How to find your get up and go…

By Melanie Leyshon

Confession: I’ve become desk-bound. It's no fault but my own, but I've turned into a right desk potato. Lately, I’ve even started lunching al desko. And I’m not alone, as eight out of 10 office workers admit they barely leave their desks during the working day. The only time we stretch out our legs is when we take the few steps to and from the loo, or the kitchen when it’s our turn to make the tea round. But health experts agree that endless hours of sitting are playing havoc with our health, weight and state of mind, putting us at greater risk of lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes.

So when a swanky fitness wristband that counts the steps you take arrived in the office, I jumped out of my chair, eager to give it a road test. The government recommends we take 10,000 steps a day for good health – a challenge I was ready to take on.

Unlike many gadgets, the Garmin Vivofit Fitness Band and I hit it off straight away – it’s that easy to set up. Wear it throughout the day like a watch, see your steps tot up on the screen, then press the button and it will sync your stats to your computer or smartphone.

That’s not to say there weren't any bumps in the road. The first time I wore the band it clocked 25 steps without me even standing up! But then I re-read the instructions and learned that Vivofit works by measuring arm movements, so I stopped waving my arms around at my desk and found my true stride.

How did I measure up? My walk to and from the train station clocked up 3,000 steps. Not enough. So I introduced a long walk at lunchtime, making up an extra 4,000 steps. Still not enough. Then I started walking instead of getting the tube to meet friends after work, and put in more and more effort to meet the 10,000 step target. It worked – by the second week I was topping 12,000 steps or more each day.

The band can track your sleep pattern, too, based on your movement. I found the more food and wine I had late in the evening, the more restless I was in the night. No surprises there.

Now for the big question: would I buy a Garmin Vivofit Fitness Band? Absolutely. It’s easy to manage and acts as a constant reminder to get up and move. After all, it’s all too easy to just sit here, typing…

Garmin Vivofit comes in six colours and costs £99.99 from buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/watches-wearable-technology/wearables/vivofit-/prod143405.html 

  

Why free school meals are a good thing

By nutritionist Amanda Ursell

Pupils at Walnut Tree Walk Primary School in London sat down to lunch with Nick Clegg last December. But not everyone's so impressed with the School Food Plan…  

Free school meals for all infant school children in English primary schools became a reality with the start of the autumn term. So how come some people are against them?

The provision of free school meals for all children in reception classes and years one and two was a key recommendation of the independently produced School Food Plan, published by Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent in July last year.

You don’t have to look far for vocal dissenters of the scheme – complaints include kitchens not being ready, meals not being balanced and the bad economics of offering free meals for children of parents who could afford to pay.

As a nutritionist, I find it hard to see that a programme that sets out to provide every small child aged five to seven with a balanced meal at lunchtime can be a bad thing.

Pilot studies in Durham and Newham in London, carried out between 2009 and 2011, have shown that the children who were given healthy, free school lunches were two months ahead academically, compared with their non-free school meal contemporaries. They revealed an increase of almost 25% in the consumption of vegetables, an 18% reduction in the consumption of crisps, a reduction in sugary drinks and an increase in water as the drink of choice.  

I’ve also heard fantastically positive success stories from head teachers and school cooks who believe that classes of children who eat together and learn together, whatever their backgrounds, is a good thing.  

The bottom line is that children concentrate better, feel better and probably, as a result, behave better (allowing a teacher to do their job with fewer interruptions), when they’ve eaten good food.

Some lunches may not yet be nutritionally ideal, some school head teachers not fully engaged, some school kitchens and cooks not fully ready and up to speed, but it’s a work in progress and we need to look at the longer term.

The school lunch system needs ‘customers’ to survive: the more children eating at school, the better the meals and service can be. So, once they’re in the system, it’s hoped that those entitled to continue to have funding for their lunches will do just this, while those who can afford to pay also continue.

Whichever way you cut it, I’m a supporter. I hope we see the scheme succeed and, crucially, that the children for whom it's intended benefit nutritionally, academically and socially through the simple pleasure of being able to sit round a table and enjoy lunch with their friends.   

How to tackle childhood obesity

By Amanda Ursell

On holiday in Italy this summer what struck me the most wasn’t the over-sized handbags and under-sized bikinis on the beach, but the size of the children.

While piccola toned mammas promenaded along the sand it was striking just how many weighty children, both young and older, were struggling along behind.

In just one generation traditionally ‘slimmer’ nations such as Italy appear to be catching up with our statistics (one in three children under 15 in the UK is now overweight or obese). Excess snacks and sugar-loaded drinks between albeit homemade (and delicious) meals are some of the main culprits.

These unnecessary calories play a major role in our childhood weight issues in the UK, but we can also factor in over-sized portions at mealtimes, a reliance on takeaways and ready meals and a tendency for parents to reward, cajole, bribe and comfort offspring with treats.

So what can we do, when the food environment and social climate of child-led parenting is everywhere we look?

We can encourage the food industry to maintain its current push to reduce sugar, shrink serving sizes and market healthy choices more positively.

But the bottom line is that as parents and carers we have to take control of the what, when, where and how much we feed our children. We need to set examples of good eating habits ourselves, we need to learn to say ‘no’ and face the tantrums that come with initial refusal to further fuel the over-indulgence line.

This isn’t easy, but then breaking any entrenched behaviour isn’t easy, whether it’s giving up smoking, giving up a friendship that has turned bad or giving up an inactive lifestyle.

As a life coach friend of mine once told me: ‘People can either change their lives and feed their kids better, Amanda… or not.’

Once you own up to and embrace the consequences of the ‘or not’ option, which include being complicit in setting your children up for furred arteries, early onset of type 2 diabetes, fallen foot arches, potentially poor self-esteem in teenage years and adulthood, raised blood pressure and increased risk of stroke, then the short-term aggro and hassle attached to taking action and being the ‘baddie’ for a few months pales into insignificance.

I’m strict with my children. I tried being reasonable, allowing dinner in front of the telly one day a week, having biscuits in the house believing they’d know when enough was enough, taking them shopping with me thinking they wouldn’t try to bludgeon me into falling for the special offer on family-size chocolate bars, but it didn’t work.

They’re kids and I’m the adult and now I behave like one. I plan meals, try to cook them myself (or when there isn’t much time ‘assemble’ them - hummus, pitta, chopped carrots and so on), and I insist on sitting at the table, regardless of what they are doing in the minutes before mealtimes.

They often kick off, they often say I’m mean, they often probably wish I wasn’t so flipping strict, but if I’m not in charge of what my children eat now and don’t try to introduce them to a variety of meals, give them vegetables, feed them fruit and insist on trying things quite a few times before declaring they don’t like them… then who will?

Combine this approach with being active whenever we can and, at the moment at least, I can say my kids are on the right side of the weight line.

Who knows how they’ll live their lives when they’re older? They may decide to feast on burgers and chips for ever, but that will be their decision and by that time hopefully memories of home will prevail and they’ll remember that I did at least try to do my bit and that sometimes mums do know best.