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Eating well

Eating well can help you improve your wellbeing, manage your weight and reduce your risk of developing diseases such as diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Being overweight, or underweight can have serious consequences to your health, and having a poor diet will put your overall health at risk.

Healthy diet

A healthy, balanced diet involves eating a wide variety of nutritious food and drink in the right proportions to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.

It is recommended that men have around 2,500 calories a day and women around 2,000 calories a day. A poor diet is linked to poor health and illness such as Type 2 Diabetes, Cancer and Stroke to name a few.

Top tips for healthy eating

  1. Aim to eat 5 portions a day of fruit and vegetables. Tinned, dried and frozen fruit and vegetables also count, and try having fruit as a snack or add extra veg to your meals.
  2. Drink plenty of water. The Eatwell Guide says an adult should drink 6 to 8 glasses of fluid a day. Water, lower fat milk and sugar-free drinks, including tea and coffee, all count.

See more advice on healthy eating 

The information above has been created using advice from the NHS, Public Health England, Sport England. 

Choose You

If you are concerned about weight, Choose You provides free adult and child weight management services for individuals and families who live in Bedford Borough and who meet the eligibility criteria. 

Sessions cover a range of topics including healthy eating, physical activity and building healthy habits to help support sustainable change in a fun and friendly environment.

You can ask your GP or health professional to refer you or you can refer yourself to Choose You online.

Keeping active

An active lifestyle is also important to prevent illness and improve our physical and mental well-being, helping us to feel our best.

Work out the amount of physical activity we need to do to stay healthy, depending on your age group.

Find local sport and physical activity sessions as well as exercise on referral.

Free apps to download via NHS Better Health:

Top tips to help you stay active

  1. Buddy up - if you can buddy up with someone in your household or virtually it can make home workouts more fun and keep each other motivated.
  2. Build activity into your daily routine.
  3. Get active your way - we’re all different, find the activity that works for you.

Staying active at home

There are lots of ways we can keep moving whatever our age and whatever space available.

We can build activity into our day; gardening, chores like vacuuming, and climbing the stairs are all great ways to keep moving. There are lots of free resources available for support and inspiration. See what our our sports and physical activity team offer to residents of Bedford Borough.

Online exercise classes

Our weekly programme offers a wide range of different physical activity sessions which can be accessed via any laptop, smartphone or suitable connected device. We hope that the programme can support people to take part in physical activity on a regular basis with our friendly tutors. Check out all the sessions at the Bedford Sport Live website.

  • Bedford Sport Live - programme offering a wide range of activities which are streamed live at set times. Add structure and routine to your day by joining the class and progressing your health and wellbeing.
  • Keyboard Warriors - it's important to take short breaks whilst working from home and to stretch your body. 15 mins will help to refresh your thoughts and energise you for the rest of the day.
  • engAGE together - specialist chair-based programme is designed to be very gentle and interactive. All sessions are delivered seated and have a focus on social interaction and mental wellbeing.

Healthy lifestyle online resources

  • NHS Healthier Families is designed for families with young children in mind. It features healthy eating tips, quick and easy family recipes, fun activities for kids and lots more!
  • One You provides tips on how you can eat better, loose weight and keep active. There are a downloadable apps such as the ‘easy meals’ and the ‘couch to 5k’ to name but a few!
  • NHS Eat Well provides information on how to eat healthily, exercise and understand what your weight means.
  • Start4life for pregnant women, dads-to-be and new parents and their babies
  • Healthy Start for those on benefits who are pregnant or have children under the age of four.

Home from school

If kids are home from school, being active as a family is a great way to create routine, burn off some energy, and help children focus.  

Check out:

  • NHS Healthier Families – indoor games and a range of 10 minute shake-ups. There are also resources on this page for disabled children.
  • Disney Dance-Along – This Girl Can and Disney partnered up to make these Disney-themed fun workouts.
  • Move to Improve has lots of ideas for indoor and outdoor activities for kids.

National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP)

National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) monitors weight and obesity levels in children within primary schools.

Children have their height and weight measured in Reception and Year 6 as part of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP).

This information is used to plan and provide better services for children and families.

If your child's NCMP letter surprised or worried you, you can call the number on your results letter for advice and support or speak to your school nurse or GP.

Got to the Children's Weight pages on NHS Better Health to find out more.