Our Occupational Health provider, Optima Health, is offering Council employees extra support to help lose weight.
Our Occupational Health provider, Optima Health, is offering Council employees extra support to help lose weight.
Note that this is not a diet or your usual weight loss programme. The programme is a series of group cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) sessions which aim to increase self-efficacy and self-esteem.
The group sessions will be held online, using Microsoft Teams, and will cover:
- Developing pre-diet behavioural skills such as coping with cravings and staying motivated
- Creating an eating schedule
- Choosing healthy options
- Planning for special occasions
- Maintaining motivation for life
See more about what the programme will cover in the leaflet (PDF, 192 Kb).
In order to be allocated a place on the programme, you must also meet the following criteria:
- Have a body mass index (BMI) of over 30
- Failed diets in the past
- Have one or more underlying health conditions affected by weight (e.g. diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis)
Places are very limited, so if you are interested contact the Learning & Organisational Development Team on hrlearninganddevelopment@north-ayrshire.gov.uk.
Interested?
There will be two groups – one starting in September and the other in November. There will be spaces for 6-8 people on each group.
Note that you must be able to attend all of the sessions in a group before you will be allocated a place.
Sessions will last 40-50 minutes each, but will be booked for one hour in your diary to allow for extra time, if required.
| Group 1 | Group 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Session 1 | Thursday 24 September, 2-3pm | Thursday 5 November, 3:30-4:30pm |
| Session 2 | Thursday 1 October, 2-3pm | Thursday 12 November, 3:30-4:30pm |
| Session 3 | Thursday 8 October, 2-3pm | Thursday 19 November, 3:30-4:30pm |
| Session 4 | Thursday 15 October, 2-3pm | Thursday 26 November, 3:30-4:30pm |
| Session 5 | Thursday 22 October, 2-3pm | Thursday 3 December, 3:30-4:30pm |
| Session 6 | Thursday 29 October, 2-3pm | Thursday 10 December, 3:30-4:30pm |
Contact the Learning & Organisational Development Team on hrlearninganddevelopment@north-ayrshire.gov.uk with your preference of which programme (Group 1 or Group 2, as detailed in the above chart) you’d like to join.
If allocated a place, you will be sent meeting invitations to book time out in your Office 365 diary. You can also join the meetings from a personal device or non-NAC email address.
If neither programme suit but you would like to participate, email to let the team know you’re interested and you will be held on a reserve list for any potential future events.
Further information
Further information on what the programme will cover is available in the leaflet (PDF, 192 Kb).
If you need any more details, please contact Fiona McMeechan, on fmcmeechan@north-ayrshire.gov.uk or Debbie McMurtrie on dmcmurtrie@north-ayrshire.gov.uk.