Recently I've just been diagnosed with diabetes.
My eyesight started going.
It was important to me to get on top of the diabetes.
I have achieved that.
I've maintained my sugar levels to the extent that my eyesight has come back to normal.
I'm starting to lose a little bit of weight that I've gained.
I'm actually feeling like I've got a lot more energy for home and for work.
The health challenges in this industry from my point of view comes down to shift work.
Most of the time here we go from one shift to another so from day shift to night shift.
So your body clock does get out of whack.
All of a sudden you're eating dinners when it's normally breakfast times and your body
has to get to know that.
My main motivation to stay healthy is that I don't want to die.
I want to live a long life and enjoy my grandchildren.
I want them to grow up with me and enjoy life.
From what I see here most of the workers here are very healthy eaters.
The canteen is a fantastic part of it because they serve some great food, absolutely fantastic
food.
They have a range called Healthy Choice as well which I buy most of the time.
It's smaller portions but fantastic food.
The things that I have been doing and changed to get on top of my health is I've been taking
the time out to prepare my meals a bit better.
I've been selective with the food that I buy, the selection of food at home that my family
are enjoying and it's not that hard to prepare.
My job recently I've been office based but I will rather than ring up someone at the
other end of the plant I'll go for a walk.
So just placing that little bit of extra exercise in there I think is helping me out.
I do a lot of walking here but on the weekends or at night time I'll go for a walk.
On an average weekend I'll take my granddaughters for walks and it's nothing for me to cover
15 k's or more on a weekend.
That's walking.
If I just want to go to the shops and don't need a car I walk.
The industry in general I think gradually they're responding to the health and wellbeing
of the employees through companies like us promoting it.
They see there might be an expense there on the outlay of providing these services but
those services tend to keep the employees at work longer which helps with their efficiencies.
I think once they see the benefits to them it's enormous for them.
We implement things like physio.
We have dieticians, a doctor that comes on site that will do our health checks once a
year.
They measure a lot of things.
Not only blood pressure, your weight – just general wellbeing.
It's important they measure your blood pressure for me personally and I'm sure there's a lot
of other people on site with high blood pressure because sometimes it's very hot here.
You're doing a lot of heavy work and it's good to monitor.
Probably the first thing I'd say to a new worker is we get offered all these benefits
– the physio, the podiatrist, good food – use them because if you don't use them
you lose them.
If I have a new worker coming to work here and I was the worker's mentor I think that
I would – the advice that I would give them would be is to really plan your meals, take
the time to eat healthy, take the time out to exercise.
It's all about managing your time to be able to take the time to do these things.
Sometimes you might not know how much you'll benefit from it until you've done it.