A GROUP of nutrition experts and personal trainers have joined forces to educate residents on living a healthier lifestyle and getting to know the value of food as a fuel for the body.

After running successful eight-week programs in Bowness and Keswick, the Better Body Challenge has now come to Barrow and is being conducted from Park Leisure Centre.

The program lasts for two months and after starting in February, the first Barrow participants are just over halfway through. All participants pay £10 in to a prize pot on the first week and then at the end of the program the money is awarded to the person who has made the biggest change to their health and lifestyle. There are 27 people taking part in Barrow's first Better Body Challenge so the prize pot is £270. After the initial motivational fee the rest of the course is free of charge.

Better Body Challenge coach James Pendleton, 27, is originally from Millom but has since relocated to Bowness. As a personal trainer, Mr Pendleton is very conscious of what foods he eats to fuel his body. Doing a lot of exercise he needs to eat larger quantities but make sure that they are the right sort of foods. He said: "Even though I am a personal trainer by trade and work with exercise on a day-to-day basis I am confident that being in good physical shape is 80 per cent due to a good diet and 20 per cent due to exercise.

"I can't stress enough how important it is to understand about what sort of foods you are putting in to your body. Here we run a session each week and each one addresses a new area of nutrition. It is similar to a lesson or lecture but we do our best to make it fun and interactive too. For instance when we are studying fibre content we play a game to organise all the different foods in order of fibre content."

One of the most beneficial sessions with the Better Body Challenge is the food label reading class. With recent national outrage surrounding the high content of salt and sugar in processed foods this could be something we all need to brush up on. Mr Pendleton said: "It is shocking what companies get away with on their food labels. They are especially sneaky with sugar, something will be branded as 'low fat' and to substitute the fat they will pile in a load of sugar.

"We do not necessarily want to promote dramatic weight loss. Especially not when it is done too quickly. We want to educate people and help them find a lifestyle they can stick with and by doing that keep the weight off for good.

"After the eight weeks, the prize money is not awarded to the person who has lost the most weight, but the person who has shed the most fat and perhaps gained the most muscle."

Better Body Coach Angela Kenny used the Better Body Challenge and the health and nutrition supplements Herbalife to lose three-and-a-half stones. She said: "I lost my weight over the course of a year and the change in my lifestyle has not only improved my confidence in how I look but it has also added years to my life. Before I lost the weight my metabolic age was in the 70s and now it is down to 43. Which is more than ten years younger than I actually am.

"Breakfast is one of the most difficult meals to balance correctly but it is integral to eat it. Whether you have a protein-heavy health shake or some eggs then that is much better than skipping the meal."

At the beginning of the Better Body Challenge, all clients are offered a one to one session with a coach and they can discuss their individual diet and exercise plans as well as an induction to the Park Leisure gym with a seven-day membership.

If program members want to introduce a little more exercise in to their lives, but lack the motivation to go alone or have "gym fear" then Better Body Challenge coach Mark McClinchey leads free weekly walks around the Furness area that they can sign up to.

Mr Pendleton and his fellow coaches hope to make the Park Better Body Challenge a regular program, available to anybody who wishes to improve their health and feel better inside and out. To find out more about the next Better Body Challenge at the Park Leisure Centre you can contact Mr Pendleton:

Phone: 07900 573 743 

Email: James@jppt.co.uk 

www.theparkbetterbodychallenge.co.uk 

Facebook.com/Mybetterbodychallenge

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