A new national campaign by Public Health England was announced at the end of last month that encouraged millions to kick-start their health as part of the government’s Obesity Strategy.

The campaign encourages adults to introduce changes that will help them work towards a healthier lifestyle, with a suite of free tools and apps supporting people to eat better, drink less alcohol, and get more active. This includes a new app for the free 12-week NHS Weight Loss Plan, helping people make healthier food choices and learn skills to prevent weight gain.

“Make a few simple changes to your life, and you’ll be in better shape in weeks – no gym membership required.”

While we all lead harried lives, upping your daily activity isn’t as tricky as it sounds, and doesn’t require you to purchase any special equipment or squeeze into anything Lycra or stretchy.

As well as making you happier, there’s evidence that regular physical activity can protect you from everything from obesity to Alzheimer’s. Make a few simple changes to your life, and you’ll be in better shape in weeks – no gym membership required.

1. Take the stairs

Read any guide to improving your fitness, and you can guarantee this will be one of the recommendations. It’s easy to rationalise taking the lift – you’ve had a long day, or you’re carrying too many shopping bags – but there’s proven evidence that even the smallest amount of resistance exercise can encourage calories from food to be stored in muscle cells rather than as body fat.

Recommended app: ActivityTracker is far more than your average pedometer. It keeps track of stairs climbed, calories burned, and steps taken, and all you need to do is carry your smartphone or Apple Watch with you, which you probably already do anyway.

2. Sit on the floor to watch TV

Modern sofa technology is such that it’s far too easy for us to remain motionless throughout a Peaky Blinders marathon, but sitting on the floor for the same length of time leaves you wriggling, stretching, and changing position, and generally keeps your vital systems online.

As a fitness coach, it’s rare for me to champion sitting in front of the TV, but hey, it’s something we all do, and if you’re going to do it, you might as well be slightly more active while doing it. If you really want to dial up the fitness brownie points, foam-roll away some of the aches and pains of everyday life.

Recommended app: while there may not be an app to track the hours spent watching TV, the Smiling Mind app features a board range of meditations categorised by purpose, from sleeping aids to stress management, designed to increase self-awareness and to promote clarity of mind. Perfect for relaxation for that post-boxset binge.

3. 30-Day challenge

If you really put your mind to it, the list of things that can be achieved in one month is almost endless. You can get a working knowledge of a new language, or become proficient on the guitar – or better still, take part in one of the numerous exercise-based alternatives.

In general, 30-day challenges are a great way to work on your fitness, because they give you an achievable short-term goal to keep you focused on the objective. The motivation to lose weight or get fitter is nothing to get mad about, but without something clear and defined to work towards, it’s all too easy to skip a session or two then slide back into inactivity.

Recommended app: 30 Day Squat and Ab Challenge is a simple app that sets a number of squat and ab exercises every day. Workout intensity increases over time, with day 30 designed to test your overall performance.

You can track daily progress and share your achievements with friends through social media. Feel free to tag me with your progress @Mission_108 on Instagram and @missionsophiecampbell on Facebook.

4. Stand up more

Sitting down knocks your body offline and into a neutral gear by constricting circulation, shutting off muscles, and generally slowing your metabolism to a snail’s pace.

If you’re an able-bodied adult, there’s no real need to sit down while taking the bus, for instance, and there’s no rule that insists you need to sit cross-legged to play Fortnite or Call of Duty.

Offices the world over have invested in standing desks, but for some, that isn’t a viable option, but even standing for that impromptu at-desk meeting can make all the difference: standing burns 1.36 more calories a minute than sitting and puts you at less risk of a host of nasty cardiovascular diseases.

Recommended app: Stand Up! bills itself as a work timer, and is fully customisable to your work schedule. By setting the alarm at any interval of five-minute increments, the app lets you know when it’s time to get up from your desk, have a break from your screen, and go for a wander.

5. Retail therapy

The Farmer’s Walk is a feature of every World’s Strongest competition and is a loaded carry that targets the upper and lower body, as well as the core: all at the same time.

All it requires is the carrying of a heavy object in each hand, preferably while keeping your back straight, shoulders back, and chest/head up. This is undoubtedly a wicked enough reason to forgo the online Tesco shop and carry a week’s worth of groceries home, or at least to the far end of the car park.

Recommended app: Instant Heart Rate: HR Monitor is an app used in American research, and uses your phone’s camera’s flash to be the perfect, mobile heart rate measuring tool: simply place the tip of your index finger on your smartphone’s camera flash, and your pulse/heart rate will be shown instantly.

Need some more help? I provide both group coaching and individualised training depending on your goals. Face to face sessions are currently fully booked however there are a few spaces available on my online programmes. Fill out an application form and book a call here.

5 ways to be more active, without really trying