HLP

That stands for Healthy Lifestyle Programme. For Shell employees thats a must. Everyone must participate. In so many ways, its very useful and I am fully supporting the initiatives. This programme was introduced 3 to 4 years ago when all Shell employees are asked to go through health check, done by the Panage Health Centre. It was widely known and acknowledged that most Bruneians and in our case Shell employees were either overweight, under lots of stress, smokers and not doing enough exercise, thus this HLP was introduced.

What Shell tries to emphasise is everyone has to make their own initiatives to look after themselves, control your own destiny in terms of health and to have a work life balance. Thats so important. I know some Shell people who work until 7 to 8pm at night. And we dont usually take breakfast breaks and go round town to have breakfast. Its very unhealthy to be workaholic. But this culture is already instilled in our core being. We work hard for the company and of course for the money.

And the management awares of that now. So by having this programme, the management hopes that the people can take a breather from work and have fun. Like from my previous department, they had so many fun and enjoyable activities which was great.

The way HLP works is, first and foremost, the health check for all employees. Usually blood sample was taken, amongst other things like your blood pressure, urine, weight, height and BMI. Then we have our review done by the nurses as the review panels and if things dont look so good then we are referred for further analysis or diagnosis. Apart from the health check, each departments have their own programme to stay healthy. We have exercise say once a week, once within 2 weeks, or do any interesting activities such as hiking, brisk walking, aerobics, etc. Its so fun and so far I do enjoy it. Of course I think health is important and who else to control our own body apart from ourselves? From this health check also I was caught with having high blood pressure! And now on medication for life. But its ok, that disease couldnt be avoided if you are a Bruneian, unfortunately.

The health check expires within 3 years, and my last check was 3 years ago so I am due for one now. Lets hope my results are better this time around.

My review will be on the 6th of May, I will go to the panel and review my blood test. I am nervous but I know my overall health improves a bit since I have done lots of cutting down, merely because of our plan in June. So we will see.