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Change4Life is a nationwide movement that is supported by partners from every sector of society and backed by a major communications campaign. It aims to help us all, but especially our kids, eat better, move more and live longer.
Change4Life is just getting started, but it will soon reach across our society. People will be talking about it at the school gates and the shops, on TV and on the internet. And we want you to be spreading the word and knowing what it is all about.
There are 8 healthy Change4Life behaviours that ThinQ Fitness want to help families adopt. They are:
As you can see its about healthy eating AND physical activity.
It seems a lot, but we'll be breaking it down into small chunks, and talking about each of these over the next few weeks in our articles and, as you would expect, doing some videos to help you out with getting families moving.
Did you know that if we carry on as we are, 9 out of 10 of today’s kids risk growing up with dangerous levels of fat in their bodies? Quite simply, because modern life makes it hard to eat healthy food and get enough exercise, we can end up with too much fat in our bodies. This puts us at greater risk of illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Children are particularly vulnerable because the unhealthy habits they get into when they are young can turn into health problems when they’re adults.
That’s why ThinQ FItness is supporting Change4Life as a national partner. It’s a nationwide movement which aims to help us all, but especially our kids, eat well, move more and live longer.
You can find more information on the Change4Life website here, but initially ThinQ Fitness are focusing on “Up and About” and “60 Active Minutes”.
ThinQ Fitness wants to help Mums and Dads get their kids up and about doing their 60 active minutes a day, and we are creating a series of videos that families can have fun doing together to do just that.
The first three videos you can watch and use with the kids can be played by clicking the links below, and from there you can see al of ours kids fitness videos. Before you do that just take a moment, if you haven't already, to let Lucy explain why exercise and nutrition go hand in hand.
But before you watch the videos, let's just look at what up and about and 60 active minutes mean.
Modern life has made things much more comfortable for us – so comfortable, in fact, that most of us spend too long sitting down doing nothing much at all! Of course it's important to relax, but there’s a difference between chilling out and vegging out. The fact is that kids who are inactive don’t burn off enough energy and store up fat in their body.
The solution is simple – get up!
Simply being up, about and moving burns calories and helps fend off diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease or cancer.
Something as obvious as getting your kids up off the sofa will help. Encourage them to stop lying on the sofa or their bed, put down the phone from chatting to or texting their friends, turn off the TV or computer game and do something more active.
Many families are setting a limit of '2 hours max' of sitting still each day. It stops kids vegging out and helps them get their 60 active minutes everyday.
Active kids are happy kids – they like to be up and about, running around and having fun. The trouble is, in this modern world they’ve got other things to do and plenty of reasons not to go outside and play or run around.
In fact, kids need to do at least 60 minutes of physical activity that gets their heart beating faster than usual. And they need to do it every day to burn off calories and prevent them storing up excess fat in the body which can lead to cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Even at school they are sitting for much of the day, so getting the right amount of after school activity is important. And don’t forget their 60 active minutes at the weekend too!
Change4Life is all about making small changes to help your kids build healthy bodies. And here at ThinQ Fitness we’re getting involved by creating a series of videos you can use with your kids. We’ll keep this page up to date with the videos you can use, and you can let us know how you are getting on by using the comments section at the bottom of the page. You will also find a section in our forum where you can get your Change4Life questions answered. If your family has not yet joined Change4Life, why not do it today? You’ll get lots of tips and ideas to help you make sure your kids are eating properly and getting enough exercise. Click here for the ‘Change4Life’ website or call 0300 123 4567.*
Make sure you bookmark this page and come back regularily, as we will continue to update the links and add more information for you.
*Calls to 03 numbers should cost no more than geographic 01 or 02 UK-wide calls, and may be part of inclusive minutes subject to your provider and your call package.
