How To Take Up the C25K Challenge | Slimpod

So, hi Nikki! Nikki O'Hara is with me, and Nikki is one of our Slimpod champions. She's been in our community for years and years, long time, and Slimpod has really helped her to keep a positive mental attitude. In 2015, Nikki started doing the C2 5K, and since then she's become a leader in her community. She's now going to tell you to tell you all about what the C2-5K has led her to and what it's done for her and why you should join her. Over to you, Nikki, welcome!

Okay, that sounds very grand, but thank you very much for the introduction. So yeah, as Sandra's just said, I first started with C2-5K, or Couch to 5K, so going from no exercise whatsoever to running 5 kilometers in using the NHS Free app over a 9-week period. So getting up off the couch, doing a little bit 3 times a week to get myself to an end goal of running 5 kilometers. I was very lucky. I did it in a community setting where there was people around me encouraging me, and I was encouraging them, and there was volunteers leading the way and helping us find routes around our town, and just basically making it a really, really enjoyable experience. So after the 9 weeks, I ran the 5 kilometers in just over 40 minutes. So I'm not, you know, no, it's not about speed, it's about completion.

Not a race.

Exactly. You're only racing against yourself, and I think that's a really important part to consider when you're taking this challenge on. And from then, I went back to the community setting, I became a volunteer. I helped another group of people through their first Couch to 5K experience, and then I became a team leader, and I led probably 200 to 300 people through the experience again in the community setting over a period of about 3 and a half years. Since then, I have moved on. I wanted to progress myself a little bit more, a few more challenges, so we have, luckily, in the same community setting Charlotte Roycroft-Davis, UK. A 10K progression group, so you go from 5 kilometers to 10 kilometers, again over a 9-week period with— it's called interval training, but it's so you go certain distances over certain weeks and gradually increase your speed and your distance, which is all monitored and, you know, very well laid out. And after that, I wanted another challenge, so I joined our local running group. Only probably about 14 months ago, and they have taken me through an amazing experience of reaching goals I never thought attainable. Running a half marathon, running 2 half marathons actually.

Fantastic.

Oops. Actually last year, and this year I want to run another one, but basically just enjoying running, enjoying moving, not doing it for the speed, but setting myself little tiny challenges I think that has also given me a mental attitude that I feel very much more positive and encouraging and motivational, and I think that's extremely important for me and for my well-being.

Absolutely, absolutely.

So I think we've concocted a little plan, haven't we, Sandra?

We have, we have, absolutely. So you go ahead, you tell them about the plan.

Okay, so I want all SlimPod people to join me in a Community Couch to 5K program. So what we will do is we will all start the program on the same day, we will run on the same days every week. So for example, I do mine, or have done mine, on a Monday, a Thursday, and a Saturday, and we stick to the same days every single week. We check in when we've done our run, we encourage each other, we make to make sure that everybody feels motivated, feels confident, feels very positive about what they're doing, and if they're not, then that's absolutely fine, but there will be a support network to help you, and we want to encourage you to take your family along with you, take your kids along with you, make it an experience where you go out with a friend, have somebody to chat to whilst you're having a run, not to do it necessarily to do it on your own, and I always found for myself that that was an important thing, that there was always somebody by my side to really give me a bit of a kick up the backside if I needed one, or just to have a little friendly chat and a break from the norm. Yeah, and I think this really helps with the way in which you think about your, you know, using the SlimPod for the positive mental attitude, for the weight loss, and it all combines. It brings in healthy eating because you're very conscious about what you're eating. But over the 9 weeks, we do it as a group. We have the support network, and at the end we can celebrate together.

Fantastic, and it falls in line with something we've just introduced in Simpod Club, which is— or reintroduced— which is the buddy system. So it's about, you know, it's about encouraging each other and, you know, cheering each other on.

It is, absolutely. And as I say, you know, there will be support networks put in place. It's a very good way to use social media. People can connect very easily on that, but I am aware that some I know some people don't connect by social media, so hopefully there will be a way in which we can use the newsletters to reply to, so people can reply to it. And like you say, using a buddy system, whether that buddy system is through the SlimPod Club or just using a family member or a friend or, you know, something like that, even the dog, take the dog out with you, you know. And it's not about speed, it's not about competitiveness, it's about being a better you.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, you have lost nearly 2 stone in—

Well, it's over 2 stone now, but yeah, it's— Well, there you go. Yeah, a lot of that is to do with changing my eating habits.

Yeah.

Some of it is to do with the running. We have— there's been a lot of research done that running alone will not lose you weight because of the way your body changes and things like that, but it's about what you put in to get to put back out again. So you are very aware of what you're eating.

Yeah, you're eating the fuel.

Yeah, exactly. The types of food that you're eating really have an effect on the way in which you perform, you know, with your exercise and everything. So this is for people who, you know, just want to get up and start moving, and it doesn't have to be run. We have— I've done it with power walkers or sports walkers, and as long as you move at different speeds at certain times of the app, we can tell you how to download the app We can take you through every single step of the way, no pun intended, but literally every single step, and we will be there to support you.

Fantastic. And will you be able to just give a little guidance on food as well? Will you have something that can do that?

We can talk about that, definitely. Yeah, like I said, I'm not, I'm not a nutritionist, I'm not a dietitian or anything. I think the NHS Eat Well Plates is a good place to start. So you're looking at, you know, it's like the different types of food that you eat, and obviously people want to put in more carbohydrates and protein when they're running. I mean, I know for distance running, when I'm doing my half marathon training, I eat completely differently to when I'm just doing my regular club runs of 3 and 5 miles, you know, a couple of times a week. So we can definitely find some information perfect for everybody.

Great! Well, we will give full details to everybody underneath this, underneath my blog and Insulin Pod Club. And yeah, wonderful! We are going to challenge you to do the 5K, and you couldn't have a better leader than Nikki.

Thank you, I'm excited!

Great, and on that note, I I'll say goodbye and thank you so much, Nikki. This is fantastic and you are a total star.

Thank you for having me.

You're welcome.