Promoting Healthy Behaviour
Kilconly nurse combining experience and learning
JANUARY is always a big month for dieting and kicking off a new fitness regime. It begins with cleaning out the treats press after the Christmas in the back kitchen and hitting the gym or running the roads three days a week – all the while, in some instances, trying to fight off the ‘January Blues’.
Now in February, how many of those 2024 resolutions have fallen by the wayside or, at the very least, are beginning to lag? One of the reasons is because, more often than not, these all or nothing approaches are unsustainable. To work, they must be part of a meaningful lifestyle change.
The diet industry is a multi-billion euro industry while there are so many apps and promos on social media promising great abs and a six-pack, it’s difficult for any person self-conscious about their weight not to get sucked in. Who doesn’t want to look as if they were chiselled out of marble?
However, two West of Ireland ladies – Kilconly nurse Suzanne Greaney and Roscommon native Sara Jane Duffy – are looking to change all that, by encouraging people to adopt a weight management and lifestyle approach rather than subject themselves to restrictive dieting and setting fitness goals that might be out of reach.
In their office based at Comworks, Station Road, Loughrea, Suzanne and Sara Jane chat enthusiastically about their new venture, Healthy Behaviour, on this Wednesday morning. They are keen to stress that their service is not a weight loss clinic, but a weight management service that focuses on an individual’s overall health, promoting a holistic approach.
Healthy Behaviour is based on the Canadian model, a country which Suzanne worked in before the Covid pandemic forced her return to Ireland. In Canada, she observed the huge emphasis that was put on health promotion and disease prevention.
“There was a huge focus on screening and prevention and lifestyle,” says Suzanne, “and it was very ahead of its time; nothing like it existed in Ireland when I moved over there in 2019. I liked the concept of combining lifestyle changes with screening and working towards preventive measures rather than always treating patients.”
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