There are many things you can do! The following list of programs and websites has ideas and suggestions to help you get started on your weight loss goal. Always consult your GP before you commence a weight loss program.

• Better Health This free telephone support program is designed to help South Australian adults to improve their health. A personal coach will help you set and achieve your health goals. This qualified health professional, will help you take action to make lifestyle changes to increase physical activity, eat a healthy diet and achieve and maintain a healthy weight. You will receive up to 10 phone calls from your health coach to keep you motivated and answer any questions that you have. For more information visit Better Health.
• The Go for 2&5® website helps adults and children include at least 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables into meals and snacks every day.
• The Healthy Weight Week website provides information to help you assess your weight and eating habits, recipes, healthy eating tips and more.
• The Heart Foundation Healthy Eating website provides health information and recipes, including how to reduce saturated fat intake for good heart health.
• The Preventive Health SA be active page provides information on being physically active for everyone from children to adults, the mature aged to those with a disability.
• The great thing about walking is you can do it anytime, anywhere. To make it even easier, the 'A walk can work wonders' page has some great ideas.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines provides information about the types and amounts of foods, food groups and dietary patterns that:

• promote health and wellbeing
• reduce the risk of diet-related conditions, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and overweight and obesity
• reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some types of cancers.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines apply to all healthy Australians, as well as those with common health conditions such as being overweight. They do not apply to people who need special dietary advice for a medical condition, or to the frail elderly.

• The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating helps Australians and their health professionals work out the types and amounts of foods they should eat each day based on age, gender, body size, activity level and other factors, such as pregnancy and breastfeeding status.

• Learn about the Australian Dietary Guidelines and Australian Guide to Healthy Eating
• The Eat for Health Calculators can estimate your daily energy (kilojoule) needs, nutrient requirements and the number of serves from each of the Five Food Groups you need every day.
• Seek individual advice from an Accredited Practising Dietitian

If you are still unsure and want specific advice about your individual needs, you can contact an Accredited Practising Dietitian. See Is there anyone I can talk to about what I should be eating? for details on how to find a Dietitian.

For individual and/or group advice on healthy eating/healthy lifestyle, a list of private practising dietitians can be found by going to the Dietitians Association of Australia website. Click on the 'Find an APD' section and then enter 'SA' into the state search box. This will bring up a list of Accredited Practising Dietitians and what services they provide. You will then need to contact a dietitian individually to check about their fees and availability. You could also try contacting the dietitian located in your nearest GP Plus Health Care Centre.

You can ask your GP for some general information on healthy eating. Dietitians are qualified professionals trained to give dietary advice specific to your needs, whether it be for general health, or for a specific health condition. Generally if you have been diagnosed with a problem that requires a special diet (for example type 2 diabetes or a high cholesterol level), your doctor will refer you to a Dietitian for dietary advice.

Dietitians work in both the public and private sector. You could try contacting your local health service or GP Plus Health Care Centre who may have a Dietitian available for individual advice. Depending on your particular situation, they may be able to provide some suggestions about relevant programs. Try the National Health Services Directory to find the nearest health service or dietitian near you.

Another option is to see a private Accredited Practising Dietitian. For a list of private practising dietitians in a specific area, go to the website of the Dietitians Association of Australia and then click on the 'Find an APD' section and then enter 'SA' into the state search box. This will bring up a list of Accredited Practising Dietitians and what services they provide. You will then need to contact a dietitian individually for information about their fees and availability.

See Is there anyone I can talk to about what I should be eating? for details on how to find a Dietitian.

Diabetes SA is devoted to assisting people with diabetes in South Australia. The website is packed with information and links to useful resources.

The Heart Foundation website has all sorts of information about cholesterol, fats, and heart disease.

It is important that we eat a healthy diet with a wide range of foods from each of the five food groups so we get all the nutrients we need for good health - whether or not we are vegetarian.

The link below provides some general advice about vegetarianism. If you require personal advice you should consult an Accredited Practising Dietitian. See Is there anyone I can talk to about what I should be eating? for details on how to find a Dietitian.

Vegetarian alternatives to meat and dairy foods are included in the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating.

The level of physical activity you need to do depends on your age:

• Young children between the ages of 0 to 5 require 3 to 5 hours a day
• Children between the ages of 5 to 12 require at least 1 hour per day
• Older children between the ages of 13 to 17 require at least 1 hour per day
• Adults between the ages of 18 to 64 need to accumulate 150 to 300 minutes (2½ to 5 hours) of moderate intensity physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes (1¼ to 2½ hours) of vigorous intensity physical activity, or an equivalent combination of both moderate and vigorous activities, each week.
• Older Australians over the age of 65 require 30minutes of physical activity each day

There are many ways you can incorporate more physical activity into your day.

We now live in a state where more people are overweight or obese than in the healthy weight range. If we do not reverse this trend, large numbers of our population will face deteriorating health and a lower quality of life and our economy will need to bear the burden of increased costs to the health system. The scale of the challenge requires widespread, coordinated and sustained action by more individuals and organisations. Ultimately only individuals can change what they eat or how much physical activity they do. But, it's easier to change behaviour and adopt healthy living habits when the people around us value and support good health. The more supportive the physical and social environment, the easier it is to be healthy.

The South Australian government has a strong commitment to a healthy and active State where communities are safer and healthier, children can learn better, our lifestyle is more sustainable and our population is more productive.

In South Australia, there is a specific target in South Australia's Strategic Plan to increase the proportion of South Australian adults and children at a healthy body weight by 5% by 2017. Also, the Eat Well Be Active Strategy for South Australia 2011-2016 was developed as a plan of action to address this target.

• Prevalence and causes of overweight and obesity: The Australian Government Department of Health website has statistics and more information about overweight and obesity. For South Australian statistics please refer to 'Where can I find statistics or data about national or state health topics such as obesity, alcohol consumption, fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity levels, and other health risk factors?' for a list of websites.

• Healthy Workplaces aims to create healthy work places which make it easier for people to eat well, be active, quit smoking and drink responsibly. The initiative delivers on the state's Men's health strategy by partnering with male dominated industries to create healthy work places. The initiative will reach large numbers of men through these industries to create cultures, environments and programs that make the healthy choices the easy choices. Examples of this include increasing healthy food choices for catering and canteens, providing onsite bike racks, developing staff wellbeing and smoke-free policies and including healthy lifestyle information in staff induction programs and training. The work builds on the achievements of the Healthy Workers – Healthy Futures initiative previously funded under the Commonwealth's National Partnership Agreement on Preventative Health (NPAPH) funding (2012 to 2014).
• Health Star Rating is a front-of-pack labelling system that rates the overall nutritional profile of packaged food and assigns it a rating from ½ a star to 5 stars. It provides a quick, easy, standard way to compare similar packaged foods. The more stars, the healthier the choice.
• Menu Board Nutrition Labelling Chain food outlets now show kilojoule information on their menu boards thanks to amendments to the South Australian Food Regulations 2002.

The Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) Right Bite Healthy Food Supply Strategy for South Australian Schools is the major strategy impacting on food supply and healthy eating promotion in the school environment, at a policy level, in SA.

SA Health has two resource order forms; one is for consumers and the other for community groups. Visit our Healthy living section to select the right order form for you.

SA Health monitors population health status and trends for a range of health risk factors and chronic diseases to assist in the planning, implementation and evaluation of health services, policies and programs. A selection of South Australian reports is available for public use:

• Our South Australian Monitoring and Surveillance System (SAMSS) page provides further information and links to key reports on:
• nutrition, physical activity
• biomedical risk factors – weight, cholesterol, high blood pressure
• chronic disease – arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, osteoporosis
• health service use, multiple risk factors, alcohol consumption and disabilities.
• Our Risk factors for health statistics provides further information and data about breast screening, cervix screening, childhood immunisation and sexually transmitted diseases.

The Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU) provides data on health and its determinants in Australia. For information on social, economic and health inequalities the Social Health Atlas of Australia is available on their website.

Nationally, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) regularly reports on Australia's Health and a wide variety of risk factors and chronic diseases.

Body image is the way we think, feel, and see our own body. Someone who has a positive body image is generally happy with how they think, feel, and see their body. On the other hand, someone with a negative body image has negative thoughts and feelings about their body.

A positive body image is important because it helps our psychological health and development.

SA Health provide specialist services for people with body image and eating disorders.

The Australian Government has several initiatives around body image.

• Funding for the Butterfly Foundation provides body image education services and support to individuals and their families.
• Education Services Australia is developing posters and supporting materials to help schools promote a healthy body image.
• The National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC) is a collaboration of people and organisations with an expertise and/ or interest in the mental illness of eating disorders that form and evidence based 'voice' on eating disorders.

The VicHealth website has links to the latest research on a range of topics including obesity