August
Au
gust 20
2011
newsletter from
Change4Life
Dear Change4Life Local Supporter,
We hope all the children and families you
work with are enjoying their really big
summer adventure and filling their holidays
with plenty of exercise and healthy eating.
We’re sure you’ll agree that for children to get the most out of the really big summer adventure and
build 60 active minutes into their daily lives, it really helps when parents get in on the action too.
That’s why we’re delighted to announce that in September Change4Life will be back on screen with a
campaign focussed on diet, alcohol and physical activity – including the new guideline that adults try
to do 150 active minutes every week.
Contents
Read on to find out more, plus news on
Walk4Life and our supporter of the month.
The really big summer
adventure is up and running!
Let’s get flexible with
physical activity for adults
Supporter of the month
Get active – Walk4Life
Healthy bites
Let’s get flexible with
physical activity for adults
Although we’ve been focusing on encouraging children to get their daily 60 active minutes
for the really big summer adventure – adult health and well-being is just as important.
In July, the four Chief Medical Officers announced new physical activity guidelines for
the UK, recommending that adults need to do 150 minutes of activity per week and, in
September, we’ll be launching an adult campaign that includes this important message.
Like children, adults should aim to be active every day and can work towards their 150
active minutes in bursts of ten minutes or in more structured 30 minute sessions five times
a week. Many of us will find these flexible, bite-size bouts easier to manage than previous
targets of 30 minutes five times a week.
There are lots of easy ways for the adults you work with to
get active and build towards their 150 minutes, such as:
pushing a pu
along the stshchair
reet
cycling to w
ork
e lawn
raking thing the
or weedr beds
flowe
scrubbing the bath
disco dancing
playing frisbee
with the kids
hanging out the
washing
If they’re breathing faster,
their heart rate speeds
up and they feel warmer
- it counts towards their
weekly 150 active minutes.
If you work with people who are
naturally more energetic, then 75
minutes of vigorous activity, or
combinations of moderate and
vigorous activity spread across
the week will keep them on
track. Washing the car, a game
of football and lane swimming
all count so it’s possible to
combine work and play.
Get active
Walk4Life
One quick, easy and affordable way for adults to work towards their 150 active
minutes is walking. It needs no special equipment, can be sociable and built into
even the busiest person’s day. To celebrate this most accessible of activities, we are
thrilled to announce the return of Walk4Life Day on Sunday 25th September.
We’ll have more details about the walking events taking place around the country
in next month’s newsletter but why not start thinking about how you can encourage
the adults you work with to take a step in the right direction and walk towards
better health.
If you need hints
and tips for
organising your own
walking event our
Walk4Life toolkit is
full of fun ideas to
get people walking
Check out our 1,300 Walk4Life Miles - 1
mile walking routes across the UK
which can be undertaken at any
time of year. From gentle walks
across flat and even routes to
more challenging, fitness-testing
walks - there’s a Walk4Life
mile for everyone. Each walk
provides 20-25 minutes of an
adult’s weekly 150 minutes and
most Walk4Life Miles will be
marked with distinctive yellow
waymarkers to show where they start
and end.
September
25
st1 amilret
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w.w a
.u k
l k 4 l i f e .co
If you work in the NHS why not take part in Walk4Life’s
NHS Sport and Physical Activity Challenge to walk a
collective 305,824 miles by the opening of the Olympics
in 2012. Can it be done? According to Walk4Life, if
approximately a third of NHS staff record their miles on
the site they should easily meet the challenge. You can
either sign up as an individual and join the NHS group, or
why not create your own group and see if you can reach
the top of the leader board? To register, visit Walk4Life
The really big
summer adventure
is up and running!
We hope the children you work with are enjoying their summer holiday and
getting stuck in to the really big summer adventure. Unfortunately, the summer
won’t last forever, but it’s still important for you to encourage children to keep
up their 60 active minutes in the autumn when they’re back at school - the
teacher resource booklet has lots of ideas for September.
If you work in schools don’t forget to enter the competition to win sports equipment.
To take part, all you need to do is fill in the class’s preferred activity from the really
big summer adventure on the competition form and explain in six words why it
was the overall favourite. Then send your form back to us in the freepost envelope
provided by 30th September.
The most imaginative story in each region
will be selected to win the top prize of
£1,000-worth of sports equipment. There
are also two prizes of £500-worth of sports
equipment for runners-up.
The winners will be announced on
the 7th November. It’s also worth
knowing that although multiple
entries per school are accepted,
schools can only win one prize.
Supporter of the month
Lincolnshire Sports’
Lincolnshire Sports’ Play4Life programme ran for
8 weeks and was aimed at adults working with,
or parenting children, under the age of five. The
programme got adults to focus on the importance of
physical activity for babies and toddlers – specifically
the importance of movement for babies and for
toddlers to be active for at least 180 minutes every day.
The adults in the group
learned how to encourage and
lead outdoor, adventurous play
in all weathers – by visiting green
spaces and making obstacle courses
using the natural environment. Their
homework was to make games and
play with the children, and share their
knowledge with other parents and
childcare workers.
The Play4Life programme started in 2010 and the demand for the course is high.
Feedback from people who took part shows just how important Play4Life is to
the county of Lincolnshire:
“The course has been fun and
informative. It has brought back
childhood memories of games we used
to play and encouraged me to share
these with families and the children I
work with.”
“I have noticed a difference in the behaviour of my
3 year old son in particular. This is a result of the
extra outdoor physical activity that the course has
encouraged us to take. Some of the more challenging
behaviour has diminished and he seems happier and
more co-operative.”
From everyone at Change4Life – our congratulations
go to everyone involved in the Play4Life programme
at Lincolnshire Sports.
Share your stories!
Healthy Bit
Bites
es
Here’s a round up of other useful info, in bite-size chunks:
Change4Life and the Olympic spirit
There’s less than one year to go until the Olympic and Paralympic
Games hit the UK and the excitement is already building. London
2012 is a once in a lifetime event and Gold Challenge allows everyone
the opportunity to be part of the excitement.
Create your own sporting challenge by taking on anything up to 30
Olympic & Paralympic Sports and raise money for charity at the same
time. The challenge is a fantastic way to get active and outdoors, with
Olympic sports like cycling, archery and badminton easily accessible,
the whole family can enjoy the Olympics in an active, healthy way.
So take the Gold Challenge, begin to change your life for good and
feel the Olympic spirit.
Visit www.goldchallenge.org for more information, and to sign up!
Find out more
Please keep signing up!
Share your stories
If you’ve been forwarded this email or
think any of your colleagues might want
to receive it, you can register on the
Change4Life website and it will be sent
straight to your inbox. As a registered
local supporter you can use all of our
resources free of charge and create your
own materials using the brand assets.
Sharing your stories with Change4Life is really easy!
Our new online survey aims to give you the opportunity
to share information and photos of Change4Life events
or activities you’ve run – and help us to recruit and
inspire more campaign supporters in the process. Why
not take a few minutes to tell us what you’ve been up
to and complete the survey here and who knows, you
could feature in this newsletter next month!
Register now
Follow Change4Life on
Facebook and Twitter
Start sharing!
You can keep up-to-date and find out about
activities taking place around England by joining
our 50,000 Change4Life Facebook fans (by clicking
‘like’) or following Change4Life on Twitter.
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Are your details up-to-date? Please don’t forget to let us know if your contact details have changed, or are about to
change. We’d love to be able to keep you in the loop on everything we’ve planned in 2011. Send your new details to
c4lpartnerships@dh.gsi.gov.uk and put ‘Details change’ in the subject heading.