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A Healthy Start for Healthy Monday Campaign
Monday, October 16, 2006 kicked off the official launch of the Healthy Monday campaign, a nationwide project spearheaded by the Mailman School of Public Health seeking to make Monday the day of the week that Americans incorporate healthy lifestyle changes into their everyday routine.
Audrey Cross, PhD, JD, associate clinical professor of Sociomedical Sciences and director of the Healthy Monday Campaign, called on businesses and media across New York and the nation to join the campaign. Corporations like Fresh Direct, Jenny Craig, Hain Celestial Group, Revolution Health, and the Compass Group (Chartwells), have already signed on to offer meaningful value to their consumers every Monday.
Recognizing the need for people to have a recurring day of the week to get back on track for health and wellness, major health organizations such as the New York Chapters of American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and American Cancer Society, as well as the Take Care New York campaign (a project of the New York City Department of Health), the YMCA, and the American Legacy Foundation have joined to support this new, innovative campaign. Activities already in progress include American Heart Association's "Search your Health Sunday — Go Healthy Monday;" Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications' "Monday Healthy Campus" program; and Chartwells' "Raising Health on Campus" program, which will be offered to colleges nationwide.
Campaign founder and chairman Sid Lerner calls this starter group the gang that stole Monday for health. "After all," he says, "Friday has become pay day, Saturday is play day, Sunday is pray day—so we want to make Monday health day."
Why Now?
The U.S. is facing a massive epidemic of chronic, killer diseases which could be averted through preventive health measures. Diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer kill millions of Americans every year. Dr. Cross commented, "We want Americans to realize that the major health challenges we face as a nation are not only infectious diseases, but also diseases that can be reduced or prevented by behavioral choices people make every day. Whether it's smoking, overeating, unprotected sex, inactivity, excessive sun exposure, etc., our lifestyle actions have lead to a nation suffering from an increasing incidence of preventable diseases. Healthy Monday encourages people to make healthy choices not just once a year, but every week of the year, giving people a better shot at succeeding in goals they set for their health."
Why Monday?
Global health studies indicate an increased incidence of disease—related indicators on Mondays, including strokes, heart attacks, injuries, or accidents. But the choice of Monday as the day for encouraging attention to health is not based on these risk statistics. People organize their lives around the days of the week with Monday as the start. Monday is the January of the week, the day to set goals, refocus, and recommit. It is a user-friendly, social platform that makes Monday a logical day to commit to improving health and wellness-the day to trigger and sustain healthy behavior.
"Many people think about the need to change, but take no steps to change," notes Dr. Cross. "Adding a compliance date tells us just when we need to take action. It adds the 'when,' and the weekly recurrence of Monday adds that specific, regular, and repeated stimulus or reminder to act. The good part is that if one fails during any week, there's another Monday coming up to start again. We say that by making Monday your 'weekly start to a healthier you,' we can begin the crusade that will build a healthier America."
For more information, please visit www.healthymonday.org.
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