Describe something you do to stay healthy

How to approach this cue card

This card looks like a lifestyle question, but the examiner is really testing whether you can describe a routine with specific, natural detail rather than generic advice. A common trap is answering as if you’re writing a health magazine article — “exercise is important because it keeps you fit” — instead of describing your own habit. The safest angle is something small and concrete: a short daily walk, cutting down on a particular food, stretching before bed, cycling to work. You don’t need a dramatic fitness transformation story; a habit you can describe in specific sentences is worth more than an ambitious one you can only describe vaguely.

Pick something you actually do, even if it’s modest, because the follow-up bullets ask you to explain how you started and how it helps you, and those are much easier to answer honestly than to invent. If you genuinely don’t have a routine, choose the healthiest habit you do have, even something like drinking more water than you used to, and build the answer around that.

For timing, spend about 20 seconds naming the habit and how often you do it, 30–40 seconds on how you started, and the rest on how it helps you — that last bullet is where you can show off a wider range of grammar and vocabulary, since it invites reasons and results rather than plain facts.

Vocabulary that lifts this answer

A one-minute plan

• what: evening walk, 30 minutes, park near flat
• how often: most days, five or six times a week
• how it started: doctor mentioned blood pressure, small scare
• how it helps: sleep better, clearer head, stamina up
• closing: cheap, no equipment, easy to keep up

Sample answer

This is one example of how to structure an answer on this card, not a script to memorise — your own routine will sound different, and that’s fine.

Something I do fairly consistently to stay healthy is take a thirty-minute walk in the evening, usually around the park near my flat. I try to do this most days, maybe five or six times a week, unless the weather is really against me. I actually started doing it almost by accident — a couple of years ago I had a routine check-up, and the doctor mentioned, almost in passing, that my blood pressure was a little higher than it should be for someone my age. It wasn’t an emergency, but it was enough of a wake-up call that I decided to build some kind of movement into my day. I didn’t want to commit to a gym membership I might not keep up, so I eased into it with something low-pressure: just walking, no equipment, no cost.

What surprises me is how much it helps beyond the physical side. I sleep noticeably better on days I’ve walked, and I find I have a clearer head afterwards, which has had a knock-on effect on my concentration at work. My stamina has improved too, though that was never really the goal. If anything, it’s become the part of my day I look forward to most, partly because it forces me to switch off from my phone for half an hour.

Common mistakes on this card

• Describing exercise in general (“exercise is good because…”) instead of your own specific habit.
• Cramming in three habits (diet, gym, and sleep) so none gets proper development.
• Skipping the “how you started” bullet entirely, which loses an easy chance to use past narrative tenses.
• Ending on a flat statement like “it keeps me healthy” instead of a specific, personal benefit.