Fresh from his first ever marathon in York on the 7th October, 47-year-old Try Club graduate Jon Schwind has praised Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s healthy lifestyle programme for helping him realise his incredible weight loss and fitness goals in 2017.
Jon, who completed his 12-week Try Club programme in September, joined the free course to help him lose weight and improve his fitness levels after signing up for the PlusNet Yorkshire Marathon in 2016.
“I decided to join the programme for a couple of reasons, one to lose weight and the other to help improve my fitness,” said Jon. “I had noticed over the years that my weight was steadily increasing to the point bending over to tie my shoelaces was becoming an effort. Initially by myself I decided to start running using programmes like couch to 5k, but this was not really having any effect on my weight,” said Jon.
“In late 2016 I entered for the Yorkshire Marathon and then earlier this year I saw the advert for Try Club and thought this would be the ideal opportunity to help me lose some weight and also improve on my general fitness.”
Try Club which began in January 2016, offers weekly 90 minute sessions which focus on a variety of nutrition and health topics, all designed to educate men around achieving realistic and maintainable lifestyle changes.
“The sessions have really highlighted the aspects that are wrong in our diets and also how the supermarkets and manufacturers are devious in the way they market and label food – so some things that sound healthy aren’t always as healthy as you would think,” added Jon.
“The good thing about the healthy eating aspect of the session, is that it does not say you cannot have a takeaway or a beer, it was realistic about what we are and aren’t going to do – just to do it in moderation and be aware of the impact it has.”
The programme is supported by Leeds Public Health and delivered by health professionals from Leeds Rhinos Foundation to also offer 45 minutes of physical activity to help attendees gain confidence in exercising and improve their fitness.
“The second part of each session is the activity part, this was built up over the weeks and could be as hard as you wanted to make it. It always allowed for everyone to participate regardless of their initial fitness. Nearly all the activity sessions included some fun team games as well, not just your basic fitness exercises.
“The result is over the 12-week period, I lost nearly a stone in weight, so I am no longer classed as obese, my fitness improved and this has been a tremendous help in my training to run the marathon, which was my first marathon raising money for the Leeds Rhinos Foundation.”
One of the advantages of the programme according to Jon has been the inclusive male only environment, which provided an ideal setting for him to improve from week to week.
“In the past I had been to slimming world etc, but as one of the only blokes in the room I always found that slightly intimidating, so a guy’s only programme seemed like a great idea,” said Jon.
“The programme itself I have found to be fun, informative, interesting and absolutely not intimidating at all.”
Building on the success of his weight loss and transformation on the programme, Jon not only completed the marathon in his target time of under 5 hours, finishing in 4 hours and 57 minutes and 51 seconds, but raised £500 for Leeds Rhinos Foundation in the process and now has his sights set on the Leeds Abbey Dash and Manchester Marathon in 2018.
“The marathon was very tough, especially from the 20 mile mark onwards, but was a great experience, I now have the Abbey Dash to look forward to then the Manchester marathon next year!”
Jon also aims to keep his fitness levels up and maintain his healthy new outlook on life going forward and says he will stay in touch with the group.
“It’s great to help you lose weight, get fitter and meet some other people who all want to achieve the same things, the programme team are great and on hand to offer any advice either during or outside of the sessions,” he added.
If you would like to make a donation to Jon and support the work of Leeds Rhinos Foundation visit his JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jschwind
To find out if Try Club could help you visit www.leedsrhinosfoundation.org or contact Laura.Buckle@leedsrhinosfoundation.org