete. Complete a full row of sustainability activities, cross off the boxes and email wellness@uwgb.edu with a picture of your bingo card to receive a code to self-report your participation in this employer sponsored well-being activity for Well Wisconsin at webmdhealth.com/wellwisconsin. Hopefully, participating in this challenge will encourage you to recognize small actions can make a big difference for our environment.

Deadline to receive a code is September 30, 2021.

BINGO CARD

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”   

—Margaret Mead

Source: Well Wisconsin

Sustainable Fishing in Wisconsin – Well Wisconsin Radio

Well Wisconsin Radio – Monthly expert interviews on various health topics with professionals around the state.

Sustainable Fishing in Wisconsin

Join your host, Morgan Meinen as she talks with Sharon Moen, Eat Wisconsin Fish Outreach Specialist for the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant.  Sharon and Morgan will discuss why some fish choices are more sustainable than others, the health benefits of eating fish, contaminants, fish recipes and more!  We hope you’ll tune in!

  • Tuesday, July 27, 2021
  • Noon – 12:30 PM

REGISTER HERE

Episodes available on demand after the event!  Click here to access the Well Wisconsin Radio channel.

Just a reminder, participants would need to listen to two Well Wisconsin Radio shows in order to get credit for the Well-Being Activity. You do not have to listen to the program live in order to get credit – you can listen to the recorded program on the Well Wisconsin portal. 

July Well Wisconsin Challenge – Summer Bucket List

Fill your bucket this summer by doing things that feel good to you! Our Summer Bucket List Challenge has some great ideas or create your own. Set a goal and then get to fillin’ your bucket!

Track your fun for 30 days by checking 10 days off your bucket list. Click here for the form. Email your completed form to wellness@uwgb.edu.  

Treat yo’ self!

Self-care

  • Stargaze—contemplate just how amazing life is
  • Use PTO to leave work early to do your own thing!
  • Enjoy a book or magazine at your favorite cafe
  • Tap in to your artistic side with sidewalk chalk
  • Take a nap or read in the warm shade
  • Say “no” to something that feels stressful
  • Say “yes!” to something fun and indulgent
  • Relax in the bath, pool, hot tub, lake—you choose
  • Sit outside, close your eyes, and just listen

I like to move it, move it!

Active living

  • Dance to music that moves you
  • Beat the heat—get up for an early morning walk/run
  • Start your day with yoga in the sunshine
  • Walk to do an errand or get a summer treat
  • Try a NEW activity—geocaching, paddle boarding, etc.
  • Grab a friend and go for a bike ride
  • Work in your garden or yard
  • Hand wash your car
  • Go for a hike and have a picnic

Get ‘er done!

Goals, productivity, professional development

  • Get rid of 25 items from your house
  • Organize a space—don’t forget before and after photos
  • Set one professional or personal goal for the summer
  • Don’t check work email when you are on vacation
  • Make an emergency/natural disaster plan with family
  • Aim for a no-waste week—reduce, reuse, recycle
  • Listen to a professional/personal development podcast
  • Read an article that will help you toward a goal
  • Plan a fall/winter vacation

Sunday—fun day!

Weekend ideas with friends and family

  • Go camping
  • Visit a museum—pose like an exhibit (pictures!)
  • Catch a summer blockbuster to escape the heat
  • Have fun with animals—zoo, aquarium, or your pet
  • Go to an outdoor concert, festival, fair or sports game
  • Try an outdoor ropes course or ziplining
  • Go to brunch or have a picnic in the park
  • Visit a pool, river, lake, or coast for a water adventure
  • Tour your local town or a new city you want to see

For the love of full bellies!

Food and drink

  • Make a healthy, cool summer treat—share the recipe!
  • Organize a progressive dinner with some neighbors
  • Enjoy a treat from an ice-cream truck
  • Make real homemade lemonade (no powdered stuff!)
  • Eat your favorite summer produce—savor every bite
  • Have a BBQ and snap a photo of the grill master
  • Try a cold summer soup recipe
  • Make fruit popsicles
  • Pick up fruits and veggies from a farmers’ market

You do you!

Create your own list

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  • ______________
  • ______________
  • ______________
  • ______________

May Well Wisconsin Challenge: Explore Wisconsin State Parks

This month’s challenge is encouraging everyone to get out and explore our wonderful state parks. The Friends of Wisconsin State Parks have developed a fun event that will challenge visitors to explore the Wisconsin properties in new and fun ways to increase healthy habits, connect with family and friends, and help serve the community.

There are several activities to choose from like hiking, camping, fishing, paddling, photography, and volunteering to help clean the parks. Please go to the site to see all the challenges listed (link below under resources). There is no fee associated with the challenge except for a vehicle admission sticker. Plan to complete it with family members, friends, coworkers or just some alone time outdoors.

The challenge has started and runs through September 22, 2021. Participants need to complete at least one of the challenges in order to get credit for the Well Wisconsin Incentive. Register on the site and download the logbook. When you complete a challenge, log it and email a picture of the logbook to wellness@uwgb.edu.

Want to learn more about the Friends of Wisconsin State Parks Explore Challenge? Tune in to Well Wisconsin Radio on Tuesday, May 25th from Noon-12:30. Host Morgan Meinen will be interviewing Mike McFadzen and Randall Paske from the Friends of Wisconsin State Parks.

Register here or available on demand after the live air date.

Resources:

Wis. Friends Explore

WebMD: Health Benefits of Getting Outside

Ergonomics for your home workstation

Are you starting to experience any of these symptoms after working at your home work station?

  • Discomfort
  • Pain
  • Numbness
  • Loss of motion/flexibility
  • Stiff joints
  • Tingling

Listen to your body – these are symptoms that the ergonomics of your home workstation may not be right.  Make changes to your ergonomic environment at home so that your body is in a neutral position (DOA Proper Neutral Posture poster).  You want to avoid awkward posture (ex. slouching – shoulders should be relaxed and should have a straight line from lower back to top of head), avoid reaching out to get to keyboard or mouse (should be close enough to reach easily when your elbows are at 90 degrees), have your feet flat on the floor, and keep knees at 90 degree angle (if sitting).

The State of Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA) provides some additional helpful resources:

If you sit at a desk or table to work at home, consider making some small adjustments so that you are more comfortable.  In the example above, the picture on the right shows how she used items easily available at home to improve her work area.

  • She added a patio furniture cushion to her chair
  • Put a box under her laptop to improve her neck alignment
  • Connected a keyboard and mouse to her laptop to improve her posture
  • Put a shoe box under her feet to keep her knees at a 90 degree angle (could add a non slip pad under if needed)
  • Rested her wrists on a folded towel to improve her wrist position

Do you sit on the couch while working from home?  Here are some tips you can consider, that were used in the second photo.

  • Add a cushion or pillow behind your back
  • Use a TV tray or card table for your computer/keyboard
  • Put laptop on a box to improve neck alignment
  • Have feet flat on ground to improve circulation

If you stand while working at home, here are some tips that helped in the photo on the right.

  • Wear shoes for better support
  • Put laptop and/or keyboard on a box to change their height
  • Connect keyboard and mouse to laptop

Some other tips:

  • Monitors should be placed directly in front of you at the same height, so that your eyes stare straight ahead at them. (DOA Workstation Arrangement poster)
  • If you have two monitors, your primary screen should line up with your dominant eye (ex. if your right eye is your dominant eye, your right monitor should be your primary screen).
  • Do you have sufficient lighting that doesn’t glare on the screen?  Consider adding a lamp or supplemental lighting to your work area.
  • 20/20/20 rule – every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds to avoid eye strain.
  • Every hour, take a stretch break – stand up, stretch your arms, neck and legs.  Do some hand stretching exercises.  (DOA Take A Break! poster)
  • Apply Ergonomics While Working From Home – helpful brochure from DOA

Please evaluate your home work station, and implement some of the changes noted above so that you feel more comfortable and keep your body healthy while working.

Returning to the Work Site

In an upside-down world, sometimes good news can cause mixed feelings.

For instance, if you or a family member was furloughed, temporarily laid off, or asked to work from home in response to the COVID-19 epidemic, being asked to return to work can be great news—wrapped in fear. With a bow of anxiety on top.

That’s OK. That’s a normal reaction.

Make a Personal Plan

Some states are very slowly starting to reopen work sites, shops, schools, and public spaces. Venturing back into these spaces may cause feelings of fear, worry, and even anger.

It may help you to know that many other people share your anxiety. It’s a healthy response. Use it to motivate yourself to make a solid plan for returning to work. Here are some things you should know before creating your plan:

  • How COVID-19 is transmitted.
  • Basic infection prevention measures.
  • The signs and symptoms of infection.

Execute Your Plan

Now that you have some solid science-backed information, start your plan. The best plan is one that you create and feel you can execute. Below are some suggestions. You can rearrange, skip, or add items as you need or want to. This is your plan.

Make sure you continue to:

  • Exercise to reduce stress and boost your immune system.
  • Get enough sleep to help your body manage stress and boost your immune system.
  • Eat healthy to provide your body with the nutrients it needs to prevent infection.
  • Meditate to calm your mind for clear thinking and better focus.

Start working on:

  • Figuring out how you will ease back in to work—Create a calendar, step-by-step plan, or tactical report—it doesn’t matter what it is, as long as you have a plan.
  • Making household arrangements—Talk to family members about their concerns and expectations. Don’t wait until the day before to line up daycare, meals, etc., if you usually take care of those things.
  • Getting your supply list together—Start a list now of the things you want to bring with you.
  • Learning to avoid touching your face—Seriously. You would be surprised how often and unconsciously you touch your eyes, nose, and mouth.

Things you can do when back on the work site:

  • Discourage coworkers and visitors from using your phone, computer, tools, or other work items.  If you must share, be sure to wipe down all surfaces between users.  And try not to use others’ items as well.
  • Keep a 60%-alcohol (or higher) hand sanitizer at your desk or in your tool bag or pocket.
  • Try to maintain space between yourself and coworkers.
  • Stay home if you are sick.  Ask others to do the same.
  • Know and follow your employer’s guidelines about staying safe at work.

Source: The StayWell Company, LLC

8 Areas to Clean While Quarantined

Sneezes, coughs and handshakes aren’t the only way to spread illness-causing germs. Viruses like COVID-19 can linger around your home, too.

Take some time to clean a few high-touch spots in your home, and check out the Resources section of the Well Wisconsin portal for more coronavirus-related information.

8 AREAS TO CLEAN WHILE QUARANTINED

  1. Smartphones and tablets: Clean frequently with disinfecting wipes.
  2. Doorknobs and light switches: Disinfect them using 4 teaspoons of bleach per quart of water.
  3. Cutting boards: Wash acrylic, plastic, glass and wood boards in the dishwasher.
  4. Toys: Wipe or dunk toys in a diluted bleach solution (see above), and then let stand for three to five minutes before rinsing with clean water.
  5. Dishrags and hand towels: Machine-wash rags often using the hot cycle and replace sponges frequently.
  6. Sinks: Wash frequently with hot, soapy water.
  7. Pillowcases and sheets: Wash regularly in hot water and detergent.
  8. Computer mice and keyboards: Wash your hands frequently and wipe the mouse and keyboard down with antiseptic pads.

Source: The StayWell Company, LLC

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Programs Available

Fallveggies

Eating vegetables and fruits provides many health benefits, such as providing nutrients, help maintaining healthy blood pressure, reducing risk of some chronic diseases, reducing cholesterol levels, lowering risk of heart disease, and protecting against infections.  As we know, it can be more challenging to eat healthy during winter, so it is important to make a contentious effort.  One way to get more healthy vegetables and fruits in our diet is to participate in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  Two area CSA’s provided us information about their programs (details below), but you can find out about other CSA’s in your local community through a quick internet search or word-of-mouth.

Garden to Doorstep Organics LLC: https://www.gardentodoorsteporganics.com/

  • Information about discount promotion for UW-Green Bay:
  • Garden to Doorstep Organics LLC offers year-around produce, and you can select from two different sizes of fruit only boxes or two different sizes of vegetable/fruit mixed boxes.
  • If enough people sign up, we could have our produce boxes delivered to UWGB each week!  Please click here to sign up by Friday, November 29th.

SLO Farmers Co-Op: https://slofarmersco-op.com/

  • SLO Farmers Co-Op is offering a fall CSA in November and December.  Some items may include winter squash, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, microgreens, onions, potatoes, radish, leeks, Brussel spouts, kohlrabi, beets, and parsnips.  They also have honey, meat and eggs available!

 

 

Backyard Chickens Lunch ‘n Learn held April 30th


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Thank you to Liz Biversie, Agricultural Educator with UW-Madison Division of Extension, for presenting the Backyard Chickens Lunch ‘n Learn on Tuesday, April 30th to 12 employees and students!  She IMG_0238shared a wealth of information including things to think about when considering raising backyard chickens, types of chickens that are good for laying eggs or providing meat, how much space you would need for each chicken, potential predators and diseases, and helpful resources available on the UW-Madison Division of Extension website.

Dr. Ron Kean, UW-Madison Division of Extension Poultry Specialist, also provided knowledgeable IMG_0237answers to our questions.  Monika Pynaker, UWGB Manager of Network Services, shared stories of her much-loved chickens, as well as helpful insight and pictures of her leghorns and their nice chicken coup!  Thank you to everyone who attended as well as Liz, Ron and Monika!