Our Program

About us

Text2LiveHealthy (T2LH) is a nutrition and physical activity, mhealth outreach effort funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), through the SNAP-Ed funding mechanism, that utilizes text messaging to reach and engage families with limited access to resources throughout Colorado in positive health behavior change.

Participants who sign up for T2LH will receive recurring messages every week with creative recipes, tips to eat more fruits and vegetables, ideas to stay physically active as a family, and information about health events happening close to their neighborhood.

T2LH has been adapted to serve older adults and refugees across Colorado as well as for SNAP-Ed implementing agencies in other states.

Background and evaluation

In 2018, T2LH was launched in Colorado as a complement to current SNAP-Ed funded nutrition education programming being conducted in elementary and preschools across the state. The intervention links existing youth nutrition and physical activity education provided in the classroom to the home via text messaging to influence behavior change for the entire family. T2LH is based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, a theory intended to explain all behaviors over which people have the ability to exert self-control. 18 T2LH message content focuses on increasing behavioral change intent by addressing individuals attitudes, beliefs, norms around nutrition and physical activity while providing information and resources to decrease any barriers to behavior change.

Participants receive two to three text messages every week targeted towards the promotion of eating more fruits and vegetables, increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviors, and reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and increasing the consumption of water. In general, the messages are easy to use and include goal-setting for healthy behavior changes, fun and easy recipes, family-friendly physical activity ideas, motivational messages, and links to national and local resources. Because of this, and the fact that T2LH is evidence-based, in 2020, T2LH was accepted into the SNAP-Ed toolkit, making it more widely available to the nearly 140 SNAP-Ed implementing agencies in all 50 states and three territories.