Nutrition expert visits Optimal to discuss healthy living

Date: April 20, 2015

In an effort to underscore the importance of healthy living and staying active, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) encourages its employees to keep moving and provides opportunities for staff to expand their knowledge outside their subject matter. Earlier this year, Optimal held a WalkFit contest, for which groups of staff members “walked” to San Salvador, El Salvador. For over 2 months, participating staff members wore pedometers and competed to get the most steps in the company-wide effort to “walk” 3,155 miles to San Salvador. The winning team received Microsoft Bands to encourage them to stay active and track their progress after the contest concluded.

Another encouraging opportunity comes in the form of a nutrition Brown Bag lecture presented by Dr. Jo Zimmerman, an instructor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, and her undergraduate honors student, Jessica Carrignan. Their talk will focus on registered dieticians and why they are an important part of some weight management programs. This talk was Ms. Carrignan’s honors project for Dr. Zimmerman’s class. Ms. Carrignan’s project was developed to complement Dr. Zimmerman’s nutrition information lecture and to clarify the terminology that many find confusing when looking for the right resources.

From her biography in the University of Maryland faculty page: “[Dr. Zimmerman] is an instructor in the Department of Kinesiology. [She] earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees from George Mason University, and has held the ACSM Health Fitness Specialist certification since 1996. She has been working in the health and fitness industry for over 20 years and teaching for over 18 years.”