Keeping fit and healthy can be a challenge if you are living with a long-term condition, but it will make a big difference to your wellbeing. If you’ve been thinking about making changes to your lifestyle, such as stopping smoking, losing weight, eating healthily, drinking a little less alcohol or doing more exercise, there’s plenty of help and support available.
Talking to your GP and other healthcare workers, including pharmacists, is the first step. They’ll help you to look at your lifestyle and suggest changes that are suitable for your condition and any treatment you’re having. Your health or care worker can also let you know about local services that can help you.
For example, if you want to start exercising but you're unsure how to, your GP can put you on the Exercise on Referral scheme. These schemes are run with local gyms and fitness centres and can include swimming. Ask at your GP practice for more information.
Your GP can also help you if you want to stop smoking, for instance by enrolling you in a clinic where you’ll get support from other people who are also trying to stop. Nicotine replacement therapy and other stop smoking treatments provided by your GP can also help you resist cravings and boost your chances of quitting successfully.
Use our collection of interactive lifestyle tools to find out where and how you could make simple and easy healthy living improvements to your lifestyle.
Read more about how the NHS can help you to:
