I’m back at my desk today invigorated after yesterday’s inaugural Healthier Weight walk in the Cotswolds.
On an overcast, damp, grey, drizzling wintery day, an intrepid bunch of Healthier Weight staff, gastric band and gastric bypass weight loss surgery patients, some with partners, others without, strode off from Dover’s Hill Car Park across the muddy fields to Broadway Tower and back.
The youngest member of our party was baby Max, our Health Educator Stuart’s five month old son. Whilst we were just walking, Stuart and his wife Rachel shared the task of carrying Max in a baby carrier – an extra fifteen pounds.
We walked at a leisurely pace for about 45 minutes out and the time flew by as everyone was chatting to everyone else, swapping stories of their weight loss journeys and comparing how much weight they has lost. I was so impressed when one patient said to me that this was the first time for years that she had felt brave enough to attend an event where she didn’t know everyone beforehand. She said she knew she could come along to try walking for health, and feel comfortable with strangers because they would understand how she felt about herself. One of the husbands told me that his wife had been utterly transformed since losing eight stones with a gastric band. He said that in the past she has turned down the opportunity to go to some celebrity events because she was so conscious of her size and he was just so pleased that she now had so much more confidence. He was preaching to the converted because I know how weight loss surgery transforms lives.
Alas, the splendid views over Evesham Vale were shrouded in mist so we will have to return another time to see the beautiful English countryside in full glory. It took us just slightly longer on the return leg and by the time we returned to the car park it was definitely time to go and find a tea shop.
Our walk meant we burned very approximately 500 calories so we descended into Chipping Campden for a well deserved sit down and slice of cherry cake.
Dr David Ashton
22nd February 2011
