Creating healthy incentives

So this is a topic near and dear to my heart-- health and exercise.

BusinessWeek ran an article giving tips on how to fit in workouts when you have a busy work schedule.

It starts by talking about how this 28 year old doesn't have time to work out because he is working too much. This may be the case for many, but really, is that the case for most?

To contrast this, I would like to point at that the average American watches over 3 hours of television a day. Not to say that watching TV contributes to that... or drinking 9 sodas... or eating out for lunch contribute to that, but maybe they do :o)

Employers should encourage employees to keep themselves in better shape because studies show (I am not going to look them up because I know they exist) that healthy employees tend to be more productive. And yes, working 50 hours a week (even 40 in a stressful position) hurt the ability and drive to work out. I get that, and if I were in charge of a HR department (which I hope to be sometime) I would give real incentives for people to be in decent shape. Encourage not only exercising, but eating and drinking healthier as well. Sleeping more. Whenever an office orders lunch, what do they order? My experience is typically things like pizza (with soda of course).

Most wellness programs seem to be those 'token' programs where employers pretend that they care, but don't really give employees any incentives to live a healthy lifestyle. I can only imagine how much worse it is now that most employees are fearing for their jobs.