With two diabetic parents, Jabeen joined Livewell in 2019 to lower her risks of developing the same condition. With the service’s support, the frontline worker from Normanton has revolutionised her eating and exercise habits, discovering a new love of running along the way. Read her inspiring story:
Jabeen (35), a clinical pharmacist currently delivering Covid vaccines in Belper, was 8 months into her programme and had lost a stone and a half when the pandemic struck in March last year.
“The first lockdown hit me hard. I’d developed a good weekly routine of Livewell classes, gym exercises and walking, and the pounds were steadily shifting. Without access to these supportive sessions I lost my motivation, the bad habits crept back in and I ended up regaining some of the weight I had lost. My active job as a community pharmacist changed to a desk-based GP practice role so I was sitting most of the day too.
Then in June I started to change my mindset, I accepted support from my advisor, Rania, joined Livewell’s Facebook support group, made time for walks and curbed my unhealthy snacks.
By September I was ready for a new challenge so I joined Derby Joggers Couch to 5k course. Running was something I hated at school but I was keen to find out if it was different as an adult. The group’s leaders are mostly former Livewell clients and volunteers who have been through the course and programme before, so I felt they’d be supportive and understanding of where I was starting from.
And they couldn’t have been more encouraging, particularly during the difficult parts of the 9-week course when the running segments increased. I felt supported every step of the way and I was so proud to be awarded my medal at my graduation run in November. Unfortunately, by then we were back in lockdown so we couldn’t complete our run together as a group but luckily one of the leaders, Dawn accompanied me to run the full distance and it was such an amazing moment.
After that I started running three to four days a week – I guess you could say the running bug had firmly set in by this point. I felt brave enough to increase my distance and ran my first 10k in December and haven’t stopped since.
Evolving my goals keeps me focussed. I’ve just completed a charity challenge of running at least 5km every day during January to raise funds for the Padley Centre. I hadn’t set out to achieve the January 200km distance award on Strava (a running, cycling, swimming app) but when my runs totalled 50km every week, I knew I could do it.
My family are proud and supportive of the new me and my healthier eating is having a positive impact on their diet too.
Through all of this, I’ve lost three stone and I feel amazing. Understanding that set-backs are a normal part of weight loss, I also know that eating sensible portions, avoiding fatty and sugary snacks and keeping active will help me reach my target weight.
When I eventually return to doing face-to-face medication reviews, I feel in a much better position to deliver healthy lifestyle advice to patients, by being a positive role model and having my own real-life experience to draw upon.