With a focus on healthy lifestyles, a break from your family has never been so much fun.
That’s what Andy, Jon, Robyn and 7 of their friends found when they arrived at Rafferty’s Resort in Lake Macquarie for a two night, three day Wellness Weekend.
On arrival the group was broken into two teams – yellow and blue – so that while one team were learning healthy cooking and living skills in the domestic kitchen, the others were taking part in a physical activity outside.
The chef and cooking trainer, Wendy, showed the team how to create a meal by breaking down the steps into manageable processes. The participants learned knife skills, safety and hygiene in a domestic style kitchen, meaning they can try these new skills when they get home.
At dinnertime on Friday night Andy, who doesn’t always enjoy trying new foods, tucked into the ‘veggie- packed’ Spaghetti Bolognese and everyone agreed with him that the cooking team did a fabulous job.
Vegetables featured all weekend, in breakfast, lunch and dinner, showing that they can be alternatives to cereal, bread and sugar. Then, it was all about teamwork as everyone pitched in to help with dishes followed by a few highly contested games of cards.
After breakfast on Saturday, some gentle yoga style exercises helped everyone warm up despite the rainy weather outside. A specialist First Aid trainer arrived to teach the group what to do in an emergency and how to perform CPR on dummies. The participants all proudly received an award for taking part and learned some important, lifesaving skills.
It was then time for some fun in the heated, undercover swimming pool and spa, the perfect place for racing, mucking about an
d doing laps. During circuit training later, Robyn discovered she was great at boxing and thrived on the challenge with Luke the personal trainer, who was assisting her.
Bonding through sport, teamwork and fun in the relaxed environment of this weekend, saw friendships being made and everyone’s confidence grow. That evening, by the outside barbecue, Jon’s rock and roll music added to the upbeat mood and it was obvious that everybody was proud of their achievements.
On Sunday the sun came out and, after breakfast and warm ups, a game of ‘toss the flour bag’ was suggested. As the bag finally burst and flour exploded everywhere, the participants decided to gang up on Luke, causing much hilarity and a few white faces.
The OPTIONS Wellness weekends are about supporting a healthy lifestyle through skills and education, while providing a well-earned break for everyone. It just so happens they’re also loads of fun.
Please phone (02) 4340 5155 or email admin@optionsdisabilitysupport.org.au for more information about our Wellness Weekends or about how we can help you transition to the NDIS.
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Photo credit: Wendy Smith
