Biz Spotlight: Fitness for Life

Continuing the strong return of our business spotlight series, we spoke with Gail Migliozzi of "Fitness for Life," which specializes in creating healthy lifestyles and developing programs for other businesses.

Migliozzi spoke about everything from the history of her business to the challenges she faces daily. Accoring to Migliozzi, "Fitness for Life" serves the Greater Boston area.

Our conversation with her is below.

Windham Patch: What brought you and your business to Windham?

GM: I've been living in Windham since 1999 but have been doing the corporate wellness since 1993. What brough me here was a move from Methuen, Mass.

Windham Patch: Why this particular field?

GM: I'm passionate about helping people be healthy.

Windham Patch: What is your daily routine like?

GM: Each day is different but one of the main things I do is provide one-on-one wellness coaching. It is just me. If there are other services requested like a massage, bio-metric screenings – I have other companies I partner with.

I work with employers to design results-oriented programs to learn who their high-risk population is, designing targeted interventions to reduce those risks.  I also work with them to tie their benefits packages to wellness for maximum particiption and greatest savings.

Windham Patch: What do you like most about what you do?

GM: The thing I like most about what I get to do on a daily basis is to see people successfully change their behavior and set their goals.

Windham Patch: How did you start in your field?

GM: I developed a passion for health and fitness when I was in undergraduate school in Boston just because of the freshman 10 that we all gain. I pursued many elective courses related to health and communications. I then became a certified personal trainer on a lark, and went back to graduate school and had a Masters in health.

Windham Patch: So how do you build a program for a particular company?

GM: Based on their needs, their demographics, their budget and what their goals are, I will tailor a program to them which can simply be starting some health or fitness screenings to creating a communication plan. It really depends on what they want to accomplish, but by not doing anything, they are really negatively impacting their bottom line.

Windham Patch: What are you challenges?

GM: I am doing well. There are challenges in continuing to build the business and have people understand the value of healthy employees.

Windham Patch: Give an example of one of your successes.

GM: I facilitated American Lung Association smoking cessation programs with 66% and 85% quit rate at the end of clinic and 1-year respectively.

As an example of the value of worksite wellness, studies prove out an ROI of $4.30 to-$1 in reduced absenteeism and health care costs so the data is there to support these programs.

For more information on Fitness for Life, visit the company website.