New year, new you? We can help you to shed the pounds

In January, we often take stock and look at ways to make life better and, when it comes to resolutions, one of the most common is to lose weight. Being a healthy weight can help us to be fitter, more active and get more out of life – and LloydsPharmacy is here to help you decide what to do and how to do it.

It’s that time of year when many people think about their health, and they can come to us to discuss how to achieve their optimum weight.

We offer advice, support and encouragement. You don’t even have to make an appointment.

We can guide and assist you every step of the way with our weight-loss and health-care services – they’re free and right on your doorstep!

All our colleagues are trained to give advice and heath-care assistance. And because what patients want to talk about may be sensitive, we take them into a consultation room to assure them of privacy. LloydsPharmacy can offer an NHS Health Check (subject to eligibility). We will take them through a full health check before helping them to decide what to do.

We will check a person’s height, weight and BMI before using NHS guidelines to find their ideal weight range. We can talk about eating habits and the portions people should be consuming, whether they are eating the wrong foods or whether there is a trigger to overeating. We will discuss exercise – our advice is that a person should do 20 minutes of activity that increases the heart rate five times a week – and we’ll even suggest activities which might interest people to help them get active. Crucially, colleagues can refer someone to a health-care practitioner or take additional action if they feel it necessary – if a person is underweight or has had sudden weight gain, suggesting other issues or illnesses, or is showing symptoms of conditions such as diabetes.

Being a healthy weight is really important because it can affect a person’s overall body systems and functions, enabling them to be active and have a good quality of life. We can help people to achieve just that.