I have been doing the Health and Safety day for one of the biggest construction companies in Britain for a number of years. Actually, I am often engaged to do the health and safety days for companies – I have also been engaged by a major energy company to do their days. I am guessing that although it is extremely important to pay attention to this area, it might be termed a little dry. Having me in to engage, stimulate discussion and shake things up a bit adds a bit of excitement to the day.
With the Construction company I present at, I run 4 back to back workshops laying out the foundation of Nutrition – I lay this out from a benefit perspective – ie not a “waggy finger” telling people what they cant have. Healthy eating is boring but if you knew you could have vibrant energy, feel fantastic, have sustained energy throughout the day – why wouldn’t you get down to making a few simple changes. I always set a challenge at the end of the workshops so that there is a small action to take which gets people ready to make a small change
The workshop sessions are a lot of fun as we have a very mixed audience – from the guy with the hard hats to the guy in management. Funnily enough it is often the guys on the site who are better informed than the management guys – the other time I was with this construction company I had the managing director staying behind and frantically taking notes!
At the presentation we stir things up a bit making people think ,often for the first time, what they are eating. I often have lines of people after the workshop wanting to engage and ask questions – Food is funny as it is all around us all the time – we are expected to know all about it but we don’t – we don’t know how to eat and when and what. Often people’s idea of what is optimal is way off the truth. Our teacher is the television and media and this information is so fragmented that we only glean bits and bobs that don’t make up a complete picture.
One of the site guys came up to me last time (he’s been coming to these days for three years) and told me how he had completely changed his eating. Previously, he was turning up to site eating just thee bowls of cornflakes a day (he said he wanted to lose weight, surely dangerous?) – He and his wife are completely prioritising their food and its had a huge effect not only on him but on the whole family. He has lost weight (by eating more!) he is energetic and enthusiastic about his life. For me, this makes what I do so exciting and worthwhile and certainly why I spring out of bed every day
