The HABIT Lab

Diet Habits

Diet behaviour change

Leeds NIHR Biomedical Research Workshop

We extended the impact of the HABIT workshop to use the awareness of habit drive healthy eating for patients living with diabetes. Over 500 million people worldwide are living with type 2 diabetes, and 9.5 million people are living with type 1 diabetes. In the UK, over 4.6 million people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and 464,000 people are living with type 1 diabetes. 

Developing healthy eating and lifestyle habits presents a cornerstone in diabetes management. As part of our collaboration with the  Leeds NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, we conducted a habit workshop with the diabetes patient and public involvement (PPI) community at St George’s Conference Centre.

Part of the diet habit workshop with the Leeds NIHR Biomedical Research diabetes community.
Part of the diet habit workshop with the Leeds NIHR Biomedical Research diabetes community.

Around 25 participants were involved in the discussion. During the workshop, we explored with the participants their eating habits and how to change their habits to eat healthy food through understanding their habitual behaviour through the three stages of the habit loop: trigger, routine and reward.

Example of the Habit Loop sheet used in the discussion.

At the end of the workshop, the feedback was positive from all participants as they found the workshop useful. They all rated the workshop either excellent or very useful.