Healthy Habits 4 Life

Healthy Habits 4 Life is a free programme for families in Cumbria.  A Public Health Practitioner will provide one to one support at a time and place to suit each family to work on making healthy lifestyle changes on a range of areas including:

  • Nutrition
  • Active Lifestyles
  • Healthy Habits
  • Wellbeing

If you would like to know more or want your child to be included, please email E-SchoolNurse@ncic.nhs.uk

Session 1 is all about 'healthy lifestyles', the aims are:

  • To become familiar with the Healthy Habits for Life Advisors
  • To understand the activity book and structure of the sessions
  • To understand the benefits of making lifestyle changes for their family
  • To consider having a baseline measurement of height and weight
  • To think about family routines
  • To start a food and activity diary for the review at the next session

Session 2 is all about 'eating well', the aims are:

  • Review and action planning.
  • To Review the 'food diary'.
  • To discuss any potential barriers to changes.
  • To gain a full understanding of the 'Eatwell Guide' and how to use this.
  • To create an action plan with an identified area of change

Session 3 is all about 'finding the balance', the aims are:

  • To explain 'energy in v energy out'
  • To understand portion size for young people
  • To introduce the 80/20 and meal maths approach
  • To discuss healthy swaps and understanding food labels (looking at the food scanner)
  • Looking at labels
  • To introduce meal planning for a week

Session 4 is all about 'being active' and the aims are:

  • To understand why physical activity is important for health.
  • To take part in physical activity that they enjoy or consider a new activity
  • Think about screen time                                                
  • To think out about family activities                       
  • To provide ideas on activities both locally and online
  • To become familiar with what can count as physical activity, and targets for amount of time spent in physical activity for different ages.

Session 5 is all about 'family habits', the aims are:

  • Consider family mealtimes and create some family mealtime rules.
  • To look at cooking skills in the family and introduce strategies to make the healthy option the, easier option, getting kids involved in the kitchen and trying new foods, recipe adaptations/swaps and batch cooking/recipe recycling.
  • Introduce habit stacking.
  • Consider how to adapt recipes to make them healthier.
  • Learn some strategies to help when eating out or having take-away at home (such as using fake-away recipes

Session 6 is all about 'habits for life', the aims are:

  • For parents and child to see the lifestyle changes and how they can continue with this healthy lifestyle.
  • Height and Weight Measurement offered.
  • Talk about how emotions influence food choices.
  • Ask about bedtime routine, sleep (quantity and quality) and rest patterns and discuss how tiredness and lethargy may affect meal and snack choices.
  • Identify any issues with self-esteem and confidence for child and other family members, Introduce mindfulness eating.
  • Planning for the future (arrange catch up sessions and pass on contact details for PH 5-19 Service)

Healthy lifestyle offer for schools

In England 1 in 3 children leaving primary school are overweight or living with obesity with 1 in 5 living with obesity. Obesity is associated with reduced life expectancy, a range of health conditions and can impact on mental health. In Cumbria the data shows that in March 2021 rates for excess weight in Reception were higher than the national average at 26.7% and 34.3% in year 6.

Our public health 5 to 19 service can provide support to enhance your school's healthy eating provision.  We can also provide 1 to 1 support for parents and carers using the E-School Nurse Service or our Healthy Habits 4 Life programme (information below). Download our Healthy Habits 4 Life poster to display around your school.

Food, nutrition and physical activity are essential parts of a healthy lifestyle, and it is best that these healthy behaviours are introduced and embedded at an early age. The government have outlined a number of strategies schools can support in the report on Childhood Obesity a plan for action.

Ways your school can help:
  • Policies outlining your commitment to healthy lifestyles
  • Provision of nutritious and balanced meals for their pupils that meet the School Food Standards
  • Provision of a range of opportunities to be physically active
  • Education about healthy eating and lifestyle choices
  • Supporting families to make healthier packed lunches
  • Become a 'Healthy School' with the government ratings scheme
  • Healthy choices: an assembly on encouraging healthy diet and lifestyle choices.
  • Packed lunches: a workshop for parents, carers and children to support healthy packed lunch policies and provide tips and advice for parents and carers.
  • Trying new foods: a workshop for parents, carers and children, to give children the opportunity to try new foods, with practical tips and strategies for parents and carers to encourage a varied diet.
  • Healthy Habits 4 Life: a holistic lifestyle programme providing one to one support for families, visit our Healthy Habits 4 Life page to find out more.
  • Food and mood: an assembly on healthy eating, physical activity and lifestyle choices to support emotional wellbeing.

Healthy Lifestyle Resources

Please find below a selection of our resources on healthy lifestyles to support learning in schools or to share with parents and carers

In addition to our resources we are offering a range of FREE services available to all schools in Cumbria to support the promotion of healthy lifestyles in schools. If you are interested in any of these services please contact us and on of our Public Health 5-19 team will be in touch.

Healthy Eating Resources