A lot of my friends right now are getting serious about getting fit. My husband is intent on running a marathon in Hawaii next year. My friend Betsy did some sort of zillion-mile bike ride a few weeks ago. And my 8-year-old daughter has joined a walking club at her school. Not to be outdone, I recently signed up for tennis lessons at a local racquet club. Everything was fine until about two Saturdays ago, when, after I spent an hour and a half huffing and puffing around the court, and making what I thought were some pretty impressive shots, the coach told us that if we wanted to get better, we had to practice at least three times a week.

Now, with three young children and a demanding job, it’s quite a feat for me to find time for even one tennis lesson per week. “This is pretty much the only time I can come,” I told the pro, who immediately shot me a dirty look.

“You have to come more than once,” he said. The way he explained it, if I played twice a week, I would only maintain whatever skill I had. If I only played once a week, he claimed, I would actually get worse.

“So I’m paying $350 for these sessions, and I’m going to get worse?” I asked him, incredulously. “Pretty much,” he said.

I’m going to choose not to believe him and chalk his silly talk up to a bad attempt to sell me more lessons. Still, my apparently misguided efforts aside, more and more people are getting serious about fitness. Corporations, in particular, are interested in setting up wellness programs for employees. (You can blame higher insurance premiums.) This became very apparent to me last summer, when I attended a trade show for human resource executives and saw dozens of exhibitors selling turnkey wellness programs to human resource reps. If your company, like so many others, is encouraging employees to take better care of themselves by losing weight, joining a health club or quitting smoking, be sure to reward them with the right types of incentives. There are plenty of great products that will help champion healthy behaviors: Think fitness gear, yoga mats, water bottles and pedometers. Indeed, these are some of the types of promotional products that I predict will be hot in the coming year. Look to Successful Promotions each month to give you plenty of new product ideas in this category.

In addition, in 2008 you can expect to see more green products in every issue. Whether your company is becoming more eco-friendly or you want to do a promotion that helps champion environmental awareness, environmentally-friendly products, like pencils made from recycled newspaper and apparel made from bamboo or organic cotton, can help reinforce your message. As always, Successful Promotions will be your best source for these product ideas and more.

Been involved in a great wellness promotion or eco-friendly campaign? Send me an e-mail sharing the details. Whoever submits the most creative campaign story will win a $25 Starbucks gift card. In the meantime, I’m going to keep plugging away at tennis to prove my coach wrong. I may not end up the next Venus Williams, but surely, I can’t get any worse. Or can I?

Happy holidays!

Melinda Ligos
mligos@asicentral.com.