What makes a healthy lifestyle, and how do choices affect wellbeing?
Healthy lifestyle choices: the parts of a healthy lifestyle including diet and exercise, the risks of harmful choices such as smoking, alcohol and drugs, and how to make informed decisions.
A CCEA GCSE Learning for Life and Work guide to healthy lifestyle choices. Covers the parts of a healthy lifestyle such as a balanced diet, exercise and sleep, the risks of harmful choices including smoking, alcohol and drugs, and how to make informed decisions and resist pressure.
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What this dot point is asking
This dot point asks you to describe the parts of a healthy lifestyle, the risks of harmful choices such as smoking, alcohol and drugs, and how a person can make informed decisions and resist pressure. The marked skill is naming features of a healthy lifestyle and explaining their benefits, explaining the risks of harmful choices, and giving realistic strategies for healthy decision-making.
What a healthy lifestyle involves
The features you should be able to explain include:
- A balanced diet: eating a range of foods in the right amounts for energy and nutrients.
- Regular exercise: strengthening the heart and muscles, controlling weight and improving mood.
- Enough sleep and rest: letting the body and mind recover.
- Avoiding harmful substances: not smoking, and limiting alcohol.
- Looking after emotional health: managing stress and maintaining good relationships.
Naming a feature is the start; explaining the benefit it brings is what earns marks.
The risks of harmful choices
Some lifestyle choices carry serious risks, which should be explained factually:
- Smoking damages the lungs and heart, causes serious illnesses such as cancer, and is addictive.
- Excess alcohol can damage health, impair judgement leading to accidents, and become addictive, with effects on relationships and behaviour.
- Drugs can harm health, impair judgement, lead to risky behaviour and addiction, and carry legal consequences.
- Poor diet and inactivity raise the risk of obesity, heart disease and other long-term conditions.
A full answer explains the risk, not just names the behaviour: for example, that smoking is addictive and harms health for life.
Sexual health and safety
A healthy lifestyle also includes looking after sexual health and personal safety, presented factually and age-appropriately. This means making informed and responsible decisions, understanding the importance of consent and respect, and knowing where to find reliable information and support, such as a GP or a school nurse. Keeping safe, online and offline, is part of a healthy lifestyle.
Making informed decisions and resisting pressure
Healthy choices depend on informed decision-making: weighing up the risks and benefits, using reliable information, and thinking about the consequences. Young people often face peer pressure to make unhealthy choices, and resisting it is a key skill. Strategies include being confident in saying no, having a reason ready, choosing friends who respect your choices, and removing yourself from situations where there is pressure. The aim is to make your own informed choices rather than going along with others.
Try this
Q1. Name three features of a healthy lifestyle. [3 marks]
- Cue. Any three of: balanced diet, regular exercise, enough sleep, avoiding harmful substances, looking after emotional health, staying safe.
Q2. Give one risk of smoking. [1 mark]
- Cue. Any one of: damages the lungs and heart, causes cancer, is addictive.
Q3. Give one way a young person could resist pressure to make an unhealthy choice. [2 marks]
- Cue. For example, saying no confidently with a reason ready, choosing supportive friends, or leaving the situation.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of CCEA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
CCEA Unit 2 (style)4 marksIdentify two features of a healthy lifestyle and explain how each benefits a person.Show worked answer →
A four-mark question. One mark for naming a feature, one for its benefit, for two features.
Feature one: a balanced diet. Eating a range of foods in the right amounts gives the body the energy and nutrients it needs, which keeps a person healthy and helps prevent illness.
Feature two: regular exercise. Being active strengthens the heart and muscles, helps control weight and improves mood, which benefits both physical and mental health.
Other valid features include enough sleep, avoiding smoking and excess alcohol, and managing stress. A strong answer names a feature and explains the benefit it brings.
CCEA Unit 2 (style)6 marksExplain the risks of two harmful lifestyle choices and describe how a young person could resist pressure to make them.Show worked answer →
A six-mark question. Reward developed risks for two harmful choices and a strategy for resisting pressure.
Smoking: damages the lungs and heart, causes serious illnesses such as cancer, and is addictive, so it harms health for life.
Excess alcohol or drugs: can damage health, impair judgement leading to accidents and risky behaviour, and become addictive, with effects on relationships and the law.
Resisting pressure: be confident in saying no, have a reason ready, choose friends who respect your choices, and remove yourself from situations where there is pressure. A top answer develops the risks and gives realistic ways to resist peer pressure, rather than just listing dangers.
Related dot points
- Self-concept and self-esteem: what self-concept and self-esteem are, the factors that shape them, and how a positive self-concept can be developed.
A CCEA GCSE Learning for Life and Work guide to self-concept and self-esteem. Covers what self-concept and self-esteem mean, the factors that shape them such as age, appearance, relationships and experiences, and how a positive self-concept can be built.
- Emotional health and wellbeing: what emotional and mental health are, the things that affect them such as stress and life events, and the strategies and sources of support that help.
A CCEA GCSE Learning for Life and Work guide to emotional health and wellbeing. Covers what emotional and mental health mean, the causes and effects of stress, healthy ways to manage emotions, and the sources of support available when someone is struggling.
- Managing relationships: the types and qualities of healthy relationships, the skills that maintain them, and how to handle conflict and relationship breakdown.
A CCEA GCSE Learning for Life and Work guide to managing relationships. Covers the types of relationships, the qualities and skills of healthy ones such as trust and communication, how to recognise an unhealthy relationship, and how to manage conflict and relationship breakdown.
- Responsible parenting and family: the responsibilities of parents, the needs of children, the different forms families take, and the support available to families.
A CCEA GCSE Learning for Life and Work guide to responsible parenting and family. Covers the responsibilities of being a parent, the physical, emotional and developmental needs of children, the different forms families take, and the agencies that support families.
- Personal finance and financial capability: budgeting, the difference between saving and borrowing, the main financial products, and consumer rights.
A CCEA GCSE Learning for Life and Work guide to personal finance and financial capability. Covers budgeting and needs versus wants, the difference between saving and borrowing, the main financial products and services, and the basics of consumer rights and avoiding debt.
Sources & how we know this
- CCEA GCSE Learning for Life and Work specification — CCEA (2017)