Burlington County held the first of a three-part health workshop at its Lyceum on Dec. 6.
Health coach Lisa Curry led the session, focusing on how to set reasonable, safe goals and the factors that prevent achieving them. Curry followed her passion for helping people by becoming a certified health coach after retiring in 2021.
“ … I’ve been very invested in my own health journey as well, so I’ve been doing that for about a year and a half,” she said.
Curry connected with Heather Scotto, program coordinator of special events for the Burlington County Parks System, to help bring the workshop to the county.
“ … We talk about barriers and we have different worksheets so (people) can identify some barriers, what habits are they doing that are healthy and not healthy, prioritizing what health aspects they want to change and what’s most important,” Curry explained.
She also instructs people on how to improve their own lives.
“You have to be the one to make the changes,” she explained. “You have to be the one that looks under the surface and looks at the motivations and the barriers to make the change. With health coaching that I do, I help people make realistic goals, and we work on various small steps at a time.”
Curry praises people for overcoming obstacles when adjusting to a new lifestyle.
“Just even making those first steps to changing, even though they may think it’s a small step, it’s really a lot of progress,” she noted. “That’s basically it, is actually just really doing it. Having the motivation … and evaluating going beneath the surface and looking at accomplishing some goals.”
Curry wants her workshop to show people how small improvements matter.
“I just hope that they learn that it is a journey, and that there’s lots of barriers that can get in their way, and that it’s okay and to keep moving forward,” she said, “but I hope that they get something out of my suggestions about (how) little things can make it happen.”
Curry’s next workshop, “Eating for Our Metabolism,” will be held at the Lyceum on Feb. 7. Registration is required at https://www.co.burlington.nj.us.
“I just have such a passion for people being healthy,” she remarked. “It just makes me so excited to help, even if it’s one thing that I say that could benefit them to make them a little healthier, I just love that.”
