Eight-year-old Nathan and his family had got into unhealthy snacking habits, and treats had become an everyday thing, when they heard about BeeZee Families through school.
Like many kids, Nathan enjoys playing computer games, making videos and playing with friends. He also loves going to karate class once a week.
His parents explained how signing up for BeeZee Families together had helped them all get into healthier habits.
Was there something that motivated you to make changes?
It was the beginning of the year and a great time to get into good healthy habits as we’d been thinking about that as a family.
What were Nathan’s feelings about signing up?
Nathan was fine but his sister Maya was apprehensive, as she’s generally shy and wasn’t sure of the structure of the programme.
Tell us about Nathan and the family’s eating and exercise habits before joining BeeZee Families
He was eating chocolate biscuits, sweets, quick convenient snacks.
We weren’t exercising together. It was simply lack of time and wasn’t a huge priority as kids do PE at school and also karate plus swimming weekly.
Tell us about the changes to your eating, exercise and lifestyle
We are healthier and happier as a family, feeling more positive about our eating habits.
A lot has changed, we are content with having treats on occasion and not regularly, like we did previously. It has now become a habit to have more vegetables with our meals daily.
We are mindful of portion sizes for Nathan. He has started skipping as a fun thing and is enjoying it.
We have a better understanding of what the various food groups do for our bodies and we are mindful of what we should be eating more of, or avoiding. This has been good for us, and helps us plan our meals.
What were the most valuable things you learned on the programme?
The realisation that we are not alone have support available whenever we need it. We don’t get to create healthy habits overnight, so we need to be kind to ourselves and keep going.
And nutritional awareness. This is for all members of our family and it’s interesting how our son is now very mindful of eating healthily and having treats on occasion.
As a family, our food shopping is now carefully planned and we are not buying unhealthy snacks anymore, this is a huge step for us.
What were the best things about the programme?
The learning, the interaction with the community and having the support from the wonderful staff.
And the fact that it was run in the evening during the week showed the level of commitment from the staff. The WhatsApp group was a great a source of encouragement and support, and still is.
How would you summarise the experience for someone else?
If you are busy household with children, this could be one of the best investments of time that you will make.
You’ll learn useful information about eating healthily and exercising regularly. This will create a culture of healthy living at home and help your children for life.
You will also get into better habits and learn practical things like what makes a good breakfast, healthy snacks, drinks, portion sizes — and you’ll be reminded of why it is important to live a healthy lifestyle.
It is also fun, enjoyable and you will have support from the BeeZee team through the programme and beyond.
*Not Nathan’s real photo! The family did not send us a photo so we have used a stock image.
