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MacDill program helps Airmen, families find balance in lives

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Vernon L. Fowler Jr.
  • 6th Air Mobility Wing public affairs
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The Air Force is always searching for and creating ways to improve and maintain the overall health of not just its personnel, but also their families. One specific program, the Group Lifestyle Balance Program, has been enacted on MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., as well as other installations across the country to assist people with their eating and living habits.

"The Group Lifestyle Balance Program provides adults with the tools necessary to develop and maintain healthy eating and active living habits to decrease the risk of diabetes and other conditions, reverse pre-diabetes, and promote better health and improved quality of life," said Kim Huff, Health Promotion educator.

Health Coaches utilize a variety of tools to help participants recognize their motivations to live a healthy life. Participants engage in lively discussions on proven strategies to manage stress in the workplace and everyday life and work together to find solutions to the challenges and obstacles that get in the way of long term weight and health management.

"As health coaches, we help to facilitate healthier eating, active living, and stress management through goal-setting and goal-mapping," said Huff.

This allows participants to discover the cues and triggers that prompt them to make dietary decisions and develop solutions to enable them to make choices that will help them reach their short and long term goals. Each week the positive choices participants make are highlighted through the use of achievable SMART goals.

"We ask participants to track everything they eat and then we use their food logs to help them make healthier choices," said Huff. "We have them recount the events of their day to discover the cues throughout the day that influence eating and physical activity habits."

There are currently six military treatment facilities launching a pilot program to promote healthy eating and active living with a focus on the dependent and retiree population to include Scott AFB, Mountain Home AFB, Peterson AFB, Tinker AFB and Shaw AFB.