‘Feel 10 Times Better’ offers participants 100 days of free, dedicated support from the University's experienced health and fitness team. The aim is to promote healthy living and to show how simple lifestyle changes can have hugely positive effects on everything from weight and fitness to quality of sleep, energy levels and general outlook on life.
The participants will be invited to attend an hour-long ‘Diet MOT’ workshop delivered by Sue Baic, a qualified dietitian and nutritionist based in the Department of Exercise and Health Sciences. They will also receive advice on exercise, including a Sports Pass entitling them to use the University’s ‘Pulse’ gym and swimming pool for 100 days, and lifestyle tips tailored to their individual needs and interests.
Healthy Lifestyles Manager, Karen Harvey, said: ‘The programme aims to make participants feel ten times better by helping them to make healthy choices about what they eat and drink, how much exercise they do, how they spend their lunch break and how they deal with stress.
‘Because a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work when it comes to changing behaviours, our plan is to work out what the participants want to achieve and how they can achieve it. We’ll take into consideration their work and family commitments, past and present experiences of sport and exercise, medical conditions and food knowledge and – most importantly – what makes them tick.
‘We have a wide range of people taking part – academics, research and support staff, postgraduates, undergraduates and international students – a real cross-section of people of different ages, backgrounds and lifestyles. But the one thing they have in common is the motivation to make the necessary changes to have a healthier lifestyle.’
Progress will be measured using questionnaires and the data will be analysed by colleagues in the Department of Exercise and Health Sciences.
Participants had the following to say about their reasons for taking part in the programme and what they hope to achieve:
‘I feel this programme will have a huge impact on my life. I’m trying to gain a better work-life balance, and being supported to achieve my health goals will be a great help. I won’t feel so overwhelmed and be tempted to give in at the first hurdle.’
‘I'm hoping to increase my fitness levels to the point where I feel more energised and able to tackle my working life in a more efficient and productive way.’
‘This is my first time in the UK and I’m having difficulty adapting to life here. I really want to live a healthy life, but the food here is totally different from what I’m used to and I can’t always recognise the nutritional value of different English foods.’
For more information, please contact Karen Harvey, karen.harvey@bristol.ac.uk, tel 0117 331 1166.