Eat healthier

Eat Healthier 

Our weight management programme are taking place online now and you can get involved.

Our online healthy lifestyles programme you can take part in:

Online events

A poor diet can lead to several negative side effects including cancer, diabetes, heart attack, low confidence, stroke, infertility, and high cholesterol. 

The NHS BMI (body mass index) calculator can help you find out if you're a healthy weight.  You can also use it to check your child's BMI.

If you think you may be suffering from any of the above conditions, you should speak to your GP or healthcare professional. You should also consult your GP or healthcare professional before beginning any exercise or diet programme.

Also, don't forget that if you're under 18 and pregnant or if you're pregnant or have a child under four years old and are on benefits, you could get Healthy Start vouchers to help you buy some basic foods and milk.

To sign up to any of our other programmes, please fill out our form below and a member of our team will aim to be in touch with you within five working days.

Sign up to our free programmes

HENRY 0-5 Years

HENRY is 9 week programme designed for parent of children age 0-5 and pregnant women who are passionate about giving their babies and young children the best possible start in life. Which we do by supporting the whole family to make positive lifestyle changes, creating healthier and happier home environments.

We cover a range of topics including nutrition, physical activity, emotional wellbeing and parenting skills and it is facilitated by our trained, friendly, and supportive practitioners.

In the last 1 year, we have supported over 50 families with the HENRY and currently we have ongoing virtual session.

Testimonial for our HENRY programme

“I loved the supportive atmosphere. Sharing knowledge that is essential for parenting well. The resources provided (video, books, posters) were great, and the praise and encouragement from facilitators. At home, feeding time is more relaxed now. I’m more aware of boundaries and being responsive to baby's needs. I check labels when buying food. I’m sharing HENRY’s teachings with the rest of my family.”     

Sign up to our free programmes

LEAN Beans - Families 

For children living in Barking and Dagenham, we have LEAN Beans, a club where all the family can join to learn, share, and play at the same time and also learn how to incorporate healthy eating into their daily lives.

The 6 week programme consists of families sharing their experiences and knowledge with others in the group, learning about nutrition in a fun, interactive and engaging way and lots of physical activity (suitable for all abilities) and games for the children. 

There are also fun and informative online worksheets available for at home activities such as:

Food is Fuel (PDF, 117KB)
Food & Activity Diary (PDF, 153KB)

The 6 weeks programme also include free family leisure centre membership and a £20 supermarket voucher to spend on healthy shopping.

The Lean Bean programme have been well received by more than 35 primary schools in the borough, and through it we have been able to engage more than 400 families in the borough, who are using the information in the programme to live a more healthy and active lifestyle.

Testimonials about the Lean Bean

Adams Family:
We are so glad and happy to be part of the 6 weeks programme, we really enjoyed it, learning about nutrition as family in a fun and interactive way. At the end of the programme the way we ate as a family has improved, we are eating more fruits and veg, drinking more water, cutting down on processed sugar, reading labels etc.

Sign up to our free programmes

LEAN Living - Adults 

LEAN (Learning, Exercise and Nutrition) Living is our free programme is for people aged 18 and over, living in Barking and Dagenham and with a BMI of 25 or more. This programme has been designed by a group highly experienced nutrition, psychology, physiology and health and fitness experts. It has shown to be effective in helping people lose weight and keep it off.

Whatever the reasons you might have to lose weight, improve your health or reduce your risk of obesity related conditions like Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and some cancers, our free course Lean Living programme will help you to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

There are 12-week programmes, 6 week programmes and a rolling programme where our expert healthy lifestyle coaches will welcome and guide you through five key area of the weight loss programme(Getting the balance right, The fullness factor, Retraining your appetite, Getting Active, Skills for weight management),and also you will meet people of the same like minds. These programmes are also currently delivered online and over the phone at different times during the week.

We will help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight by providing you with free access to exercise classes, nutrition information, gyms, health walks and provide you a discount to the borough's leisure centres.

LEAN Living programme sessions (PDF, 183KB)

You can also view the 8 week and 12 week programme details below.

Testimonials about the Lean Living Programme

Brian:
The programme as been such an eye opener when it comes to me losing weight. With the information given each week and applied, I now know what food groups should be on my plate, I have learnt how to apply portion control and I also incorporated exercising into my daily life and just by doing this simple things, the weight is coming off and also have made new friends during the session.

You could also download and follow the NHS Better Health plan. This is a free 12-week weight loss plan.

Sign up to our free programmes

Eat Well, Live Well and Feel Great (ELF)

For adults living in Barking and Dagenham with a learning disability, we have Eat Well, Live Well and Feel Great (ELF), which aims to increase physical health and wellbeing through physical activity and healthy eating sessions.

This service aims to help people with learning disability to:

• achieve a sustainable weight loss
• reduce further weight gain
• get into a regular healthy eating pattern
• learn Portion Control and reduce overeating
• become more physically active
• learn new long-term healthy lifestyle skills

Sign up to our free programmes

Useful healthy eating links

The British Heart Foundation has a recipe finder that contains hundreds of heart healthy recipes with full nutritional analysis. You can filter your search by cuisine, dietary requirements, and condition so there is something to suit all tastes and diets.
They also have lots of recipes on eating healthy on a budget.

Looking for a healthy and easy meal? You can download the NHS Easy Meal App for free.

The BBC have lots of great freezable recipes.

NHS choices has pulled together 10 surprising 100 calorie snacks - most of which only use three ingredients and take less than 5 minutes to prepare!

Change4Life has some great tips and advice for healthier lunchboxes. 

Cooking Sessions Online: 

• Schools Out Get Active Cooking Week 1
• Schools Out Get Active Cooking Week 2
• Schools Out Get Active Cooking Week 3
• Schools Out Get Active Cooking Week 5

It’s important for children to eat a delicious healthy meal at school. Find out more information about school meals and if your child qualified for a free school meal.

Sign up to our free programmes