Thursday May 9th sees the return of the new Men's Fit Cobblers programme.
This will run each Thursday from 7pm-9pm in Carr's Bar at Sixfields.
The Fit Cobblers programme is a 12-week lifestyle behaviour change programme for adults aged 35 to 65 with a BMI over 27.5. The programme is designed to look at tackling bad habits and provide strategies to create long term lifestyle behaviours. Each week participants attend a two-hour long session with the first hour being a classroom based session looking at key topics such as hydration, nutrition, exercise, food labelling, shopping takeaways, eating out etc and the second hour is a physical activity session.
What sets Fit Cobblers apart from weight loss programmes is down to the approach that we take. The programme looks to target the long-term lifestyle of participants and helps them create strategies such as smart goal setting combined with physical activity to help instil better life long habits.
Since the first men’s block in March 2019, we have engaged over 200 men from the county wanting to take part and change their lives for the better with some seeing up to 10% loss of their own bodyweight, feeling healthier, fitter and more confident about themselves.
The most recent men’s Fit Cobblers block took place from September to November 2023 engaging a total of 18 men with 12 participants successfully completing the programme. All 12 participants recorded at least a 3% loss of their bodyweight with eleven out of the twelve hitting their 5% goals. In total the group lost over 70kg. To capture the impact of the programme, Nick Wilson, now a Fit Cobblers alumni, gave an account of his experience;
“As a 56 year old very overweight and unhealthy male when the opportunity to do the health check provided by the NTFC team came along I decided to see what my position was, I was already a diabetic, asthmatic with sleep apnoea as well as a couple of other things," he said.
"Once I had seen my results and after talking with Akshay I decided to join the Fit Cobblers programme with a fair bit of fear as to what I had let myself in for as a 25 stone person who was out of breath after walking 500 yards and needed to rest. One of my colleagues joined with me to support me which was great, on arrival I at once felt at ease but was still nervous of looking out of place. But how wrong could I have been and it has lead to a lifestyle change for me.
"Over the 12 weeks I learnt a lot about how to bring this change into my life and how to be a healthier person, the exercises we did each week gave me direction and purpose to push myself on, I started to see a change in myself fairly quickly: my sleep, my ability to get around and weight loss as well as the feeling of being part of a team on a journey a tough journey together gave me purpose to stay on the path.
"At the end of the journey I have lost two and half stone, I can now walk 5 miles (I will still be tired out at the end! ) but I can do it without stopping. Has it changed my life? YES!”
Fit Cobblers Coach Mark Seymour was extremely proud of Nick and his journey over the 12 weeks, he said: “Nick put in 100% every single week and took back at least one positive thing from each week to apply to his daily routine and is now seeing the benefit of his hard work. He still has a long way to go but is gradually and safely moving in the right direction."
If you are interested in joining then please contact the Health and Wellbeing Officer coordinating the delivery of the programme Akshay Mistry at Akshay.Mistry@ntfc.co.uk or register your place using the following link ntfccommunity.co.uk/fitcobblers
