 Helpful hints to engage your attendees  Incorporate healthy options into a standard meeting

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t’s not just the holidays that people dread when it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Meetings are also a threat. Often people who otherwise eat healthy and exercise get sidetracked at meetings. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are many alternatives and ways to keep events healthy.

Food for thought

In addition to offering healthy benefits, eating lighter and

healthier meals is more productive for meetings. People are more alert and likely to retain the content instead of hitting a midday coma after a heavy meal and sugar-laden snacks. Liz Planz, CMP, Senior Meeting Planner at Raymond James & Associates Inc. said, “I am an enabler. For menus, I lean towards “simple and fresh” menus, finding that guests tend to prefer this to heavy meals and snacks; beverages too.” Other planners try to create a healthy mix of some traditional

items as well as lighter fare. Missy Covington, Writing and Cre- ative Development at Live Spark, has attended events that offered more choices, “I’ve seen healthful selections planned into the buf- fet menus a lot. For instance, they’ll still have the fried chicken kabobs, but they’ll have a lighter grilled fish option as well. A lot of places have gotten better about automatically incorporating veg- etarian options as well.” Yes, people still like to cheat and enjoy some “fun foods” and

indulge in special desserts, but by including additional options, people can create a better balance to offset their treats. Joanne Langevin, CMP, College of Family Physicians of Canada

(CFPC) said, “It’s okay to offer fried foods or desserts; however, always make sure there is a healthy option for those who are con- scious about what they eat. It is also important to provide lots of fruits and vegetables during the breaks and some vegetarian options during meals (approximately three to five percent). I’m also finding

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