Sowing the seeds

Healthy Lifestyles for Lanarkshire leisure centre

Claire Andrew (centre) and staff
at Lanark Lifestyles

A healthy lifestyle is not just about healthy eating – keeping active is also vital. For the people of Lanark it’s easy for the two to go hand in hand, as the town’s Lifestyles leisure centre café has recently been awarded the healthyliving award.

The centre is run by South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture Ltd, which operates a wide range of facilities on behalf of South Lanarkshire Council. It boasts a swimming pool, gym and health suite as well as a huge range of fitness classes and activities for all ages.

Duty Officer Claire Andrew explained how they found the process of going for the healthyliving award: “It was interesting, as it made us look at everything we had on the menu, what we did already and what we didn’t do. We were surprised to find that we were doing quite a lot of the right things already, without realising it.

“The support we received from the healthyliving award team whilst working towards the award was second to none. Any queries we had were answered promptly – no question was too big or too small.

 “As we don’t do a lot of actual cooking, most of the work was in changing to healthier products. It gave us scope to plan our menu and introduce a better variety.

“We have never served chips as there are so many different options that are healthier, such as baked potatoes. There are several chip shops in the local area but customers still choose to come to our café instead, so they obviously prefer what we are offering.”

Claire told us about some of the ways they get the healthy eating message across to customers: “Last summer we held an Olympic raffle – for every piece of fruit purchased, customers were entered into a raffle to win Olympic mascots. We increased our fruit sales by at least fifty per cent, and this has had a lasting effect on our sales of fruit.

And what does the award mean to Claire and her staff? “Gaining the healthyliving award has been a big achievement and we are all very proud of ourselves. It has motivated the staff and encouraged creative thinking, and we see this as just the start – we are keen to work towards doing even more to help our customers to live healthier lifestyles.”

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issue twenty-five:
Spring 2013
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The healthyliving awardNHS Health Scotland - Scotland's health improvement agencyHealthier Scotland - Scottish GovernmentHealthier Scotland - Scottish Government