Get real with your goals

Did you know that being overweight or obese carries certain risks to a person's health and wellbeing like musculo-skeletal problems, cardiovascular disease, some cancers, sleep apnoea, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes to name a few. 

Most of these are often preventable though a healthy and active lifestyle.

If you're overweight, losing 10 percent of your body weight can improve your health significantly.  But Maria Packard says you need to start out small.  

"Don't set goals that a really non-achievable because you tend to lose courage," says the Heart Foundation nutrition manager.

"If you say you're going to lose 20 kilos that may not be realistic."

She says it may be more realistic to set goals like losing half a kilogram over a month or swapping regular milk to low-fat.

"So usually just taking small steps at a time, don't change everything at once," she said.

Where to get help

Heart Foundation

You're local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community health service may have a exercise or healthy  tucker program you can access.

Kambu Medical Services in Ipswich offer a range of clinics, programs, specialist services and community events.  

More recently the service began delivering a fitness program.

Listen here to our message about Walkabout Wonders.

What are some of the participants saying?  Listen here.

Surfing is a popular recreational activity and sport across the nation.  Now there's a range of community programs that have sprung up to increase participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in surfing.  

Surfing Australia, the Australian Sports Commission, University of Queensland and the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation undertook a joint three-year study to look at the factors that influence the participation of Indigenous Australians in sport and recreation.  View the findings here in this neat little video presentation.

Move is funded under the Australia Government Department of Health and Ageing's Local Community Campaigns which aims to address the prevalence of  chronic diseases amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 

Click here to read more about our local campaign.