Southern Sun The Cullinan has been announced as the winning hotel in Tsogo Sun and Discovery’s 7 Healthy Hotels Initiative, the brainchild of Tsogo Sun’s Director of Operations for the Cape Region, John van Rooyen, and Heila van Heerden, Discovery’s Financial Advisor.
The 10-month challenge saw Tsogo Sun’s hotels in Cape Town pitted against each other to involve all employees in making and maintaining the most important healthy lifestyle changes. From weight loss, regular exercise, quitting smoking, nutrition, stress management, improvements in BMI, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol checks, Discovery provided ongoing health and wellness education at monthly check-up sessions and progress reports.
Head of Discovery Vitality Wellness, Dr Craig Nossel, comments, “I have been at Discovery for 15 years now, and can’t recall being so humbled by the passion and effort that Tsogo Sun has put into truly making their employees healthy. The workshops teaching the principles of healthy eating, exercising, stress management and smoking cessation clearly had a significant impact – not just on their health, but on staff morale too.
A combined 1310 kg were lost across the Tsogo Sun hotels over the 10-month challenge. Southern Sun The Cullinan lost a total of 172.7 kg, 75% of staff members improved their Vitality age, 85% their cholesterol and blood glucose levels, and 80% their blood sugar.
Tsogo Sun’s chefs also committed to the initiative and have transformed canteen menus to offer employees a daily choice and variety of healthy meal options to enhance these long-term lifestyle changes.
Southern Sun The Cullinan’s winning GM, Garry Reed, comments, “The past 10 months have been a great journey for all hotel employees. Not only did we change our lifestyle in terms of health and wellness, but we also became stronger as a team. We are delighted to have won the inaugural competition and would like to congratulate all the other Tsogo Sun hotels that participated. We’re already gearing up for the 2014 challenge!”
