Resolution, a Digital Program from Memorial Hermann - Is One Resolution You Can Stick With

Memorial Hermann Health System’s online wellness program proves to be a winner

If it were up to Memorial Hermann Health System, patients would commence their wellness journeys long before they ever entered a hospital door. To honor that desire to help individuals achieve lifelong health, the organization has launched a community-driven digital program called Resolution, which guides subscribers in navigating and accomplishing their personal wellness goals.

“We tried to come at wellness from different angles, which is more than just the food you’re consuming or the workout you’re doing,” says Audrey Seykora, director of content and social strategy for Memorial Hermann. “We ask users ‘How’s your mental health? How are your relationships? I think, as a healthcare system, there is a level of trust in the guidance we provide compared to other resources on the internet. Memorial Hermann has people’s best interests at heart.”

Seykora, who came up with the free-to-use program along with her co-workers in 2018, says that Resolution was created to engage Houstonians to seriously commit to their New Year’s health and fitness goals, which all too often fall by the wayside early in the year.

“We know a lot of us have resolutions going into the New Year, but we wanted to provide useful resources to achieve those resolutions, and each Resolution week had a different focus. Week one was refreshing your diet; week two was focused on recharging your workouts; week three was rekindling your relationships; week four was renewing your mind; and week five was rediscovering your city,” she says.

The month-long program was introduced in late 2018 with more than 20,000 people signing up for the challenge. Each week, Resolution would feature dinner recipes, lunch and snack recommendations, and a daily five-step workout plan for users to follow. And though it was only intended to be a short-term program, Seykora and her team were taken aback when countless users reached out to say the program was transformative, effective and left them wanting more.

“Throughout the experience we had people writing in saying this was truly the first program that ever worked for them, or that they lost 20 pounds, or that their blood pressure was finally down for the first time,” she says. “It was really inspiring to see people be vulnerable and tell us how much their lives were changing.”

Realizing how effective and resourceful Resolution had the potential to be in the long run, Seykora and her team decided to continue it on a seasonal basis. “We quickly pulled together Resolution Refresh, which was designed to meet the demand from people who had signed up for Resolution, but instead of providing weekly meal plans we offered ebooklets that were focused on seasonal and fresh produce,” she says.

“For spring we partnered with Urban Harvest; for summer we partnered with The Informal Grub; for fall we partnered with Marcia Smart, and for winter we are partnering with Edible Houston.” (For its partnership with Resolution, Edible Houston’s Editor Francine Spiering will generate the recipes featured in the winter e-booklet).

After gaining 60 pounds through the years, Jennifer Keathly was in search of a program that would inspire her take to charge of her health and spend more time with her family at the dinner table. For years, Keathly said she tried just about every diet, including Whole30 and Keto, but too many of them relied on drastic, rigid lifestyle changes.

“I’m not 30 years old anymore. I’m in my 50s and I have a family, so I knew I had to have realistic expectations going into the program, and what I love about [Resolution] is it isn’t designed to make you feel ashamed of yourself like other programs,” she says. “I am committed to taking care of myself and my family once again, and Resolution didn’t make it so difficult that I couldn’t make these changes in my life.”

Since adopting Resolution, Keathly has lost 22 pounds, but more importantly has recaptured time with her family, has discovered the joy of new seasonal ingredients and has cut down on her grocery bill by using Resolution’s H-E-B shopping guides.

“My son and my husband get involved in meal prep and we all now sit down together to eat,” she says. “I didn’t ever use Swiss chard before Resolution, but now we buy it all the time. We were exposed to ingredients that weren’t so far out there that we wouldn’t be willing to try them again. That’s hard to do.”

Chelsea Johnson, registered dietitian at Memorial Hermann Health System, was one of the individuals who helped piece together Resolution’s meals plan and nutritional information. Johnson believes Resolution’s emphasis on small, incremental changes instead of large, disruptive revisions is why the program has found such meaningful results with its subscribers.

“Trying to do a 180° change is honestly unsustainable, and that’s why I tell people to focus on small, incremental changes that are sustainable in the long run. When you focus on small changes you cultivate lifelong habits and don’t end up yo-yo dieting or gaining and losing weight back and forth.”

Resolution will also make some minor adjustments in the New Year. The program, which currently has an estimated 36,000 users, will introduce updates in 2020 including more substitutions in the dietary plans and group-focused workouts.

“We’re working more personalization in the meal plans as well as offering workouts in different formats, such as live streams or partnering with an organization for group workouts. We want to streamline the digital experience while also offering a physical experience.”

PAID FOR BY MEMORIAL HERMANN

Interested in joining the Resolution challenge? Sign-up at memorialhermann.org/resolution/signup.