Shop to get fitter at Kirkgate Market...

As the weather starts to warm up and salad season approaches, eating more healthily seems like such a good idea but many of us just don't know where to start. Our 'shop to get fitter' tour is a free, one hour trip around Kirkgate Market led by Community Dietitian, Rachel Vine, who offers tips and advice on small changes to your shopping habits that could have a big impact on your waistline. The tour is open to anyone who has heart disease or diabetes, has had a stroke or anyone who has a family history of any of these conditions.

Not sure if the tour is for you? Read how our guest blogger, Sue Carter, got on when she joined us for the day...

I found out about the change for life scheme through my doctor as I've had a bad back with Sciatica and a slipped disc causing a trapped nerve. I've had a number of treatments including injections, a discectomy and had a spinal cord stimulator which is being removed as it's not working. To cut a long story short, I've not been able to exercise and, due to depression, I've eaten a lot of unhealthy foods like cakes, sweets and chocolate that give me a quick sugar fix - as a result I have piled the weight on.  Recently, I've come to realise the importance of losing weight to prevent health concerns like type 2 diabetes and strokes and realise that carrying more weight is not good for my back.

I heard about the 'Shop to get fitter' tour in Kirkgate Market from a dietitian from  Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust. She contacted me to say that she would be doing a tour around the market to help people become more familiar with the produce and make healthier choices when shopping. She explained that the tour would be with other people and would last an hour; half an hour looking at food in the market, and then the other looking at food packaging and labels. We visited all the different stalls and shops on the market to see what produce is available. In the butcher's we learned that when meat it is bought per 1 lb it should feed four people (my portions have been massive so I definitely have to cut down, lol) we also learned that instead of making a meat pie, it is healthier to do a pie with a potato instead of crust and that grilling is better than frying, but as I can't bend with my back cutting the fat of the meat and dry frying would be ok as well. I am also going to get a slow cooker as my daughters and husband have different working hours so I can just prepare the food in a morning and leave it to slow cook so it will be ready at any time of the day.

In the grocery section we learned that many of the stalls sold packs of vegetables which needed eating that week for a £1.00. We saw some really unusual things; different types of cauliflower like Romanesco , and were given advice and tips on how to cook vegetables so they still have a bit of a crunch. Next, we went to the fish section where we were shown many types of fish, and we're told to chat to the fishmongers and they would skin or fillet fish and tell you how long they should be cooked for and that oily fish is good for us.

When we went back to the Ministry of food, for a sit down and a cup of tea, we looked at package labels on the back of pre-packaged foods. We looked at the traffic light codes (green = low, amber = medium  and red = high) to see how to identify high fat meals - if anything is hi-lighted more red than green you know that is a high fat meal.  We were given some mock portions of butter that represented 10g of fat each. We had to look on the back of the packets of different ready meals, see how many grams of fat were in each food, and lay the butter portions on top of the packaging; if something had 35g of fat, like a meat pie, it was three and a half packs...  and the cake was even more! Looking at the traffic light system we were able to start identifying the lower fat, healthier options, like a tomato based curry instead of a creamy one, so even when we're eating in a hurry, we're able to make better choices.

I had a great time at the tour; we all got packs to take away with lots of information and labelling guides but even better, we got information about cooking lessons at the Ministry of food where you can find out how to prepare and cook the food we learned about on the tour - I definitely think I will go there as well.

I'm going to try my best to lose weight; I know it won't be easy especially when you have two teenagers at home sat eating cookies lol! but understanding more about healthier eating should help me on my way.  It was also lovely meeting all the other people who are trying to eat more healthy and if anyone gets the chance to go on the 'shop to get fitter' tour I would highly recommend it.

If you're interested in finding out more about the tour click here or contact Community Dietitian Rachel Vine on 0113 295 2858.