Developed in partnership with Public Health Leeds, Leeds Rhinos Foundation launched a new Try Club Health Management programme in 2016 with the aim of helping as many overweight men as possible engage and be successful in achieving their goals through educating and motivating participants to stay committed to getting healthy.
63-year-old, Bill Brady joined the programme with the aim of kick starting a lifestyle change to see him become more active and achieve his personal goal of getting his weight under 14st by the end of the programme, this is Bill’s Try Club Story.
Bill joined 11 other men on a health and fitness journey as part of the first Try Club programme starting on the 19th January 2016, attending the weekly sessions over the three month period and losing a combined 120lbs; transforming the way they eat, exercise and approach new challenges.
For Bill, the programme was the start of personal transformation that would see him achieve some his long held health and fitness goals:
“When I first considered Try Club I was looking at lifestyle changes for me and to get more active and the benefit of the programme is that it also looks at food, so it ticked both boxes really,” said Brady.
As a result of the health and fitness advice he learned on the programme, the 62-year-old finished week 12 with a personal weight loss of 7.2kg, achieving his weight loss goal, and also developed an interest in running as a motivator to keep his lifestyle change going.
“After two or three weeks I set myself a goal of taking on the Asda Foundation Leeds 10k and wondered whether I could actually achieve that, well after 12 weeks I am now convinced I can do that and I’m now embarking on the process of doing the training.”
The programme’s 50/50 split between classroom learning and fitness activity, has also given all the participants on the course the tools and knowledge to keep their diet and food intake under control.
“Both my family and colleagues are now starting to notice the difference visually,” added Brady.
“They can see you losing weight, instead of walking around with a fairly hefty stomach. When I see what has happened to me in 12 weeks I find it phenomenal, I’d love to see it succeed even more with more groups spread across different backgrounds as well.”
Watch Bill's Try Club story video below:
If you are male over the age of 18 with a BMI of over 25, and would like to get involved email laura.buckle@leedsrhinosfoundation.org