CLIENTS of disability support service Echuca Discoveries have learnt to be comfortable in the gym and how to take up healthy everyday habits.
Echuca Discoveries’ Joanne O’Bree said adults with disabilities or acquired brain injuries completed a pilot health program with Swan Hill Leisure Centre.
“It was very much about nutrition, fitness, and trying to be as healthy as we can be,” Ms O’Bree said.
“I mean you, always have your treats and things, but it is probably more educating on how much sugar is in different things and what is the healthier choice.”
Swan Hill Leisure Centre youth activation officer Dani Fleming organised a gym program for the participants.
“It’s not just about focusing on weight loss – it’s about everything else that sort of entails a healthy lifestyle,” Ms Fleming said. Other aspects included strength and improvement in different areas of the gym.
To end the program, Swan Hill District Health dietitian Kerrie Curran showed participants how make healthier food choices.
This included hands-on, interactive demonstrations, like measuring out how many spoonfuls of sugar are in certain drinks.
“It was actually amazing to see how much they took, how much they understood, and how much fun it was,” Ms Fleming said.
“Hopefully this is an ongoing thing.”
Ms O’Bree said the participants could now take what they had learnt and apply it to their everyday lives.
“It’s a program that is really good because it makes us think about things, and we kind of blend it in to our everyday way that we support people,” she said.
“I’m hoping that we will continue the relationship we’ve got with both the Leisure Centre and Swan Hill District Health and the dietitian in doing this.”
