Ideas and innovations for health        The author        Contact         Time planner                Find your nearest retailer         Quotations   

● Ideas and innovations in healthy eating and weight loss

● Ideas and innovations in exercise

● Ideas and innovations in cutting down on alcohol  consumption

● Ideas and innovations in positive thinking

If you have any ideas about getting healthy that you would like to share, please contact me via my contact page and I will put any good ones on this page

Shop locally

Food bought locally can have many advantages over shopping through your supermarket. It supports your local economy, the food tastes better as it hasn't been stored for long periods and hasn't travelled long distances as it often has when shopping from super-markets. In terms of the carbon footprint created for travel, food bought locally is far better for the environment. Walking to your local shop, rather than driving to your nearest supermarket is also a great way to get a bit of exercise.

Look in your nearest tourist information for a list of farm shops or farmers markets. Your local community register should provide information for the local farm shops, organic vegetable boxes and farmers markets. The local link for the Exeter area is www.devonline.gov.uk/community . If you live in the West of the Country a company called "Taste of the West" have set up in order to "connect the regions superb farmers and producers, chefs and caterers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers with the market". They run a members directory which lists farm shops. Have a look at www.tasteofthewest.co.uk and click on "search our members."

Work an allotment

This is a great way to stay fit, whilst creating your own healthy produce on a small budget. For information regarding allotments available for use, go to your local council community register. The link for my local register in Devon is www.devonline.gov.uk/community . You could also try the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners web site for advice on running your own allotment. This group also produce their own magazine, "Allotment." Have a look at their web site on www.nsalg.org.uk

Have you seen the River Cottage programme recently? Hugh Fernley Whittingstall has helped a group of locals set up their own allotment. Hugh uncovered a little known law made in 1908, which states that if a group of 6 or more people, over the age of 18 and registered on the electoral roll, approach their local council, with a request for land for an allotment, then the council is obliged to provide the land. The limiting factor to this appears to be that there is no time scale put on when the council should come up with the land.

If you have a group of people wanting to set up but your council has sticky feet, it would be worth speaking to your local MP to request help. The Single Regeneration Budget, which provides many grants across England for community regeneration/improvement projects was put into place because of people asking their local council for better parks, allotments and community facilities. You could enquire if your local councillor is able to put in a grant for SRB funding to pay for the allotment.

Pick your own

Pick your own fruit farms are a great way to get kids eating a variety of seasonal fruits if you are on a low budget. An afternoon out at a fruit farm can be great fun, gets the kids active, whilst avoiding the middleman supermarket costs. To find your nearest pick your own, simply google "pick your own, fruit farm" and the area.

Ottery Healthy Living

Ottery Healthy Living is a recently formed healthy living group in the East Devon town of Ottery St Mary. It is run by Michele Heywood, a mum who lives locally who is passionate about healthy eating and exercise. Her motto is "get the balance right"  and she aims to teach local people how to eat in a healthy balanced fashion, whilst enjoying exercise and bringing the family together.

They run a weekly 90 minute session which consists of an hour of salsasize taught by a professional dance teacher, followed by a discussion group to learn more about food facts, provide a chance to meet and exchange ideas and views on healthy living with the group and to share a new healthy recipe each week to help introduce new foods and cooking ideas to individuals and families.

Once a month the recipe ideas will be aimed at teaching a recipe for the household cook to give to their partner and /or children to use. The aim is not only to give partners and youngsters essential cooking skills, but to involve them in the shopping and food preparation in order to help move towards making meal times a family time again. Michele and Sandra are keen on encouraging people to shop locally.

Meetings are held on a Wednesday evening, 8-9.30pm, in the function room upstairs in the London Inn,  Ottery St Mary. Both men and women are welcome. For more details contact : Michele Heywood on 07984 869 498.

Deciphering food labelling

Having trouble working out what's on the label? Take a look at www.whatsinsideguide.com for help in understanding food labelling. They also do a good interactive page on balancing your meals. If you click on a certain food, it tells you what it's high and low in in terms of fats/saturated fat/sugar/salt, to enable you to plan a better balanced diet. There are some good ideas for kids lunch boxes here too.

The Food Standards Agency have a good site:  www.eatwell.gov.uk/foodlabels/trafficlights/ This explains the traffic light system of food labelling really well. I find the simplicity of this method so much easier to interpret than anything else. There is also a helpful section on E numbers additives and colourings.

Healthy Start Vouchers

This is a government led initiative which replaces the Welfare Food Scheme. It allows pregnant women and women with children under the age of 4 to be given vouchers which they can exchange for fruit and vegetables, milk, infant formula and vitamin supplements. You qualify if you are on benefits or are pregnant and under the age of 18. To check for eligibility, and to find out more about the scheme, go to www.healthystart.nhs.uk or to send off for an application form, write to Healthy Start Issuing Unit, Free post RRTR-SYAE-JKCR, PO box 1067, Warrington, WA55 1EG

Get cooking through your school with the "Lets Get Cooking " scheme

This is a scheme funded through the National Lottery that aims to get children and parents cooking a healthy range of foods. It is set up through the School Food Trust. At present there are 2000 clubs but the aim is to have 5,000 clubs up and running before the end of 2008. The clubs are run through local schools either as part of the curriculum, as part of after school club or breakfast club activity or through school holiday clubs. For more information as to how to apply for your school, go to www.letsgetcooking.org.uk

Eat healthy snacks and a healthy breakfast

Those who know me well know that breakfast is a really important part of my routine and I feel really passionately that eating a healthy breakfast is an essential part of living and eating healthily.  Research has shown that those who skimp on or skip breakfast tend to weigh more than those who don't. Eating slow release carbohydrates are a good way of filling yourself up and sustaining you without the need to snack. Visit www.mightymuesli.com for some fantastic, nutritious, organic and gluten free options for breakfast cereals and snacks. Juliette Cattell's company supply the British Olympic Rowing team and Chelsea Football Club.

Groups which allow you to exercise with your children

Sidmouth Running Club

Sidmouth running club offers twice weekly junior sessions on a Saturday morning and a Wednesday evening. The club is a relaxed friendly group and parents often run as part of the group in order to exercise with their children. The group runs all year, rain or shine. The Saturday group runs off road usually through the woods at Core Copse, East Hill, but the location varies and cliff path and moor runs are also done. The soft ground of the off road running is ideal for protecting the children's growing joints and the adults knees. For  more information, go to www.sidmouthrunningclub.org.uk

Tae Kwon do

The family friendly Martial Art. Tae Kwondo teaches not only the invaluable skill of self defence, but also strength, stamina, co-ordination, balance and flexibility. Children can start from the age of 4. From 8 years and up many clubs run family classes, which allow families to train together.

Most clubs have training on two nights of the week, however, clubs in the West of England also have an agreement that members of other clubs in that area can train in affiliated clubs free of charge. This means that if you miss training on a given night, you can catch up in other classes. Or if you are really keen, you can train every day, for no extra charge. This arrangement is ideal for those with busy work schedules or on a low budget.

Ask at your local sports centre for details of the nearest club.

It can be really hard if you are a young person wanting to cut down on your drinking when you are part of a group that is into heavy alcohol consumption. There are two new government web sites that I have found really useful. The first www.truthaboutbooze.com because it was designed by young people for young people and so appeals directly to them and the second www.talktofrank.com because it covers both drugs and alcohol, which are often both part of young people's lives and as a result they need advice about both. This site has a feature which I really like which is called "your excuses" which gives young people ideas for humorous responses that they can use when offered unwelcome drink or drugs. To find the page click on "join in" on the home page and look for "your excuses"

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)

"The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards are part of the Rotary International Education programmes and are aimed at young adults who have demonstrated leadership potential at their school, youth organisation or place of employment. The course is designed to give participants the opportunity of experiencing the challenge of leadership at first hand using a series of exercises, formal debrief sessions, discussion groups and one to one mentoring."

Courses are free of charge to successful applicants via sponsorship through the Rotary Club. Applicants must be between the age of 16-18 at the start of the course.

The courses are very much based in the outdoors and due to the physical nature of the course, applicants need to be at a reasonable level of physical fitness.

For more information, go to www.ryla.org

Bee Positive

Recognising the importance of the fact that health of mind is equally important as the health of the body, Personal Development Coach, Jack Russell together with Anna Thompson, has developed a  manual and toolbox that can be used by teachers in schools for children aged 11-16 to encourage positive attitudes and young enterprise among their pupils.

Bee Positive includes a "flexible and interactive lesson guide, presentation slides, worksheets and props. It focuses on developing foundational life skills in seven key areas: comfort zones, positive focus, communication, personal leadership, relationships and teams, goals and motivation."

To find out more about the Bee Positive project for schools, visit: www.beepositive.co.uk or phone Jack, Liz or Anna on 0845 065 2345