Online Health Tools
Need some help getting motivated and staying on track? From healthy weight calculators to physical activity trackers, you can find many online health tools on your comupter or even on your mobile phone. Keeping tabs on your health just got easier!
Health Calculator and Tools
|
Online Health Trackers
|
Calorie Burn Calculator
How many calories did your exercise burn?
This tool from Healthlink BC calculates how many calories you burn with different types of activities. You input your weight, how long you were active, and the general type of activity and it will estimate the amount of calories you burned. This is helpful to determine how much physical activity you need to achieve your weight loss goals.
Click here to go to the “How Many Calories Did you Burn Tool” on the Healthlink BC website
Target Heart Rate Calculator
Find your target heart rate
This great tool from Healthlink BC calculates your target heart rate for exercise. You put in your age, resting heart rateand current level of activity and the tool will recommend a heart rate range for you to follow during exercise.
Click here to go to the Target Heart Rate Tool on the Healthlink BC website
Healthy Waists
Track your health by measuring your waist
A healthy weight is more than what you see on the scale. When you start to eat healthy and exercise your body begins to change as you build muscle and lose body fat. Your weight alone won’t reflect all the good changes your body is going through.
Measuring your waist can tell you alot about your health as fat stored around your mid section can put you at risk for things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Healthy Waist website has a great video to show you how to properly measure your waistline and give you the information you need to achieve or maintain a healthy waist.
Click here to go the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Healthy Waist website
Smoking Cost Calculator
How Much is Smoking Costing You?
Need a reality check to kick the habit? This tool from Healthlink BC will estimate how much money you have spent on cigarettes since you started smoking. Estimate the average number of cigarettes you smoke per day, the average cost of a pack of smokes and how long you have been smoking and start thinking about all the things you could have bought instead!
Click here to go to the “How Much is Smoking Costing You” tool on the Healthlink BC website
EATracker - Dietitians of Canada
Record and track your fitness and eating habits
EATracker is an eating and activity tracker which you can use to track your daily food and activity choices, get feedback on how you are doing, and find suggestions for ways to improve your choices. Some of the features include..
- Select your daily foods and activities
- Receive personalized feedback
- Find resources and suggestions to help you
- Watch your progress
Click here to go to the EATracker
MapMyFitness
Track your physcial activity online
MapMyFitness is a community website for people who want to be healthy, lose weight or train more effectively. Registration for a free account provides you access to route mapping tools, fitness logs, challenges, online groups, as well as, mobile applications to record your workouts on the go. Additionally you can integrate your account with social media sites such as facebook and twitter. Premium paid memberships are also available which reduce advertisements and unlock training programs. Other websites in the MapMyFitness family include MapMyRun, MapMyCycle, MapMyWalk, MapMyHike and MapMyMountain.
Click here to go to MapMyFitness.com
Spark People
An free online community for healthy living
SparkPeople’s mission is to spark millions of people to reach their goals and lead healthier lives. Sparkpeople.com is a membership based online community which offers nutrition, health, and fitness tools, support, and resources that are 100% free.
SparkPeople promotes a weight loss program which teaches people to stop dieting and transition to a permanent, healthy lifestyle. Far beyond just weight loss, SparkPeople aims to help everyone learn to eat better and exercise regularly for life. Even people who don’t want to lose weight can still join and benefit from SparkPeople's tools, resources and community features. In addition to informative articles and interactive tools, such as fitness trackers and meal plans, members can find support and encouragement from a positive community of members and experts.
SparkPeople takes pride in offering medically accepted weight-loss and healthy lifestyle recommendations that are easy to understand and implement. To learn if the weight loss, diet and exercise guidelines from Spark People are safe and appropriate for you, click here
Click here to go to the SparkPeople website
10,000 Steps
10,000 steps to a healthier you!
10,000 Steps is a fantastic website to log your daily steps and motivate yourself by participating in various step challenges. Created in Australia, the 10,000 steps website is open to individuals from all over the world. You can track your steps by using a pedometer, a small electronic device that when worn on your hip tracks the number of steps you take each day, or your can track your daily minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity.
There are new challenges all the time and while many are treks around Australia you can also create your own custom challenges. You can even encourage friends to sign-up and add them as a “buddy” to help motivate each other. Best of all, it is totally free and even has a convenient iPhone app.
Why 10,000 Steps? Walking 10,000 Steps per day is associated with better health and a reduced risk of chronic health conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Click here to sign-up on the 10,000 Steps website.
Healthy Living Websites
The internet has plenty of healthy living websites to help you make positive health changes. Here are a few trusted sites for healthy living information.
Healthy Families BC
Your one stop location for health and wellness
Healthy Families BC is the Province of British Columbia’s one stop location for information related to health and wellness. The online community allows you to take part in the conversation by commenting on blogs and receiving the latest in healthy living news and information.
This website is part of the Ministry of Health’s four pronged Healthy Families BC Strategy to support families and communities in the following key areas:
- Healthy Lifestyles - supporting British Columbians in managing their own health and reducing chronic disease by working with physicians to ensure consistent delivery of proven prevention initiatives.
- Healthy Eating - initiatives aimed at supporting healthy choices, in the home, the school and the community and creating environments that support the provision of healthier foods and make their choice easier.
- Healthy Start - helping the most vulnerable families in British Columbia get the best start in life.
- Healthy Communities- encouraging British Columbians to lead healthier lives where they live, work, learn and play.
Click here to go to the Healthy Families BC website
Better Together BC
A hands on approach to family, food and fun
If mealtimes are a struggle in your home, the Better Together BC website is here to help you find solutions.
There are many healthy benefits to eating together as a family. Children who eat together with adults tend to eat healthier, do better in school and improve their social skills. The Better Together website provides you with the tools you need to involve the whole family in meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, eating and cleaning.
You will also find great resources such as:
- Kid-Friendly Recipes
- Family Meal Scenarios
- Better Together Toolkits
- Cooking programs
- Videos
- Farm tours
- Create your own handbook or cookbook
- Submit and read stories and community recipes
Click here to go to the Better BC website
Caring for Kids
Trusted information from Canada's pediatricians
Caring for Kids is designed to provide parents with information about their child's health and well-being. Because the site is developed by the Canadian Paediatric Society—the voice of Canada 's 2,000 paediatricians—you can be sure the information is reliable.
Caring for Kids provides articles and tips on healthy bodies, pregnancy and babies, immunizations, parenting and much more.
Click here to go to the Caring for Kids website
Childhood Obesity Foundation
Learn how to prevent childhood obesity
The Childhood Obesity Foundation website provides information on how to prevent childhood obesity to families, preschools, daycares, schools, communities and government.
Learn about the four simple steps to raise children with healthy weights.
- 5 fruits and vegetables per day
- 2 hours of screen time or less per day
- 1 hour of physical activity per day
- 0 sugar sweetened beverage per day
Click here to go to the Childhood Obesity Foundation website
Fraser Health Authority
Your Health
The “Your Health” section of the Fraser Health website provides plenty of information on healthy eating, physical activity, smoking and much more.
Browse health topics specific to infants and toddlers, children and youth, women, seniors and Aboriginal health. Along with healthy living information you will also find links to local services and resources.
Click here to go to the Fraser Health website
ParticipACTION
ParticipACTION is the national voice of physical activity and sport participation in Canada. Through leadership in communications, capacity building and knowledge exchange, they inspire and support Canadians to move more.
ParticipACTION’s vision is to work with its partners to ensure a Canadian society where people are the most physically active on earth.
The ParticipACTION website provides tools and resources for individuals to get more active and for organizations to promote physical activity in their community.
Here are some of the great things you do on the ParticipACTION website
- Learn facts and stats on the inactivity crisis
- Read and share inspirational stores on getting active
- Get information on getting active including topics such as “inspiring kids” and “easy ways to start”
- Read or Sign-up for ParticipACTION news updates
- Download and use various resources and tools
Click here to go to the ParticipACTION website
SCOPE - Sustainable Childhood Obesity
Prevention through Community Engagement
Help make the healthy choice the easy choice for children
Partnered with Healthy Abbotsford, SCOPE’s goal is to tackle the issue of childhood obesity by working with the community to make the healthy choice the easy choice for children.
Through the SCOPE website you can...
- learn the facts about childhood obesity in Abbotsford and Canada
- keep up-to date on the latest news
- interact and contribute through facebook and twitter
- find out how you can get involved and help your community raise healthy, active kids.
Click here to visit the SCOPE website
The Best Chance
Giving you and your child the best chance for a healthy life
This is a new website for women, expectant parents, and parents or other caregivers of children up to 3 years. It combines a selection of the practical, trusted health information that is also fun and engaging.
The website provides information about women’s health, pregnancy, birth, post-partum health for women and their babies from 0 to 36 months, parenting, and perinatal depression.
Click here to go to The Best Chance Website
Dietitian Services with Healthlink BC
Free Healthy Eating Advice from a Registered Dietitian
Did you know that you can call a Registered Dietitian for free? Dietitian Services with HealthlinkBC (Formerly known as Dial-a-Dietitian) provides nutrition information for British Columbians simply by calling 8-1-1 and asking to speak to a Registered Dietitian. Whether you have a food allergy, are planning to start a family or have been newly diagnosed with diabetes the HealthlinkBC Dietitians can provide advice to anyone and everyone!
- To speak with a Registered Dietitian anywhere in BC call 8-1-1
- TTY (Deaf and hearing-impaired) call 7-1-1
- Interpreter services are available in over 130 languages upon request
Click here to go to Dietitian Services with HealthlinkBC's online resources
The Physical Activity Line
Take the first step to many more
You want to be more active, but maybe you aren't sure where to start or how much physical activity you need to reach your goals. Before spending your hard earned money on exercise equipment or gym passes call the Physical Activity Line (PAL) to talk to a qualifed exercise professional. The Physical Activity Line staff can help you refine your goals, come up with a game plan and determine what types of activities will benefit you the most. Contact PAL at 1-877-725-1149.
Here are just some of the serivces offered by the PAL
- Providing guidance to help you become more physically active, overcome your barriers and stay motivated
- Educating you with the most up to date, trusted physical activity and health information
- Connecting you with health professionals and community health and fitness programs
In addition to their telephone services the PAL also has a website, www.physicalactivityline.com, full of physical activity fact sheets, such as...
- Barriers to Physical Activity
- Choosing a Qualified Exercise Professional
- Goal Setting
- Recommended Activties for Older Adults
- How to Stay Active
Click here to go to the Physical Activity Line website
QuitNow
Get support to quit smoking
Did you know that free help to develop a quit plan, deal with cravings and tricky situations is available around the clock? Quitnow’s Care Coaches are trained to do just that whenever you decide to quit or if you have already quit and feel you might slip.
Care Coaches are available to help people who are calling for a whole variety of reasons, including:
- A smoker who wants to quit today
- A special program for someone who’s already quit but needs more support
- A panic caller who has already quit but is feeling like they might have a cigarette
- Someone who is considering quitting smoking but just wants general information on quitting, or information on how to support a friend or family member to quit.
In addition to the phone service, QuitNow also hosts an online internet-based quit smoking service, available free-of-charge for all British Columbians. Once you register for the online community you will find expert advice, online peer support, quitting strategies, email reminders and more.
Click here to go to quitnow
Get your calories from healthy foods and your liquids from water
.gif)
