FIT Jacks helps Natasha lose weight and gain confidence

Natasha Wood joined Swansea City AFC Foundation’s FIT Jacks programme as she approached her 50th birthday, hoping to make a change to her lifestyle and find a programme she could truly enjoy.

The customer service advisor learned about Swansea City AFC Foundation’s FIT Jacks sessions online and quickly signed up for the 12-week programme.

Upon completing the free course, Natasha had made new friends, lost 7kg and feels better physically and mentally.

Since the course has finished, she has continued to meet up with her fellow participants for social and fitness sessions, and she even returned to the Swansea.com Stadium to tell the latest course of participants about her journey.

“It was my age that made me want to join FIT Jacks,” explained Natasha.

“I needed to get fit, I’m coming up to 50 and I decided that I wanted to change what I was doing, and find a programme that I would enjoy.

“Joining FIT Jacks is one of the best things I’ve done because I’m now motivated to do more exercise, and I’m thinking more about diet.

“The main thing I’ve learned through the programme is effective ways to watch what I’m eating, just watching my calories and making choices that are better for me.”

As Natasha continued the course, she began to feel better within herself, which improved her fitness levels and her mood.

“Loads of people are commenting about how different I am since starting FIT Jacks,” she added.

“I’m feeling better in myself so people are noticing changes in that as well, I’m happier in myself, people noticed a lot of change in me across the last 12 weeks.

“Shauna [Thornhill, Foundation health and wellbeing officer] has been amazing on the course. She is such an inspiration to all of us and it’s amazing.

“It’s been so amazing, it makes me feel a bit emotional, because the programme is coming to an end for me and it’s just been an amazing journey.

“I’ve continued to eat healthy after the course, I keep monitoring my step count and making sure I’m reaching 10,000 steps every day, FIT Jacks helped me to change my lifestyle, and my fitness and diet are much better now.”

But it wasn’t just the fitness and lifestyle aspects of the course that benefited Natasha, with the social side of the course being a huge positive for her as well.

Having grown close with other participants, she still remains in contact with them and they often discuss the lasting benefits of making the small lifestyle changes recommended in the FIT Jacks course.

“The social side of the programme has been amazing,” she explained.

“Everybody has worked together and we’ve all motivated each other to reach our goals.

“I love coming on a Thursday, getting to see everybody, we have a chat about what we’ve all done that week.

“Everybody has different stories about how their week went and their journeys on the programme, so the social side is definitely a big part of it all.

“We all still meet up, it’s great that we can all stay in contact, continue to motivate each other and make sure our journey doesn’t end here.”

Shauna Thornhill, health and wellbeing officer for Swansea City AFC Foundation, added: “When Natasha started she was very shy and very quiet, but if you looked at her then compared to the end of the sessions, you would see a completely different person.

“She has hit her goal weight; her confidence has grown massively and people are commenting that there is something different about her now, and it’s because she’s enjoying everything she should be and not worrying so much about her weight.

“We give them all the tools to succeed, but if you aren’t willing to put in the work to do it you won’t get the outcome you want, but she really bought into it 100%

“She was here every single week and in the fitness sessions she would always give it everything, she didn’t rest she just kept pushing and pushing.

“Nutrition wise, she has learned loads and now understands what she can and can’t eat in a healthier way.

“Even though the programme has finished for her, she isn’t finished, she’s going to keep going because she’s got all the tools that we’ve taught her.”