McCaw said health and wellbeing were "feeling good and functioning well".
"It is being able to get through those ups and downs in life but remaining and enjoying the ups and having the skills and resilience to get through the downs," she said.
"Healthy is an outfit that looks different on everyone."
McCaw was asked by MC Brendon Weatherley how vital psychology - which she was studying - was to a person's health.
She replied it built people's strengths and got people to recognise those strengths.
"It's about how people be the best version of themselves."
McCaw prompted tears from the audience when she was asked who her role model was and replied her family.
She looked at her family and said: "If I can be like them, I'm on the right track.
"I take lessons from everybody; I take inspiration from each person I meet."
McCaw, who attended with her mother and nana, said family was important to both her and husband, former All Black captain Richie McCaw.
The breakfast was held to raise money and awareness for Life Education Trust. The trust delivers a health programme to 12,000 Bay of Plenty school children without government funding.
McCaw grew up in Tauranga and fondly remembered Life Education classes and its mascot Harold the Giraffe at Tauranga Intermediate school, where her mother now taught.
The Centre for Health director Anna Rolleston said it was essential to think outside the box when it came to health and wellbeing.
"We think about health, our health, when something happens, we might have a flu or a pain, so we go to the doctor," she said.
"But I am keen for people to start thinking about their health before that happens."
Sam Dowdall attended the breakfast with his dog Bo, who patiently sat next to his owner during the presentations.
Dowdall travelled with Bo throughout New Zealand offering men a chance to open up about mental health while having a haircut at no charge except for maybe some petrol money or food.
"My job is to start a conversation about mental health," he said.
"The best way to get young men talking about mental health is getting them to think about why they feel sad and how we deal with that."
Kaye Jamieson of the Western Bay Life Education Trust said the fundraising breakfast was a way of raising much-needed funds as well as awareness.
"We receive no government funding, and we rely heavily on grant funding, donations, sponsorship and fundraising," Jamieson said.
"We cannot do it on our own; we need schools, businesses, organisations to get behind us."
Life Education Trust:
- Has been operating for more than 25 years
- More than 250,000 children from primary and intermediate schools are involved in the Life Education Trust programme
- Through lessons in Life Education's mobile classrooms and teachers using resources in schools, children learn about healthy eating, being a good friend, good and bad substances and how their body works
