ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

UnitedHealthcare today announced the winners of the third annual Hair Fitness competition, which seeks to promote styles that facilitate healthy and fit African American women.

The company hosted the competition in partnership with the Bronner Bros. at the International Hair Show on Sunday, Aug. 5, a trade show that draws 60,000 hair stylists from across the nation.

Linette Battle of Palm Beach, Fla., won first place. Battle received the grand-prize of $5,000 and a trophy for outstanding design and execution. Runners-up included Camilla Brown, who won the second-place prize of $2,000; and Elisha Heard, who received a $500 prize. Tiffany Thames and Keysha Quinn rounded out the top-five finishers.

Im thrilled to have been recognized at this years Hair Fitness contest. Ive been leading a healthy lifestyle and talking to my clients about it for years, so its wonderful to see a company like UnitedHealthcare helping to bring attention to this issue. I cant wait to share what I learned with my clients and community, said Battle.

Battle was among more than 50 stylists competing before a crowd of 1,500 to showcase innovative, stylish and exercise-friendly hairstyles. The goal of the Hair Fitness competition is to encourage professional hair stylists to create hairstyles that are easy to maintain and empower their clients to make exercise a part of their daily routine.

The Hair Fitness competition, now in its third year, was inspired by studies that showed many African-American women avoid certain fitness activities in order to maintain their hairstyles, as well as the alarming rates of obesity among African Americans. According to the 2011 edition of Americas Health Rankings, the prevalence of obesity among African Americans exceeds 30 percent in 36 states and the District of Columbia, which dramatically outpaces obesity rates for whites and poses serious health consequences for those affected including diabetes and heart disease.

Also appearing at the event were Regina M. Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., Surgeon General of the United States; celebrity hair stylist Elgin Charles, known as the Emperor of Hair and star of VH1s Beverly Hills Fabulous; and Reed Tuckson, M.D., former Washington, D.C. Public Health Commissioner and executive vice president and chief of medical affairs at UnitedHealth Group. WNBA Washington Mystics player Ashley Robinson also spoke at the event.

We applaud everyone who participated in this years Hair Fitness competition for the important work they do and the trust they have earned in their communities, said Dr. Tuckson. We look forward to continuing our work with Bronner Bros. and stylists across the country to help African-American women enjoy great style and great health at the same time.

The stylists were judged on the technical execution of the styles, originality, suitability and head contour, and new ideas. Contest categories included: low-impact workout, which involves little to no sweat and requires only one shampoo/condition per week; moderate-impact workout, which involves modest sweat and requires 1-2 shampoo and conditions per week; and high-impact, which involves profuse sweating and requires 2-3 shampoo/conditions per week.

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UnitedHealthcare Announces Hair Fitness Contest Winners at Bronner Brothers International Hair Show

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Aug. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Dietitians and health experts everywhere regard daily tracking of physical activity and food intake as the single biggest tool for success in any health, diet or fitness program and that process just got easier for millions of Americans thanks to a strategic partnership between Sodexo and MyFitnessPal. Now, tracking good nutrition in the workplace is simple as Sodexo, Quality of Daily Life Solutions provider to more than 1,800 corporate workplaces in the United States, directly connects its database of thousands of chef-developed menu items directly with MyFitnessPal's mobile applications and website.

"Millions of people have downloaded health and fitness related mobile applications for their phones; in fact research predicts there will be more than 1 billion annual health-related app downloads by the year 2016," said Bill Mitchell, national director of consumer technology solutions for Sodexo. "People want help managing their day-to-day progress and keeping track away from home can sometimes present a challenge. MyFitnessPal fits perfectly with Sodexo's commitment to the communities we serve by taking an approach to health and wellness that's integrated into all aspects of lifeat work, home and playgiving real-time nutrition information to guide dining decisions."

The MyFitnessPal application, widely praised and rated Editor's Choice by PC Magazine and Editor's Pick in Wired Magazine, is available as a free download on iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows smart phones. The technology utilizes a bar code scanner allowing consumers to instantly download nutrition information for a product as an alternative to searching for it in the database or entering it manually. MyFitnessPal's nutrition database of over 1.8 million products is also available on the MyFitnessPal.com website.

As part of Sodexo's focus on technology and an enterprise-wide point-of-sale system it has introduced unique codes for all products and recipes. Those unique codes, which Sodexo incorporates on signs, labels, and receipts, are integrated into MyFitnessPal, making access to nutrition information even faster. In addition, the program allows for integration of the consumer's information with FitBit, an innovative tool used to track activity, fitness, diet, and sleep patterns, helping people lead healthier, more active lives.

"We're extremely pleased to partner with Sodexo," said Albert Lee, co-founder of MyFitnessPal. "This partnership supports our goal of making it easy for consumers to be able to find accurate nutrition information wherever they may be dining as they use our application to simplify keeping track of their nutrition and fitness goals."

The partnership with MyFitnessPal is aligned with the priorities for Sodexo's Better Tomorrow Plan, the company's sustainability roadmap, which includes actively promoting nutrition, health and wellness; committing to local communities and protecting the environment.

About MyFitnessPalFounded in 2005, MyFitnessPal is a leading health and fitness service with easy-to-use web and mobile apps for tracking nutrition and exercise activity. Over 20 million people have already selected MyFitnessPal's top rated nutrition tracking tools to empower them to achieve their health and fitness goals. MyFitnessPal's free application is available on any iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7 device or the web and is supported by an enormous food database of over 1.7million food items and a fully featured social network to enable a steady stream of community engagement and support. Follow MyFitnessPal on Twitter athttp://twitter.com/MyFitnessPal, or join MyFitnessPal's 350,000+Facebook Fans athttp://www.facebook.com/MyFitnessPal.

About Sodexo

Sodexo in North America

Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), leading Quality of Daily Life Solutions company in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, delivers On-site Service Solutions in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, and Motivation Solutions such as Esteem Pass. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $17 million in grants to end childhood hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog at http://www.sodexoUSA.com/blog.

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Sodexo and MyFitnessPal Partner to Make Good Nutrition Easy

SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire -08/06/12)- LifeApps Digital Media, an emerging designer of health, fitness and sports publications and next-generation social networks, today announced that US beach volleyball stars Jennifer Kessy and April Ross were featured in the YouWorkout Magazine as they advance to semifinals. Kessy and Ross beat the Czech Republic's Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova Sunday in a 25-23, 21-18 victory, advancing to play top-seeded Larissa and Juliana of Brazil on Tuesday.

Earlier Sunday, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings also advanced to the semifinals, setting up a potential all-American beach volleyball final if both teams win their matches on Tuesday.

As the Southern California natives Kessy and Ross continue their success in London they have provided YouWorkout readers with an in-depth interview about their exciting journey to the Olympics, including how their partnership first began.

"I had to call her to see if she would play with me. It was totally like calling a guy to talk to him," recalled Ross in the YouWorkout article. "I was sitting outside on the curb so nervous thinking 'she is going to shut me down. She is totally going to shut me down.'"

Kessy didn't. The match of 5-foot-11 Kessy, who plays the right side of the court, and 6-foot-1 Ross, who plays the left, was seemingly meant to be. The two USC graduates have been partners since 2007, and have proved to be a formidable team, with a fifth-place ranking on the Federation Internationale De Volleyball Swatch World Tour.

The team is known for their flexibility on the court, with Kessy and Ross being able to trade off between offence and defense. This unique flexibility means the pair's workouts range from cardio to strength to stretching. In the YouWorkout article, both Kessy and Ross described their favorite workouts outside of volleyball.

"My favorite is hot yoga," said Kessy in the YouWorkout article. "We play in a lot of really hot places and so it gets you Zen-like but your heart is beating really fast and you have to control yourself. It's a big mind game, which is kind of like beach volleyball."

The interviews with Kessy and Ross are part of an interactive viewing experience, as YouWorkout delivers a wide variety of sports, health and fitness content straight to tablets on iTunes and GooglePlay. YouWorkout is a quarterly publication catering to athletic lifestyles, sports enthusiasts and fitness professionals alike.

"Kessy and Ross are rising stars for the US beach volleyball squad, which has been propelled by May-Treanor and Walsh-Jennings' amazing winning record over the past two Olympics," stated Robert Gayman, CEO of LifeApps. "Through this premiere issue of YouWorkout Magazine, we want to help her share the amazing up-and-coming story Kessy and Ross, especially with the possibility of an all-American beach volleyball final if both US teams defeat their competition on Tuesday."

LifeApps Digital Media's quarterly YouWorkout Magazine is a digital interactive sports, health and fitness magazine. It is the first of its kind to be designed from the beginning specifically for tablets and smart devices.

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US Beach Volleyball Stars Jennifer Kessy & April Ross Featured in YouWorkout Magazine as They Advance to Semifinals

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8Zj4lCX5s

06-08-2012 04:33 How to Calculate Your Retirement Needs

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How to Calculate Your Retirement Needs - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS1cvomcDfs

05-08-2012 01:54 When it was over, Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all time, slipped away, sliding over the lane dividers as onlookers trained their attention on the final leg of the 4x100 medley relay. Phelps' final lap, one in which he regained the lead, buoyed the Americans back in front. He lifted himself onto the pool deck, and eyed Nathan Adrian, the American anchor, closing toward the finish wall. Phelps never looked back, instead hugging and high-fiving his other two teammates as his gilded age came to a close on Saturday. Phelps, 27, finished his competitive racing career with more Olympic gold medals (18) than wunderkind Missy Franklin has years lived (17). PHOTOS: DAY 8 AT THE LONDON GAMES He burnished his brilliant resume, replete with an Olympic-record 22 medals and engraved his legacy with strokes of genius, ensuring the afterglow would shine for years following his official retirement. His final moment in the natatorium was spent with Bob Bowman, his coach the last 15 years. The two men embraced as an oupouring of applause showered them. "I love you," Bowman said. "We did it," Phelps replied. "I know we did," Bowman said. These Olympic Games were eight days of chlorine and tears for Phelps. He failed to medal in the 400-meter individual medley at the outset, recovered to claim two gold medals as an individual and leveled the ledger with rival Ryan Lochte with a convincing win in the 200 IM. By the end, he refused to pick nits with his form, foregoing the regular ...

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Micheal Phelps Talks Retirement 2012 Olympics - Video

(MoneyWatch) The classic image of new retirees making a bee-line to Florida or the Sun Belt to live out their lives is sun-drenched comfort is increasingly a thing of the past.

Among U.S. workers age 55 and older, almost two-thirds -- 62 percent -- think that when they retire they will continue to live in their current state of residence, according to a survey by the Pulte Group, parent of Del Webb, a builder of adult retirement communities. That's up 20 percent from a similar survey taken just two years ago.

One important reason for this shift is the redefinition of retirement, as more and more Americans move away from the traditional definition of "all play and no work" during their retirement years to start second careers or continuing to work in some manner. In fact, 50 percent of the respondents to Del Webb's survey report that they work part-time or are starting new businesses or careers. As a result, the builder is establishing more communities outside the Sun Belt states and close to metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Detroit, and parts of the Northeast.

The survey also shows that 43 percent of respondents plan to retire and stay in the same city where they currently live; only 35 percent plan to retire and move to a different state. Just 32 percent want to live within 20 miles of their children or grandchildren upon retirement, again underlining many retirees' interest in continuing to work.

How to choose the best place to retire Calculate retirement costs with a new online tool Retirement planning outside the box: Move out of the suburbs

"In looking at our previous studies, we found that there's a group who do not want to leave their family, friends, and all the familiar surroundings," says Deborah Meyer, senior vice president of Pulte Group.

When you visualize a new Del Webb community, forget about the image of people golfing and playing tennis in Arizona. Instead, think of retirees taking classes on such diverse topics as computers or yoga, and enjoying healthy living habits, travel, and group activities with friends.

All of this makes sense to me. My wife and I now live in a townhouse community that's located one county north of Los Angeles, although it doesn't specifically target the age 55-plus crowd. The cost of living is less than metropolitan L.A., due to reduced property and sales taxes, lower car and homeowner insurance costs, and the reduced cost of goods and services. We're still close to family, friends, and our professional connections in the cities where we lived and worked for many years, but now we have a lap pool and a gym, along with participating in a neighborhood emergency preparedness group, a book club, and many other social activities. When we travel, we just lock the doors and drive away. (And as I write this, I can hear somebody else mowing the lawn outside my house!)

The one concern I have with this type of community is what happens when we all get a lot older. Our community -- and the Del Webb communities -- target the active adult crowd. But once we get into our 80s and 90s, we may not be able to fully use and appreciate the recreational facilities; in fact, my wife and I have noticed that neighbors tend to move away when they reach these older ages. And will there be enough younger active adults who are willing to buy our homes when we want to move?

This concern isn't holding us back from enjoying ourselves now, but it's something I'll keep my eyes on in the years to come.

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Boomer retirement housing preferences shifting

retirement

To say the least, retirement planning is becoming a tricky -- even sticky -- situation. The economy is teetering on the edge of financial instability, and low returns are making it tough on the savings of would-be retirees. Those who are seeking financial peace might have to try and take another piece of the pie.

To get a better idea of where retirees stand, we asked Sharon A. DeVaney, Ph.D. and professor emeritus at Purdue University, for her insight. DeVaney taught undergraduate classes in the financial planning program, and graduate courses in family economics and consumer behavior at Purdue University. Retired, she is now the editor of the Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal for Wiley.

Is it financially smart to set a retirement date when retirement planning?

It is all right to set a target date, but a person should be flexible. For example, your health or job situation might change, and you should adjust accordingly. Also, you should investigate what working longer and delaying retirement will mean in terms of your Social Security benefits. I recommend working until your normal retirement age (67 or later) or until age 70. The latter will allow you to collect the maximum Social Security benefit that will be available to you.

What is the ideal amount needed to retire presently?

It depends on how long you expect to live, what lifestyle you have in mind and your resources. What do you think the amount needed will be in 25 years? The same answer applies for retirement 25 years from now.

Do you have any tips for the retiree who wants to travel during retirement and still remain financially stable?

Establish a budget, carefully research the places you want to visit, learn about health care in other countries, and make a plan for how you will manage your health care. Learn about home exchanges, etc. Perhaps there are part-time jobs that you could do in other countries.

When pre-retirement expense planning, what are a few ways to lessen your monthly costs and save more money for your retirement?

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Retirement planning for financial peace

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

New disclosure requirements by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) have pulled back the curtain on fees paid to service providers by retirement plans.

The level of detail in these disclosures is giving many retirement plans a Wizard of Oz moment similar to Dorothys dog pulling back the Wizards curtain to reveal some surprising truths, said Dan Esch Managing Director of DCAdvisors, a Minneapolis-based retirement plan consulting firm.

What plan sponsors and their retirement committees do with these new insights will be carefully watched by the DOL. An inadequate response could lead to financial penalties or even threaten the qualified status of the retirement plan itself.

In a white paper entitled New Disclosure Requirements Pull Back the Curtain on Retirement Plan Fees, DCAdvisors argues the new service provider fee disclosures give retirement plans a valuable tool to match fee structure and service provider relationships to industry best practices while benchmarking fees to determine reasonableness. The paper also describes a methodical five-step approach retirement plan committees can follow and mitigate fiduciary risk:

Under DOL Reg 408(b)(2) service providers, including investment managers, recordkeepers, advisors, trustees and consultants are required to disclose an unprecedented level of detail in what they charge directly as well as indirect revenue received from revenue sharing arrangements.

The stakes are huge. An estimated sixty million workers and retirees hold retirement savings across more than 460,000 employer sponsored 401(k) plans with approximately $3.4 trillion in assets. At the same time, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has determined that more than half of all 401(k) plan sponsors were either unaware or misinformed about the fees they or their plan participants were paying on this massive asset pool.

About DCAdvisors:

Since inception in 1994, DCAdvisors has focused on the retirement plan industry. Acting as a fiduciary partner to plan sponsors and retirement committees, we provide strategic advice and expertise related to plan design, investment selection, and plan governance.

To find out more, please visit http://www.DCAdvisors.com

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Retirement Plans Respond to Their “Wizard of Oz” Moment as New Disclosure Requirement Pulls Back the Curtain on Fees

I find it depressing to look at the balances in my retirement savings plans, as I did the other day. For all the years of socking away money in my nest egg, there doesn't seem to be much to show for it.

But I'm in good company. The median balance in 401(k)s and IRAs for households approaching retirement is $120,000, according to an analysis by Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, of the Federal Reserve's recently released 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances. That's roughly the same amount as in 2007, and it would provide a mere $575 in monthly income, assuming a couple purchase a joint-and-survivor annuity.

Retirement savers probably won't have much to cheer about anytime soon, not with economic growth decelerating in the U.S. and Europe mired in a seemingly endless debt crisis. Little wonder boomers are realizing that they need to focus on practical ways to earn a paycheck well into the traditional retirement years. Even part-time earnings will allow them to postpone tapping savings and let the money compound longer.

[More from Kiplinger.com: 5 Great U.S. Cities for Retirees]

Still, I think the spending side of the retirement equation, a critical part of any savvy retirement plan, gets short shrift. With the day of retirement reckoning not all that far off, fiftysomethings need to realistically review their spending habits.

The financial reward of spending less is striking. Steven Sass, associate director at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, offers this example: Say you're 55 years old, and you plan on retiring in ten years. If you save an extra $1,000 a year, you'll have $10,000 plus investment earnings(in today's dollars). So, if your savings earned 4% above inflation -- you'd have about $12,500 (in today's dollars) at retirement. You could then withdraw about $500 a year in retirement, assuming you choose to spend 4% a year above inflation.

Here's the thing: The real return from this strategy comes from cutting spending to enable the extra savings. When you retire, you'll have actually improved your household finances by $1,500 a year: $1,000 in additional accumulated savings plus $500 in income. "As you approach retirement, and it's clearly too late to significantly add to your retirement savings by saving more, moving to a more sustainable standard of living has a much greater effect," says Sass. "The two effects of saving more and spending less could significantly improve your finances."

An emphasis on greater thrift doesn't have to mean living cheaply -- far from it. Instead, thrift or frugality should push us to match our money with our values. In History of the Thrift Movement in America, a 1920 book by Simon William Straus, Straus argues that thrift includes both saving and spending wisely.

"It is the thrift that recognizes the that finer things of life must be encouraged," he writes. "The skilled workman, the artist, the musician, the landscape gardener, the designer of beautiful furniture, the members of the professions -- all those, in fact, who, through the devotion of their abilities, contribute to the real betterment of mankind, must be given support through our judicious expenditures."

[More from Kiplinger.com: 6 Great Part-Time Jobs for Retirees]

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Want More Money in Retirement? Spend Less

GLENWOOD, Ill., Aug. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Landauer, Inc. (LDR), a recognized leader in personal and environmental radiation measurement and monitoring, outsourced medical physics services and high quality medical consumable accessories, today reported financial results for its fiscal 2012 third quarter ended June 30, 2012.

Fiscal 2012 Third Quarter Highlights

"We are pleased with our third quarter results, which demonstrated continued progress against our key strategic initiatives," stated Bill Saxelby, President and CEO of Landauer. "We executed on our initiatives with the military and emergency response markets as we made our first substantial Radwatch system shipment and received additional orders for the system during the quarter. The Medical Physics segment continued to build momentum with another profitable quarter, and we successfully went live with our new ERP platform in early July."

Saxelby continued, "The current market opportunities provide Landauer with attractive prospects to grow and expand our business, and our year to date results continue to support achievement of our full year guidance."

Third Fiscal Quarter Financial Overview and Business Segment Results

Revenues for the third fiscal quarter of 2012 were $39.2 million, an increase of $10.0 million, or 34.5 percent compared with revenues of $29.2 million for the same quarter in fiscal 2011. The Radiation Measurement segment contributed an increase of $3.1 million, the Medical Physics segment contributed an increase of $2.8 million and the new Medical Products segment increased revenues by $4.2 million. Excluding revenue from the acquired businesses during the year, as compared with the prior year quarter, revenue increased 12.7 percent. Revenue in the quarter included $1.8 million of Radwatch System sales, primarily to the National Guard. Consolidated revenue in the quarter was negatively affected $1.1 million by currency fluctuation, as compared with the prior year period, principally due to weakness in the Euro against the U.S. dollar.

Gross margins were 55.7 percent for the third fiscal quarter of 2012, compared with 58.6 percent for the third fiscal quarter of 2011. The decrease in gross margin rate was primarily due to the Radiation Measurement segment increase of lower margin equipment sales in the third fiscal quarter of 2012, as compared to the prior year period, inclusive of sales to the military and emergency response markets. This includes the impact of Radwatch System sales that are at a lower overall margin rate than those generated in our traditional Radiation Measurement business.

Total operating expenses for the third fiscal quarter of 2012 were $12.6 million, an increase of $3.4 million, or 36.2 percent, compared with operating expenses of $9.2 million for the same quarter in fiscal 2011. The operating expense increase was partially due to $1.5 million associated with acquired companies purchased subsequent to the prior year's comparable quarter, $0.4 million due to timing of the recording of incentive compensation expenses associated with improved operating performance in fiscal 2012 versus fiscal 2011, investment in research and development in support of military and first responder initiatives, investment in customer facing organizations, and expenses related to the company's IT systems initiative. For the third fiscal quarter of 2012, total operating expenses before $0.3 million of non-recurring acquisition expenses, $0.6 million of IT platform enhancement related expenses, and $0.7 million of non-cash stock based compensation expenses were $11.0 million or 28.1 percent of total revenues. This compares with the $8.4 million, or 28.9 percent of total revenues, reported for the third fiscal quarter of 2011, before $0.3 million of IT platform enhancement related expenses, and $0.5 million of non-cash stock based compensation expenses.

Operating income for the third fiscal quarter of 2012 was $9.2 million, an increase of $1.4 million, or 18.1 percent compared with operating income of $7.8 million for the same quarter in fiscal 2011. The increase in operating income was primarily driven by an increase of $0.5 million in the Medical Physics segment, and the addition of the Medical Products segment which contributed $1.9 million in operating income, partially offset by a $1.0 million decrease in the Radiation Measurement segment. Operating income, adjusted for non-recurring acquisition expenses, IT platform enhancement related expenses, and non-cash stock based compensation expenses, for the third fiscal quarter of 2012 was $10.8 million, a 25.1 percent increase compared with adjusted operating income on a relative basis of $8.7 million for the third fiscal quarter of 2011. Consolidated operating income in the quarter was negatively affected $0.3 million by currency fluctuation, as compared with the prior year period, principally due to weakness in the Euro and the Real against the U.S. dollar.

Interest expense in the quarter increased $1.1 million associated with borrowings to acquire IZI in the first fiscal quarter of 2012.

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Landauer, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2012 Third Quarter Results