Posted by kathryn in Lifestyle

The NSW government has recently launched an initiative called Live Life Well, which includes a new website containing, information, quizes and tools encouraging us all to be healthier. While, here in Australia, we’re living longer, many people are spending a lot of those extra years suffering from chronic diseases, on mulitiple medications and unable to fully enjoy and take part in all of life’s riches.

The Live Life Well campaign is all about equipping you with the information and tools you need to live a long, healthy and active life. As the homepage says:

With the right information, every one of us can take steps to reduce our chances of developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and type two diabetes.

By making just a few small but important lifestyle changes, we can ensure better health and wellbeing for our future – and more time to enjoy the important things such as spending time with our friends and family.

To be honest, the website is a bit clunky and the text could do with a good edit, but there are some useful resources and links. It concentrates on the six key areas of:

• eating a healthy diet
• being physically active
• limiting alcohol consumption
• quitting smoking
• maintaining a healthy weight
• managing stress

There are also a number of quizzes and interactive tools, so you can assess your current situation and learn how to improve your record in each area.

The things I liked:

• I found their disease risk assessment tool annoying – too many pop-ups and leading questions, however they also link to the Harvard University your disease risk website. This is an excellent site with comprehensive quizzes covering your risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, osteoporosis and cancer. At the end of each quiz you get a summary, showing what you’re doing right, how to improve and how your risk changes as you make diet and lifestyle changes.
• In the healthy eating category there’s a portion distortion quiz , while it’s US-centric it shows how standard food portions have changed in the last 20 years and gives guidelines on how much physical activity is needed to burn off those extra kilojoules.
• The daily kilojoule counter is simple and limited, but you can use it to quickly get an idea of how much fat, protein, carbohydrates and kilojoules you’re eating each day.
• The section on alcohol consumption is simple and realistic and includes a couple of quizes to test your knowledge on standard drink sizes, alcohol free days and how much is too much.

After the excesses of Christmas, this is the time of year when people re-focus on their health, so why not spend some time explorying the Live Life Well website and finding out simple and easy ways to improve your health now and into the future.

29 December, 2006