Information Point SmallSteps4Life & the Olympics Olympic Value Eat Well Get Active Feel Good

SmallSteps4Life and the Olympics * SmallSteps4Life is a fun programme with a serious aim - to help initiate and support long- term behaviour and attitude change among young people across the UK. SmallSteps4Life will help motivate and support young people to take small, manageable steps to improve their health and well-being through challenges across themes of eating well, getting active and feeling good. The Olympic movements extend beyond the games themselves because its not only about the sport, its also about the people who overcome those challenges. Athletes performing at the highest level- or in training to get there- are encouraged to live by a set of shared principles, or ways of living. These are called the Olympics Values which are what helps them do what they do and aim and achieve high. They are… But, friendship, excellence and respect are the main Olympic values.

SmallSteps4Life promotes Friendship and Determination (two of the Olympic values) Friendship- the children get to make friends at things like clubs inside or outside of school in order to stay fit and healthy. Also, in school, things such as healthy cookery classes bring the kids together as they participate in the challenge together and learn a lot about eating healthy and being able to cook healthy food for yourself in the future to prevent things like heart disease. Determination: the young people taking part are determined to do well in the challenges and want to stay healthy because they’re doing it in a fun way. They are also competing with each other to see who can be healthier which keeps them motivated and determined to succeed. Olympic Value

Eat Well ! Eating well is vitally important in order to stay healthy. The food we eat shows how healthy we are so being healthy now, saves time and effort later in life. Small things, like eating cereal in the morning instead of Nutella makes a big difference. There is a variety of things you can do in order to make sure you eat well, here’s a few... --Why don’t you try drinking more water and instead of snacking on chocolate, snack on fruit! This maintains a healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet. Also, don’t forget to always eat three meals a day, especially breakfast! -Join cookery classes that teach you about eating healthy so you can cook healthy food when you’re older and learn that eating healthy prevents things like Heart Disease. -Make sure you are enjoying the food together with friends and family because it gives you a chance to talk to each other about what’s going on in your lives. -Try having a competition with your friends or family on who can eat the healthiest for the longest amount of time! From a recently taken survey, most people eat their 5 a day three times a week. A challenge for you is to eat your 5 a day maybe four or five times a week because it will means a healthier lifestyle. Eat Healthy, Think Olympics.

Get Active ! This graph shows that most people that took the questionnaire participated in clubs/activities either inside or outside of school. Why don’t you join a club because its a great way to make friends and have loads of fun! Getting active and exercise is very important for improving your health. You can participate in easy and fun challenges to get active like these... -Get a group of friends together and make up a dance routine to a song you all like. -Join clubs, either inside or outside of school! Not only will it keep you fit and healthy, it also will allow you to make new friends. -Walk to places that you can get a bus to, get some fresh air and even change who you walk with and get to know others in your class or school who you don't already know very well. -Jump, skip and run for about 20 minutes each day for one week. Make it fun by getting friends to join in as well. This is a great way to keep active and stay healthy! You can even challenge yourself by seeing if you improve on the amount of jumps or skips you can do until you get really tired or how long you can run for until you get out of breath.

Feel Good ! Feeling good is about feeling fit and healthy, feeling good makes you more confident in yourself so try some small challenged to get you feeling good everyday. Most people that took the survey said they did sport like ball games and dance to keep fit and healthy, when your stressed or feeling down why don’t you try one of these to make you feel better! -Don’t stress too much, stay calm and focus on happy things. Go out with friends and have fun, do something that can unwind your worries. -Make sure you have some ‘me time’. Give yourself time every day to be on your own, think and relax and not be stressed. -Try and help someone, it doesn’t matter how but helping someone else can be a really good way of feeling better about yourself. -Take some time each day to yourself to think things through and doodle as you go. You'll be surprised how much more chilled you feel afterwards! -Keep positive and be happy- don’t let anything bring you down. Find something that can cheer you up when you’re not in a good mood, whether it is music, playing with friends, watching a movie etc.