Jen & Joy

Get Healthy Graduates

Learning more about the nutrition and kilojoule content of foods has been a great help in making healthy choices at the supermarket and in the kitchen for Joy and Jen.

Jen, in her 60s and Joy, in her 70s, are sisters from Adelaide who have achieved great outcomes with Get Healthy.

Joy wasn't feeling her best, was tired and finding her daily role of caring for her husband was getting harder. She picked up a brochure about Get Healthy at her GP clinic and decided that it was time to make some changes. Joy registered for Get Healthy and after telling her sister Jen, she decided to give it a go too.

Jen and Joy have different lives, but both knew they weren't eating well, were not particularly active and had gained some weight over the previous years.

Jen, a retired nurse, said she “should have known better", but had developed some bad eating habits over the years working shifts in busy hospitals.

With the help of their personal Get Healthy coach, Joy and Jen have made changes to what they eat, making sure meals include more vegetables and both have established new exercise routines that have helped them to feel better.

Jen and Joy agree that their coach was really supportive and helped them understand about reading labels, the benefit of eating more vegetables and reducing serve sizes to improve their overall diets.

Helping Joy to stay on track was a key benefit from the coach. After a bit of a set-back, her coach was available and able to help her refocus on her goals and get started again. Jen found the coaches knowledge of managing change invaluable. Jen said she was trying to make too many changes at once and felt frustrated that she was finding it too hard and not making any progress. Her coach was able to help her sort out a plan to introduce small changes, one at a time, and move on to the next one when the first had become routine.

Both Jen and Joy are enjoying being more active. Joy aims for 10,000 steps each day and Jen does a couple of strength and balance exercise classes each week which breaks up her regular walking on other days. They meet up regularly for a walk and have swapped their favourite fish and chips at the beach for a healthier meal at the pub where the chips are replaced by salad.

Losing 8kgs (more than 10% of her weight) has been a great result for Joy who is feeling better, more energetic and better all round. Jen's exercise and healthier diet has also paid off. Losing 4.5cm from her waist; she feels better and so do her clothes!

Joy and Jen know that participating in Get Healthy together made it more fun for them and would recommend it to others. They are confident that they can maintain their new healthy lifestyles but know that they get more help from Get Healthy again if they need.