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Siphiwe Baleka is a remarkable man.
Aside from earning his degree in philosophy at the highly prestigious Yale
University, he was also the first African American to make it onto the First
Team All-Ivy League Swim Team. But that’s not what makes him remarkable.
Baleka, who is now in his 40s, fell on
hard times about six years ago and decided to take on a job as a trucker. But
after only two months in, the former athlete noticed he had gained 15 lbs.
"Life on the road is tough. It's
lonely," Baleka
stated. "There's not a whole lot to make you feel good. So eating is
one of the things you kind of have some freedom with, to make you feel
good."
Baleka did everything he could to lose
the weight. He even resorted to doing exercises inside of his cab. But no
matter what he did, nothing seemed to work.
Baleka’s struggle to gain back control
of his health almost made him quit his job. It’s an all-too-common phenomenon
in the trucking industry. In fact, a recent survey conducted by HireRight
Transportation found that 21% of drivers leave the industry due to health
concerns.
But after experimenting with several different
weight loss programs, Baleka finally found success in a low-carb, high-protein
diet combined with short bursts of high-intensity workouts. And now that he’s
back to being fit, he wants to help other truckers get healthy, too.
So Baleka developed a wellness program
that’s specifically designed with drivers in mind. Inspired by the
technological devices that are already used in the industry, he decided to
develop one that’s capable of monitoring the driver’s health.
"At that time, the only thing that
we didn't have any real-time information on was the driver—the physiological state
of the driver," Baleka stated. "These digital health devices now
allowed me to do that. I can monitor the physical condition of the driver just
like we do with a truck."
So far, the program seems to be doing
well. Hopefully it will inspire other trucking companies to institute wellness
programs as well.
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