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Workplace Hellness

Analysis. Snark. Survival strategies.

Holiday Hall of Horrors: Entry #1

Erika Strandjord

2 minute read

OmadaBanner

CW: Weight loss, holiday weight loss challenges, making charity contingent on weight loss

I have written about Omada before, pointing out how its talk about improving health is just a front for promoting weight loss. And Omada continues to be the gift that keeps on giving (terrible material that no one should be subjected to). Last year, the company ran a “Pound-for-Pound Holiday Challenge” that encouraged Omada participants to lose weight so that Omada would then give food to people in need.

How is that messed up? Let me count the ways:

  1. Omada presumes that participants need to lose weight.
  2. Omada presumes that giving people a “how much weight can you lose in one month” challenge won’t trigger disordered eating, over-exercise, or a full-blown eating disorder.
  3. Omada thinks it’s OK to force people to shrink themselves before giving to charity.

In what universe is this about health? About giving? Truly, the more I think about this, the more angry and confused I get, like a toddler who hasn’t gotten their nap or snack and is now angry that everything in the world isn’t purple but doesn’t know why they are angry about that. Omada has broken my brain.

The image is a screenshot of a Facebook post by Omada Health from January 11, 2019. The image part of the post has a blurred image of a person’s hand holding a smart phone with, presumably, the Omada app open on it. Different potato varieties are in the background. White text has been superimposed over the image and reads, ‘Omada’s Pound-for-Pound Holiday Challenge.’ ‘Holiday Challenge’ is in a script font. I have added text that reads ‘Next yearAn eye for an eye (7.5 grams each!); a tooth for a tooth (1.4 grams each!); a hand for a hand (0.89 pounds each!)’ with an arrow pointing to ‘Pound-for-Pound.’ I have added text that reads, ‘THE FUN FONT DISTRACTS YOU FROM HOW AWFUL THIS ENTIRE THING IS!!!’ with an arrow pointing to the script font. That text is black with a white outline around it to make it easier to read. I have added text reading, ‘POOR VISUAL DESIGN: WHITE ON WHITE ISN’T READABLE’ with an arrow pointing to where the Omada text is over white parts of the image. I have also added text that reads, ‘SEE HOW I USED A WHITE BORDER TO SET OFF THE BLACK TEXT?’ with an arrow pointing to my much more readable additions to the image. I am petty like that. There is also text to the post, which reads, ‘At the start of December, Omada launched the Pound-for-Pound Holiday Challenge—an initiative aimed at helping those in need during the Holiday season.’ I have crossed out ‘helping those in need’ and replaced it with ‘ENCOURAGING DISORDERED EATING.’ The post continues, ‘Understanding that the holidays can be the most challenging time of year for participants, we committed that for every pound lost by an Omada participant in the month of December, we would donate one pound of food for a family in need.’ I have crossed out ‘a family’ and replaced those words with ‘a group of hostages.’ I have also added text that reads, ‘BECAUSE HEAVEN FORBID PEOPLE DO SOMETHING BESIDES OBSESSIVELY TRACK THEIR WEIGHT OVER THE HOLIDAYS!’ I have also added text that reads, ‘HAPPY HOLIDAYS! LOSE WEIGHT OR THESE PEOPLE STARVE!” And I have added even more text that reads, ‘YOU MUST HUNGER SO THAT OTHERS MAY EAT!!! THIS IS A ZERO-SUM GAME!’ The Omada post continues, ‘We’re exciting to share that the results are in1 IN the month of December, Omada participants lost 106,830 pounds! Thanks to the commitment and persistence, more than 106,000 meals will go to families in need across the country. When we conceived of this idea, we couldn’t necessarily predict how our community would react. But as we received the final total earlier this week, we were truly humbled. As a result, we’re hoping to make the Pound-for-Pound Holiday Challenge an annual tradition, and have an even larger impact in 2019.’ I have added text with an arrow pointing to the weight loss total that reads, ‘PROBABLY BY USING TOTALLY HEALTHY METHODS AND NOT BY FOCUSING ON FOOD MORE THAN THE THINGS THEY ENJOY.’ An arrow from the text reading ‘commitment and persistence’ points to a text box that reads, ‘Or was it…the super-messed-up idea that they had to lose weight to make the world better?’ Finally, an arrow points to the promise of the Pound-for-Pound challenge becoming a yearly event, and I have added text that reads, ‘LET’S KEEP THE DISFUNCTION GOING AND HURT MORE PEOPLE!’

If you are part of Omada programming, I have a few suggestions for how to push back on this if they run the challenge again this year.

  1. Write to Omada and explain why this is a bad idea. Praise them for donating to organizations that feed the hungry, but recommend that they simply donate instead of making their contributions contingent on you losing weight.
  2. Mysteriously gain weight before December starts and then mysteriously lose it all during the month. The digital weigh-ins mean you can’t enter random numbers, but you can add a canned good with you on your next weigh in and then keep adding canned goods for the rest of November. Then you can remove a canned good every few days during December.
  3. Donate to a charity that feeds the hungry instead of participating in the challenge. Bonus points: tell Omada that you’re doing it.
  4. Eat holiday foods without guilt. This is a recommendation for everyone: the holidays are a once-a-year thing, and if you eat turkey and delicious stuffing or your family’s beloved sweet potato pie, the world is not going to end.
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Workplace Hellness is a blog dedicated to critiquing and lampooning bad workplace wellness programs and messaging.