Find a friend or get in a group
Many people find that walking with a partner or group gives them extra motivation due to the social activity. Partners, family, friends and pets can
make the difference between a new year’s resolution and regular activity as part of the day. There are many community groups that promote safe,
enjoyable activities in a social and supportive atmosphere (eg. mall walks, over 50s). The local council or community health centre should have a list and contact details for exercise opportunities in the local area.

The aim is to reverse the trend of decreasing activity levels in Australia.15 Whatever form the increased activity takes, stress that patients should ‘take exercise regularly not seriously’. There are many ways people can increase their daily activity levels (Table 7).

Conclusion
General practitioners have a key role in encouraging patients with diabetes to make nutritional and lifestyle changes (Table 8). Keep lifestyle recommendations simple - eat less and walk more. Encourage patients to be involved in setting their own goals and time frames for achieving each goal. Encourage them to start with small short term goals rather than large goals and slowly build on those. Give patients a written prescription of each goal for reinforcement. Provide patients with lifestyle ‘tools’ such as dietary checklists and sample meal plans. Ask patients to keep a diet diary and use it to monitor their progress. Goals need to be realistic and achievable and adjusted if needed according to patient acceptance and compliance.

Acknowledgments
We thank Carol Smith and Diane Cross for their valuable input.Conflict of interest: none declared.

Summary of Important Points:
• Set small, specific weight loss goals.
• Ask patients to keep a diet diary.
• Use a fat and sugar checklist to identify high fat/sugar foods
in a patient’s diet and the healthier alternatives.
• Provide a sample meal plan for patients.
• Write an exercise prescription which includes ‘incidental’ daily activities.
• Review and encourage progress regularly.