Last month, Fast Company Magazine published a little article about, Grant Harrison, a guy whose job is to help people think as much about their health as they do about their health care.  Cool job huh?

Coincidentally, I was riding around the basement on my bike when I came across a picture of a way overdressed guy riding a bike through a grass field.  As luck would have it, it was Mr. Grant Harrison and he was advocating fun for health of it.

I ran across a Mr. Harrison and the folks at Humana’s Innovation Center many months ago through Twitter.  I was first intrigued by a couple of their guys’ command of social media (specifically Twitter) but more importantly their approach to health. 

Honestly, besides the 47 page legal document I got when I signed up for my Humana High Deductible Health Plan, I really had no exposure to Humana or the Innovation Center.  I still do not know too much about them, except they keep popping up.  The short story is that this merry band of innovators at Humana get to not focus on all the crappy things about insurance that people hate, but they are thinking about the “health” in health care.  And I like that.

Because I have become an avid biker (I am not a cyclist because I refuse to ride my bike looking like a Mardi Gras float) since leaving the corporate health gravy train a few years back, I especially like the fact that Grant and his team are focused on getting folks out of cars and onto bikes through an innovative distribution system of rental bikes.   Anyway, part of the pitch behind their bike program is that when we find fun activities that happen to be healthy, it is a double win.  And as Grant says, “you unlock this feeling of being a kid again.” 

And as I say in my pitch, “not only is it fun, but you can literally tell your friends, I biked my ass off today” and mean it.

I think finding fun activities that are healthy is a great concept.  For folks with HDHPs and HSAs, an important part of the equation is living healthy.   The key is finding those things that you can do on a consistent basis that are both healthy and fun.