The British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) has launched a new, free planner to challenge you to Try, Swap and Change your habits in a bid to encourage the nation to become healthier.
The weekly planner offers a set of 15 easy to follow suggestions to choose from to help you to develop a healthier lifestyle by: trying something new, swapping old habits for better ones, and changing elements of your lifestyle. Each week you can select three or more of the 15 suggested challenges, which include tasks like: finding new ways to be active; including more fish in your diet; and cutting out sugary drinks.
Recognising that behavioural change is a key to tackling the obesity crisis and improving long-term health, the ‘Try, Swap, Change’ planner has been developed by BNF nutrition experts to provide a practical guide for people to put into action. Sara Stanner, Science Director, British Nutrition Foundation, said: “In recent years, the demand for diet and healthy lifestyle plans has grown rapidly, and the large number of different resources available can be daunting for some and difficult to fit in with certain lifestyles.”
“Our hope is that people will find our ‘Try, Swap, Change’ planner easy to use, so that over time healthier choices become natural and second-nature, rather than a chore. We want to encourage the nation to maintain a healthy lifestyle and keep the long-term benefits in mind, rather than just thinking about the here and now.”
The planner can be personalised to suit your individual needs. Each of the challenges has been colour coded to relate to different parts of a healthy diet and lifestyle and so that you can go for challenges that are best suited to you:
- Green: focus on fruit and vegetables
- Yellow: happy wholegrains
- Red: getting active
- Orange: helpful habits
- Blue: pick your protein
- Pink: think lower ’s‘ – salt, sugar, and saturated fat
The planner can be downloaded as many times as you like and the more the better, so that a healthier lifestyle can become a long-term habit. The planner also encourages you to reflect on how it has gone – which challenges you found easier or more difficult and which you could maintain.
The BNF recently revealed that its annual BNF Healthy Eating Week, which will take place June 11 – 15, has received more workplace registrations than ever before, with more than 1000 companies – representing over half a million workers – signed up to take part in the initiative. The ‘Try, Swap, Change’ planner will be shared with all registered organisations to support Healthy Eating Week activities and encourage participation not just at the work place but at home too.