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Table 1 Observation proforma for p-FFIT week 2

From: Football Fans in Training: the development and optimization of an intervention delivered through professional sports clubs to help men lose weight, become more active and adopt healthier eating habits

SPL FFIT Session 2 what are we eating?

Field notes

Date, time and venue:

  

Coaches:

  

No. of men and layout of room:

  

Session delivery protocol/recommended timings

1. Welcome back/2 minutes

  

A warm welcome for making it to the second session can be a great boost to men’s confidence and feeling of self-worth. People feel valued if you acknowledge their presence. Important to start on time and encourage all men to interact from the outset.

  

2. Food diaries/5 minutes

  

Immediately raising the homework gives people a sense that the work starts now! Invite the men to say a bit about how the food diary homework went. Was it easy or difficult? Did they eat what they thought they ate or were there any surprises?

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3. Eating well/25 minutes

  

Preparation: The Eatwell plate mat with a display of foods representing each of the food groups should be prepared beforehand.

Use the Eatwell display to talk through the concept of the five food groups and the different proportions from each group that make up a healthy diet. Take time to illustrate both the proportions recommended for each food group and the portion sizes for the foods represented. Discuss how this compares to what they would normally eat. Now, ask each person to look at their own food diary and write down the number of portions they had from each food group. Then encourage the men to discuss the results as a group. Were there any surprises? Did they notice which foods they ate too much of, and which they ate too little of?

  

4. Setting goals/10 minutes

  

Ask the men, in pairs, to think about their food diaries and each write down two goals that would help them achieve a more balanced diet. Stress their goals should be SMART (specific, measurable and achievable, realistic and time limited), give examples of SMART goals, and warn against setting huge, unrealistic goals that will only set them up to fail.

  

Check that everyone has set two goals and convey your optimism to the group that they will succeed in meeting their goals.

  

5. Pedometer steps/20 minutes

  

Moving on from the food-based discussion to a review of the men’s physical activity helps to reinforce the link between the two major aspects of the programme – “eating a healthier, more balanced diet” and “being active”. Refer to the men’s “Baseline steps” homework and ask the men how they found recording their daily steps. Explain that while how much we walk is dependent on a variety of factors, in general if you walk less than 5,000 steps a day this is seen as fairly sedentary, while if you record more than 10,000 steps this is seen as quite active. Ask the men to set a goal related to physical activity over the next week. Suggest that this may involve increasing their steps by an extra 1500 a day on three days of the week, and make sure they know where to record this. Discuss tips for increasing walking.

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6. Active session/28 minutes

  

Consider another walk in the stadium (e.g., round the pitch)