Mayor’s Health Challenge
The Mayor of Camden, Councillor Larraine Revah is embarking on a health and fitness challenge – and wants Camden residents to join her.
Today, (Thursday 8 October) the Mayor began the first day of her 8 week challenge in which she aims to lose weight and increase her fitness, at the newly refurbished gym Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre, managed by Greenwich Leisure Limited on behalf of Camden.
As part of the challenge the Mayor will be committing to a healthy eating plan, weekly gym sessions and walking meetings – and she wants other Camden residents to join her on this exciting journey to better health and wellbeing.
“As part of my health and fitness challenge I will be making use of existing Council services and open spaces – I want to show people that you don’t necessarily need a lot of money to get fit and healthy, there are some simple steps you can start with to improve your health.
“I personally have struggled with my weight for many years and have found in recent years it has only exacerbated by poor eating choices and lack of exercise – so I decided that it was time to do something about it in my Mayoral year.
“I know there are residents in Camden struggling with the same issues so I want to reach out to them and say if I can do it, so can you.”
“There are some fantastic free services that Council provides including Exercise on Referral and Apples and Pears a free weight management service – both programmes are designed to support long term health changes.
“Camden also offers a free 8 week exercise programme for residents who have been referred to Camden’s exercise on referral programme by their GP”
“It’s a fantastic programme where specialist exercise instructors work one on one with residents to develop a realistic exercise programme that will work for them – then monitor their progress at weekly sessions of a gym of their choice, where they are also on hand to offer advice and support.”
Camden Exercise on Referral Instructor Siobhan Rodgers based at the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre said the programme was fantastic and has helped a lot of residents.
“We’ve seen people’s whole lives change as a result of this programme – they come in after having been referred by their GP for a medical reason, and have used the free eight week programme as a base to make some real positive changes that have improved their overall health and wellbeing.”
The Mayor will be encouraging Camden residents of all ages to join her in her quest, either by coming along to free weekly gym sessions at Swiss Cottage, or joining her for walks in some of Camden’s open spaces.
She is also interested in visiting community centres around the Borough to see what group fitness classes they run and get involved with some of them.
The Mayor is also keen to support and drop into any community fitness activities that are going on across the borough.
“I’d love to hear from residents who are also looking to improve their health. They can contact me online via twitter or at my drop in surgeries.”
The Mayor will be posting regular updates on the success of her challenge online and via twitter page – so make sure to stay tuned via @mayorofcamden for updates.