On the way to wellness with health coaching

Even small increases in physical activity can have a positive effect on physical and mental wellbeing.

Member for Gosford Liesl Tesch said the NSW Government had a variety of phone and online health coaching programs – such as Get Healthy and Go4Fun – which were built for adults and families of all ages and abilities to promote health and wellbeing.

“People perceive the Central Coast as a health capital with our beaches, sporting achievements and facilities, but we are also burdened by the same health problems as the rest of society – diabetes, alcohol, mental health issues,” she said.

“These websites are free one-stop shops for the motivation you need to get moving and improve you and your family’s health.

“They include phone consultations with university-qualified health coaches that support everything from nutrition to pregnancy health.”

Developed by Health NSW, Get Healthy offers six or more confidential coaching calls with a qualified health coach to support you to set and achieve your health goals, eat well and keep active, reduce the amount of alcohol you drink, keep a healthy weight in pregnancy, or stay active during and after cancer treatment.

Go4Fun is a free healthy lifestyle program for primary school children that offers 10 online sessions to learn skills to make healthier food, a reward program with tokens to collect, a weekly phone call from a personal coach and more activities for families.

In response to community concerns that sport iss increasingly seen as competition for the highly able, rather than an activity for wellbeing, the NSW Office of Sport has released a new strategic plan, Everyone Plays Here.

The plan includes a focus on facilitating increased opportunities for participation in sport and active recreation by everyone and will be delivered with a number of key projects to promote access to activities in the near future.

More information is available at: Get Healthy www.gethealthynsw.com.au – Go4Fub www.go4funonline.com.au – Munch & Move www.healthykids.nsw.gov.au – Live Life Well @ School www.health.nsw.gov.au/heal/schools/Pages/llw-at-school.aspx – Active and Health directory www.activeandhealthy.nsw.gov.au

The Knockout Health Challenge is a community-led healthy lifestyle program for Aboriginal people in NSW –  www.nswknockouthealthchallenge.com.au/frontpage/