The old advertising jingle asks the question, "What shape is your tummy in?" Ask yourself that same question. Are we talking washboard? Or is your body art "Bridgestone"?

Waist measurement is a key tool in evaluating current health status, as well as your future risk for development of diseases like Type-2 diabetes, stroke, sleep apnea and heart disease. Belly fat is the #1 culprit. Among other things, it changes the way your body processes insulin.

You can check your risk with an old-school tape measure. For a man, trouble starts over 40 inches; for women it's 35 inches. In 2005, I researched OTR drivers. Time after time they told me, "No worries. I'm a 34." And time after time, I found the real number (measured at the navel, not the groin, thank you very much) was higher. In fact, the median was 43 inches with the highest measurement 67 inches.

What to do?

Start losing weight. A slow, steady weight loss will provide better long-term results. One to two pounds each week is a good plan. As the Centers for Disease Control notes, Americans do not have a problem losing weight; they have a problem keeping the weight off. Dropping the weight slowly and consistently shows better results long-term.

Drivers, like so many people, have no idea how to lose weight. There are 3500 calories in a pound. If you cut back 500 calories every day, you could expect to lose about one pound a week (7 days x 500 calories/day.) By the same token, burning an additional 500 calories daily through some sort of physical activity would also help you lose a pound each week.

You can also ask truck stop restaurants to offer more healthy options on their menus. With parking restrictions on big rigs, many drivers have no choice but to stop at restaurants that offer little more than an all-you-can-eat buffet. But, restaurants tell us their losses go sky high when they buy fresh produce for, say, a fruit plate and no one orders it. Truck stops are businesses, too, and they will drop a money-losing menu item in a heartbeat. Order those fruits & veggies if you want them to stay on the menu.

Of course, if you are allowed to do it, you can control what you eat by cooking in the cab. You'll save money and feel better about yourself as you lose weight.

The best weapon in the weight loss arsenal is the mirror. You look in the mirror, you see the truth. You can’t keep lying and denying when you see what you look like on top of how you feel.

Getting straight is the key to starting on the right track. And the only way you’ll do that is to tell the truth. Stop saying you don’t have a problem. Forget blaming “the lifestyle” or the restaurants. None of us are “big-boned”. Sure, there may be genetics involved, but nobody made you order that batch of home fries.

Lie to yourself all you want. It won’t make you feel any healthier. It won’t change anything. You have to dump the excuses and end the lies. Taking responsibility is the only way you will ever get on the road to better health.

OK…that’s the cold, harsh dose of reality. Now, let’s talk about what you should begin doing.

1. How about asking your spouse what he or she thinks about your weight. Bet you’ll hear a lot of tough love.
2. See your doctor. Get them to recommend a consultation with a Registered Dietitian. Spill it all and listen to what the RD says.
3. Start tracking what you eat by keeping a food diary. You’ll discover that logging meals like you log miles will tell you right where you need to change.
4. If you’re affiliated with a company, find out what sort of wellness programs they offer and then use them.

Sitting waiting for it to happen, means nothing will happen. So, get started! Follow the meal plan designed by the professionals. Chart your progress. Celebrate your milestones. Taking the positive path forward is the best way – the only way – to make the types of changes you need to start living a new life.

There are always two parties in any controversy. There is little confusion, though, about the fact that 86% of truckers are overweight and 57% of truckers are actually obese. This is not a longtime trend, but rather a recent phenomenon. So who…or what…is the reason?

Yes…the driver is the one who is ultimately responsible for where he eats, what he eats, how much he eats and how much he exercises. Yes, in this capitalist world, an OTR can decide for whom he is willing to work. Sure he has a choice. He can say No to a load from a dispatcher because the schedule is insane. He can say No to earning a reduced rate and let the guy who quoted it at a bare minimum margin get the run.

He can decide to take care of himself first.  That is his choice.

Because, if he says Yes, he is agreeing to live under the conditions imposed by his employer. After all, that’s what Capitalism is all about, right; the right to choose for whom you work, when you will work and under what conditions you will work. Just like the men who walked out at Homestead in 1892. They said enough about working in Carnegie’s mills for $1 LESS per day than their contract. And Frick was right to bring in Pinkerton and get the Pennsylvania Governor to call out the National Guard to protect the replacement workers from the strikers. Of course, the men who walked were blackballed from ever working in the steel industry.

I mean, if every driver refused to work the indecent hours that today’s industry-driven HOS rules demand, what would happen? Would customers get angry? Yes…for a while…until their expectations of delivery became more reasonable, more humane, more normal. But at this moment, receivers are in a place that has been enabled by carriers desperate to get and keep business by cutting costs (mostly by transferring those costs of equipment, health care and so on to compliant small businessmen and women we call Owner Operators) and a willingness to cover customers’ fundaments with delivery schedules that demand 700-plus miles of legal driving every day.

We have distorted our entire distribution system beyond the old “just-in-time” mentality (which has pretty much vanished along with America’s manufacturing base) to a “we’ll order it when we need it” mindset. The problem is that this forces vendors into quoting near impossible deliveries unless the operator moving the load is willing to sacrifice his health to get it there.

Remember when truckers used to stop for meals at those great little diners along the way? Now drivers, while they are hemmed in by local ordinances, have to frequent these giant stadium-sized truck stops because they can only stop rolling at the end of the day and then have to park 80,000+ pounds of equipment somewhere.

So, is it the driver? You tell me.

Or, maybe it is the carrier who has put the driver in an unenviable position of accepting a lifestyle that is terribly unhealthy. It seems like a harsh indictment, but you really have to wonder where the short-sighted profitability mentality has put the industry.

Which is better in the long run? Survival at all costs? Or survival based upon the understanding that the component parts of your business include human beings who have normal human needs, who are willing to work for you for a fair wage, but are not willing to die for the company.

Far-sighted carriers will realize that the long-term health of their business rests on building the long-term health of their employees and associates. There are a certain few select companies that have seen the benefit of becoming actively involved in promoting wellness programs…not as PR stunts or “feel good” activities, but actually devoting time, personnel and dollars to making sure that their company is remembered as one that “cares.”

Or is caring about drivers rather than exploiting them to squeeze the last penny out of a run weak and soft?

For all too many, the bottom line is the only figure that matters. Having talked the OTR overweight epidemic, I have heard it, lived it. You know, the quick response by someone shooting down a wellness program proposal with a Pontius Pilate-like verbal hand washing that goes, "Fat drivers, thin drivers...the load still gets there in the same amount of time." That's true...to a point. But, new research points to a disturbing fact... drivers who eat unhealthy diets...and drivers who are overweight or obese can certainly be in that group...have significantly slower reaction times than drivers who have healthy eating patterns.

To repeat...research out of Denmark supports the link between healthy eating and safety. That is something groundbreaking...most research on OTRs focuses on the health consequences of overweight. This news puts life into the statistic highlighting that 86% of American OTRs are overweight and 57% are obese (Whitfield et al, "Truck Drivers..., Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 12/07). Yet the connection between diet and alertness seems pretty clear when you come right down to it.

Our brains are affected by how we eat. Carbohydrates are the fuel that powers our brains, and complex carbs are the high test stuff that keeps our inner eye focused on maneuvering 80,000 pounds of whatever down a super slab. Problem is, there are way too many OTRs who are running the HOS to the max and getting by on one meal a day and a load of simple carbs like a liter or two of Mountain Dew and candy bars. Sure you'll light up for 45 minutes or so...but the crash is coming...and it could be more than metaphorical.

Back to Denmark... lifestyle consultant Mette-Marie Linding became interested in the link between performance and diet after she was contacted by a trade union dealing with an overweight driver who was having problems breathing while shifting gears. Later, Linding launched a study in conjunction with the Danish Transport Union. The goal: to document how a driver's diet influenced his reaction time.

Linding's methodology was rigorous. She divided her test subjects of "normal" Danish truckers into two groups. The first cohort was placed on a healthy diet that emphasized a regular eating schedule. The others continued eating as they usually did. Then over a period of 12 days, all study members' reaction times were tested in a simulator. As early as Day 2, the regular diet/meal pattern group started to lag behind those in the experimental group. By the end of the study, drivers who ate regular healthy meals had reaction times that were 16% faster than the control group.

It all came down to brain function. The wild extremes in blood sugar experienced by the group making poor food choices and eating "on the fly" resulted in mood swings, headaches, increased stress and, (surprise-surprise) reduced concentration. For those who tried the "radical" diet of regular and balanced meals, added benefits beyond improved reaction time included a significant reduction in the incidence of high blood pressure and high cholesterol...all in just 12 days.

Those sorts of results were bound to get the attention of the trucking industry. At Volvo Trucks in the Netherlands, the company has included health as a compulsory course in all driver training programs.

"Since there is a strong link between food and traffic safety, we felt that it was important to put health firmly on the agenda. Overweight is a serious problem among commercial vehicle drivers owing to the highly static nature of their work. At the same time, many drivers want to be healthier but simply don't know how to set about making the necessary change," says Charles Engelaar of the Volvo Trucks marketing department in the Netherlands.

"Having healthy drivers is also healthy for society in general. What is more, there's money to be made. By reducing the risk of accidents, the trucks can spend more time on the road and the company avoids losing time, money and reputation when their vehicles are in the workshop for repairs," emphasizes Charles Engelaar.

Drivers get the job done day after day, week after week, delivering the goods that keep the nation moving. But no one seems to notice that month after month, year after year, truckers' health is deteriorating. And, the change is rapid as many drivers report weight gains of 50 - 100 pounds per year. We have blown straight past “problem” and have moved right onto “crisis.” If you haven’t heard the alarm bells coming from your drivers’ ranks, you are missing something that has a critical bearing on your business.

Overweight increases the risk for many diseases. Truck drivers as a group are too heavy for their own health or for that of their employers and, not coincidentally, the driving public. While the American population hovers around the 66% mark for overweight (nothing to write home about, mind you), truckers are 86% overweight. The nation has a 33% rate for obesity; drivers are at 57%. What does it matter?

Those extra pounds mean more heart disease, more type 2 diabetes, and more high blood pressure. Then there are joint problems. These used to be ailments that afflicted the elderly. Not anymore. We get calls on Sirius/XM from drivers in their 30s struggling with the consequences of overweight. Yes, many can be controlled with medication, which, if the driver has no health insurance, can cost more than they are willing or able to pay. Who will have to pick up the tab for decreased productivity and missed delivery times because a driver is too sick to work?

Here's something else: obesity leads to sleep apnea which leads to waking-time fatigue and decreased alertness on the road. A sleepy driver is a massive insurance claim waiting to happen.

On top of that, several studies suggest super-sized bodies can lead to a form of progressive sight loss known as macular degeneration. Consider what these “blind spots” can mean to a driver navigating 80,000-odd pounds down a superslab at 65 mph. When will a driver admit to eye problems that could cost a CDL? What do you call a truck driver who can’t see? Unemployed.

From a purely pragmatic business point of view, it is in a trucking company’s interest to be fully invested in managing weight and nutritional health. True, you will go nowhere if you do not get buy-in from your drivers. But, the situation will only go downhill if you do not take the lead. Bob Petrancosta, VP of Safety for Con-way Freight, discusses and expands on the business reasons why they focused on Employee Wellness Programs.

What's it worth to your business to help turn your drivers' lives around? Will improved driver health and appearance present a better image to your customer base? Will reduced driver downtime increase productivity and profitability? Will you be a company that cares for its drivers and, as a result, becomes a preferred place to work?

A nutritional wellness program begins with starting a dialog. You have to engage your people in a conversation that leads to awareness that drivers have to be in control of their lives in spite of HOS limitations. You have to give them the information and the tools to be able to take care of themselves on the road…but you also have to be ready with workshops and support networks for when they are at home, too. Consider engaging spouses and children as part of your effort.

In the long run (and isn’t that what we really want?), you will shore up the most important part of your business, one that goes beyond hardware, the drivers that generate your revenues. But, while your work will cut health care costs, increase productivity and return on investment, the biggest single impact will be found in the fact that your company cared enough to step forward and say “Enough!”