Marion’s weight
Marion’s weight had slowly crept up over the years impacting her joints, making it difficult to walk anywhere which left her feeling lethargic. She wasn’t overly motivated in the past to exercise, but with help from her Healthy Lifestyles Coach Mark, she discovered her love of dancing, incorporating salsa and Zumba into her lifestyle a couple of days a week. Finding something you enjoy has helped Marion lose over a stone in a short time!
She admits that it’s not easy but that’s what our service is all about – making those small steps which all add up to a bigger change! These small changes to her lifestyle and exercise levels are changing her life for the better. Here’s here story.
Marion’s weight loss journey began when she felt she had recently gained some weight due to a lack of exercise, leaving her feeling lethargic. This prompted her to drop into the Healthy Lifestyles Services pop up when walking past one day and undertake a free health check.
Marion was consulted by our trained healthy lifestyle advisors who undertook a 20-minute series of tests to understand Marion’s current state of health – to see what was working well and what wasn’t and provide her with her own personalised plan. Knowing she had recently gained a little weight; the results weren’t a complete surprise to her, but it did give her the much-needed wake-up call to take carriage of her health and discuss a plan with her doctor.
“The results didn’t come as a real shock to me, just a bit of a wake-up call as they were all a bit raised. When you have the test and see the results written down, it does motivate you to do something about it”.
The NHS health check give people like Marion, the chance to learn more about their health – in a way that doesn’t judge, but which supports the individual. Marion’s results were sent to her GP for follow up. Talking about her experience Marion said: “My GP surgery followed up and I went along to see the nurse who took my blood pressure and she was concerned it was quite raised. I had to monitor my blood pressure over the course of the week and as a result it was confirmed I had an issue”.
Marion was diagnosed with hypertension and to get her blood pressure under control, she was prescribed blood pressure tablets. Like many, Marion was oblivious to the risks of a heart attack or stroke and if she hadn’t have gone down the route of having her blood pressure taken at our health check, she may not have realised she was at such high risk.
“The results made me realise that I need to do something serious about my weight. You get into lazy habits and I had been eating too many of the wrong things”.
Marion was referred into our service by the nurse to give her some extra help. She has been working with health coach Mark, who has given her a nudge in the right direction and his help and support has made all the difference.
“There were serious health implications if I continued down the route of eating chocolate and cake. The nurse indicated that if I didn’t get my cholesterol down, I would be permanently on medication. This spurred me to stop eating so much chocolate and sweets”.
Marion was stuck in a rut, which is common for many people in similar circumstances. Coming home from work and sitting on the sofa, eating they wrong types of food is all too common for many. Making changes now before it’s too late is the motivation Marion needed to change her lifestyle for the better.
Our coach Mark started by sitting down with Marion to discuss her diet and ways to exercise. He suggested adding in small amounts of exercise each day such as doing an extra 10-minute walk from the carpark to work and the same back, adding up to 20 minutes each day. He encouraged me to push myself to go a little faster each day.
Mark also discussed with Marion what else interested her – which helped her recognise dancing was something she liked. She set herself a goal to do salsa each Wednesday night as well as Zumba a couple of days a week.
Mark also discussed various types of food she should be incorporating into her diet and helped her to see areas she could improve. She knew she had a tendency for sweet treats and through Mark’s guidance, he educated her on how much effort it took to burn those calories off. This helped to reframe Marion’s thinking and choose heathier options.
“Mark was very supportive, and he explained things in detail and really made me take stock of what I am eating and make good choices”.
Marion’s journey has seen her lose a stone and whilst it’s been small steps at a time, this has helped her to stay motivated to continue her weight loss journey. Through our support she will continue to do her best as she recognises that’s what she needs to do in order to have a better, healthier and longer life.