Faculty/Staff Wellness

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UC Walks Flash Mob Photo

Wellness Program: Workshop Calendar

ENROLLMENT:

  1. Click on the hyperlinked "date" to the UCB Learning Center.
  2. Enter your CalNet Passphrase.
  3. Click "Submit."
  4. Participants will receive the Zoom link 2 days before the class.

Creativity and Your Well-Being

Creativity and Your Well-Being: Canvas Painting

Wed 3/6

12:10-1pm | Tang Education Center

Register here!

Instructor: Kim Guess and Carla Jackson

Repeat of the Fall 2023 workshop. Engaging in creative activities (as part of, or outside of our work), allows us to be more productive, balanced, and calm in everyday life. Creative activities can lower your blood pressure, decrease stress, improve your immune system, and increase your ability to be more productive. Learn two beginner-friendly painting techniques, then choose one (or both!) to try out on your own canvas to take home. No prior painting experience necessary. Supplies will be provided.

Active @ Work

I CAN (I Commit to Activity and Nutrition)

Month-Long Healthy Lifestyle Program 

Weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays from March 26 - April 30

12:10-1pm | In Person, Various Locations

Instructors: Kim Guess and Tomas Handelsman 

Register here!

I CAN is a month-long, in-person wellness program for beginners. This program includes fun group workouts with a certified personal trainer, a hands-on cooking class, a grocery tour, nutrition workshops, goal setting, and optional fitness testing before and after the program. Past participants appreciated being part of a group and the fun, connection, and accountability this format provides.

Cardio Kickboxing 

Fri 4/5, 5/3

12:10-1pm| In Person @ 251 Hearst Gym

Instructor: Tomas Handelsman 

Registration links (click date):

4/5 Class

5/3 Class

Looking to get active and try something new? Join us for our new Cardio Kickboxing workshop, where you can get a great workout and learn beginner kickboxing techniques. This no-contact class will incorporate kickboxing techniques with body weight exercises to provide a full body workout!

Yoga for Tension and Stress Relief

Please note, the upcoming semester will alternate classes between fully virtual and fully in person classes! Check below for which classes will be held remotely or in person. 

In Person Classes @ 251 Hearst Gym

  • Fri 2/9, 4/12

Zoom Classes

  • Fri 3/8

12:10-1pm

Instructor: Laurie Ferris

Registration links (click date):

2/9 In-Person Class

3/8 Zoom Class

4/12 In-Person Class

Join us at Hearst Gym or on Zoom to learn basic yoga poses and breathing techniques to transform your practice into a moving meditation. Practicing yoga can release tension in your joints, give you greater range of motion, and offer increased comfort in all aspects of your life.  Comfortable clothing and bare feet recommended.

Nutrition and Cook Well Berkeley Programs

Ask the Dietitian

Submit a Question Button

Ask the Dietitian provides UC Berkeley faculty and staff a convenient and dependable way to receive answers to questions about health and nutrition from a qualified health professional. 

Cook Well Berkeley: Tasty Tofu

Wed, 2/28 (rescheduled from Feb 13/14)|12:10-1pm

Hybrid: Tang Education Center (Section Club) AND on Zoom

Instructor: Kim Guess, RD

Register here!

Tofu is a versatile, affordable, and neutral tasting plant-based protein with endless possibilities. You’ll learn about different types of tofu and ways to prepare it. Whether you’re a tofu novice or just looking for new ideas, or a vegan or a carnivore, this class is for you. Demonstration, recipes, and samples provided.

See Cook Well Berkeleyfor the recipes from past workshops

Cook Well Berkeley: Flavors Around the World 

Wed 3/20|12:10-1pm 

Hybrid: Tang Education Center (Section Club) AND on Zoom

Instructor: Kim Guess, RD

Register here!

Ready for a trip around the world? We’re taking your taste buds on a journey through the bold spices, herbs and other exciting flavors used in nutritious international recipes. Learn to make a couple of delicious recipes and how to incorporate more global flavor into your cooking in general.

See Cook Well Berkeley for the recipes from past workshops

Cook Well Berkeley: Plant-Based & Planet-Friendly

Wed 4/24| 12:10-1pm 

Hybrid: Tang Education Center (Section Club) AND on Zoom

Instructor: Kim Guess, RD

Register here!

Eating lower on the food chain uses less natural resources and provides your body with loads of valuable nutrients. Whether it’s a meatless meal once a day or week, or eating mostly plants at every meal, there are benefits to your health and your planet. Demonstration, recipes, and samples provided.

See Cook Well Berkeley for the recipes from past workshops

Breastfeeding Support Program

Lactation Rooms

The lactation rooms on campus are available to faculty, staff, and students. Most of the rooms are equipped with hospital-grade electric breast pumps, compatible with personal attachments. For more information, including locations and registration, visit our Breastfeeding Support page

Breastfeeding Your Baby Class

Breastfeeding Your Baby/Returning to Work or School

Tue 4/2| 1-4:15pm | Virtual

Register here!

Speaker: Tina Benitez, IBCLC

This class is FREE to UC Berkeley faculty, staff, students, and their spouses/domestic partners.

This 3 hour class is taught by a certified lactation consultant and is broken up into two parts.
The first portion of the class, 1-3pm, addresses breastfeeding basics and problem solving. The second portion of class, 3:15-4:15pm, covers returning-to-work planning and breast pumps. Those who have already attended a breastfeeding class are welcome to join the last portion of the class.

Register for the class: 

Healthy Lifestyle Programs

Know Your Numbers Health Screening

Know Your Numbers Logo

Upcoming Know Your Numbers Clinics TBA

Why know your numbers? 

Knowing your numbers is one of the best ways to evaluate your health by identifying your risk and providing motivation for managing your health. Even if you feel great and look healthy, you may not know what's going on inside. Many diseases are "silent" and affect your health long before you feel anything wrong.

Know Your Numbers is a voluntary, fasting health screening including total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides, glucose, and blood pressure.  Receive your confidential results (seen only by Be Well at Work - Program staff) and resources for follow-up immediately. Plan for 20-30 minutes to complete the screening. 

How to Register:

1. Click on the linked dates above

2. On the Know Your Numbers header select "Register"

3. Next select "Add"

4. Choose your appointment time and select "Add"

5. View the Registration Summary and click "Register"

Click here for more instructions and step by step photos.

Testimonials

"My appointment was this morning and I can’t begin to say thank you enough for offering this service. I took advantage of it last year and, unfortunately, my numbers were so unhealthy that I was advised to contact my doctor immediately. My numbers were not even close to the healthy range. It was obvious that I needed to do something. Given the needs of other people in my household I had been postponing my own checkups and now it was time to get in. As a result of your setting off the alarm I am now happy to say that a year of medication (lowest dose I am happy to write), healthier eating, more exercise ---- drum roll please --- I have excellent numbers! Thank you so much for this service. It is invaluable. I’ll be back next year to check again and make sure I stay on track."

Healthy Holiday Challenge

Give yourself the gift of healthier habits this year with the Healthy Holiday Challenge. This 6-week program supports you with small, healthy steps you build on each week and can keep going through the new year. Join us for a healthful, relaxing, balanced, and fun holiday season!

This year, everyone on our Wellness email list will benefit from the Healthy Holiday Challenge! The resources and information related to the challenge will be shared and available to our entire email list! Registration for the challenge is NOT required and options to opt out of the email list temporarily will be available. 

To learn more about the challenge, pick up prizes, and meet other challenge participants, sign up for our Healthy Holiday Challenge Kickoff event, which will be on November 1 from 12-1pm at the Tang Center Class of '42!

Register here! 

For more information, visit the HHC main page.

Mindfulness Mondays

Mondays| 12:10-12:30pm | Online

Class Link

Join Liza Schlosser-Olroyd for a short mindfulness practice at 12:10 on Mondays! As we continue working and living through unprecedented times in many ways, developing a mindfulness practice is a nourishing way to fill our own cups and cultivate resilience over time. This is a chance to come together and share a mindful moment with one another before we take on the rest of our week. Hope to see you there!

About Liza: Liza Schlosser-Olroyd (she/her) is a Cal alum and is now on staff supporting communications for Research, Teaching, and Learning (RTL) and the Advising Strategy + Training program. She is an experienced trauma-informed yoga teacher (RYT), meditation facilitator, and wellness coach in service of empowering survivors to reclaim our body-mind-souls through gentle practices that support a flourishing, embodied lived experience. Liza is a queer femme who loves nature, whole-foods plant-based cooking, crosswords, running with a good audiobook, and being a student of this life that facilitates growth opportunities at every turn.

Smoking Cessation

Support Services, Programs, and Local Classes

See the Smoking Cessation webpage for cessation support services and referrals to telephone counseling, online programs, text and app programs and local classes.

Recorded Webinars

The Outdoors and Your Well-Being

Spending time in nature can promote health and well-being, which is especially important during a pandemic. In this interactive webinar, we’ll explore the benefits of the outdoors, share safe ways to enjoy nature, and provide local Bay Area resources. We’ll cover camping, gardening, outdoor cooking, physical activity, arts and crafts, and sun and insect safety. Participants are welcome to share their insight throughout the webinar as well.

Speakers: Kim Guess, RD & Nicole Castillo

How Your Health Connects to Soil

What does soil health have to do with your health? This webinar will explore the relationship between soil and health, and the specific steps you can take to become a Soil Ambassador.

Co-hosted by the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH)

Presented by Daphne Miller, MD

Lifestyle Changes

This webinar provides you with essential knowledge and practical tools to reduce your health risks and lead a healthy lifestyle. You will learn skills for setting SMART goals and making simple lifestyle changes with big impacts. This webinar is a good first step following the Know Your Numbers health screening. (40 minutes)

Sugar

This webinar covers the effects of sugar on the body, the hidden sources of sugar, and strategies to become more aware of the added sugar we are consuming and how to consume less. (45 minutes)

Prediabetes Webinar 

Lifestyle improvements can prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes and reverse potential long-term damage that may have already begun.
View the slides and transcript to learn specific steps you can take to control your blood sugar and reduce your risk of diabetes and other chronic diseases. Recommended as part of Game On: Spring Training for Prediabetes Prevention and/or as follow up from Know Your Numbers health screening.

View the slides and transcript. Download the PDF to view the full transcript in the comment section.

Strategies for Making Lifestyle Changes

Want to make lifestyle changes but unsure how to get started? This webinar will give you tools and knowledge to understand your readiness to change, create SMART goals, find motivation and maintain a healthy lifestyle. (30 minutes)

Nutrition Essentials

Gain an understanding of the way foods you eat influence your body. This webinar will also give you practical tools for identifying healthier foods, building nutritious meals, and keeping portions in check. (45 minutes)

Food Sensitivities

Diagnoses of food allergies and intolerances are on the rise. Yet there is much controversy surrounding the identification and treatment of these conditions. This webinar will explore different ways the body can react negatively to food and discuss effective strategies for identifying and eliminating offending foods in the diet. (30 minutes) 

Nutrition for Women in Middle Age and Beyond

While healthy nutrition is important for women of all ages, needs can change significantly in the decades surrounding menopause. From countering a slowing metabolism to navigating the latest supplement recommendations, this webinar will address common challenges women face and outline strategies for maintaining a strong, healthy, and happy body in middle-age and beyond. (47 minutes)

Past Programs

Well-Traveled Challenge

Program was offered Spring 2021

6-week online challenge

Bags packed? Check. Itinerary set? Check. Then let’s hit the road! In this 6-week wellness tour, your goal is to earn points by recording physical activity, meditation, and sleep. 

With this virtual trip, you will:

  • Travel from state to state, stopping at the country’s most amazing hot spots as you record health behaviors

  • View postcard-perfect images and bet-you-didn’t-know descriptions

  • Build well-being habits that last long after your country-wide tour is over

  • Have the option to enter as at team to complete challenges

  • Have the chance to win weekly raffle prizes

  • Have the chance to win one of two grand prizes: a brand new bicycle or a Fitbit Ionic Watch!

For more information, be sure to visit the UC Berkeley Well Traveled Challenge page and view the video for a fun introduction. We hope you will join us on the adventure! 

Prediabetes Prevention

6-week Health Improvement Challenge

Mon Feb 13 – Fri Mar 24 

Prediabetes is more common than you may realize – one in three adults has prediabetes and 90% don’t know it.  At Berkeley, an estimated 28% of faculty and staff have prediabetes and this is a 29% increase over a two-year time period. Prediabetes is more than just a warning sign of type 2 diabetes; long-term damage may already be starting. The good news is that prediabetes can be reversed and Be Well at Work – Wellness Program is offering this 6-week challenge with a weekly game plan to help you take small steps towards building healthier habits for nutrition and body movement. Participants will have a chance to win weekly prizes and a grand slam prize of Oakland A’s tickets and gift pack!  

Learn more about Game On! Spring Training for Diabetes Prevention.

Energize to Be Well

6-week Health Improvement Challenge

Mon Feb 13 – Fri Mar 24 

Energize to Be Well integrates several programs offered by Be Well at Work Faculty/Staff Health Programs this fall under one theme focused on energy and engagement. The main two offerings are the Panel Presentation and the Six-Week Challenge, but there are several supporting workshops offered by ergonomics, employee assistance, and wellness. 

Learn more about Energize to Be Well.

Sugar Campaign

Program was offered Spring 2016

Be sugar savvy, eat healthier, and feel better! Did you know that excess added sugar is linked to diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and more? Events include an expert panel, a talk with Dr. Robert Lustig, Sugar Savvy Day, and 15-minute staff presentations. 

Be Well at Work Wellness Program is collaborating with Cal Dining, Haas School of Business, School of Public Health, UHS Health Promotion and Tang Health Worker Program, and the Student Nutrition Advocacy Club (SNAC) to help Berkeley become the most sugar savvy university!

Sugar Challenge

Program was offered Spring 2016 but can be done on paper anytime.

Choose a goal to reduce sugar intake for 21 days. During this challenge, you will receive a daily email reminder, educational tools to find added sugar in your diet, and resources to develop new strategies to help you better know how much sugar you are consuming.

Learn more about the 21 Day Sugar Savvy Challenge!

The Amazing Walk

Program offered Fall 2012-2015

A spin-off of the Amazing Race, a television game-show, The Amazing Walk program will send partners on a virtual adventure around the world for 6 weeks

Cell Phones and Your Health

Event was held in Fall 2015

Does cell phone and cordless phone radiation increase your risk of cancer and other health problems? Classified as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization, wireless radiation has been a hot topic in the news lately. Learn about the latest research on wireless radiation safety and easy steps you can take to protect yourself and loved ones from potential harm. Clips from the award-winning documentary “Mobilize” will be shown, co-produced by UC Berkeley Researcher Joel Moskowitz, PhD. This event is co-sponsored by the Be Well at Work Wellness Program and the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS).

Joel Moskowitz, PhD, is the director of the Center for Family and Community Health in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley.
Resources:

  • Powerpoint Presentation Slides
  • Tips to Reduce your Wireless Radiation Exposure handout
  • Electromagnetic Radiation Safety website