WRIGHT Foundation have offered the Level 4 Obesity and Diabetes course for a number of years now, offering students the chance to develop their knowledge and skills to support referred patients to improve their health and wellbeing through improved lifestyles.

The course covers the aetiology & genetics of obesity and prevalence, risk factors associated with obesity, energy intake, food labelling, energy balance and popular diets,  diabetes mellitus, specific measurement diagnostics, methods of data collection, physical activity and functional capacity, training methodology and principles relating to obesity & diabetes, strength training considerations, understanding medical and surgical interventions, childhood obesity issues, psychological issues of the obese client, psychology of eating, binge eating, health related quality of life, creation of treatment protocols, considerate assessment techniques and lifestyle modification.

Thousands of students across the UK have trained with WRIGHT Foundation, impacting positively on 100’s of thousands or people with long term health conditions benefiting from a highly skills fitness workforce able to provide personalised advice and support.

Little did Wayne Morgan realise however, that his attendance on a recent course would not only improve his skills but also have a significant impact on his own health too!

Wayne is 51 and works for North Lincolnshire Council as a Healthy Lifestyles Facilitator, providing advice to members of the public to help them improve their own health.
Admittedly, Wayne’s health was not in the best of shape, having been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only just before his employer asked him to attend the Level 4 Obesity and Diabetes course. As Wayne explains:

“I eat a relatively healthy diet and have a takeaway only now and then, but because of all the exercise training I do it was probably a little higher in carbohydrates than it should be. I weighed 95 kg when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and my doctor told me by HbA1c (a measure of blood sugar level) was too high and needed to come down.

After attending the WRIGHT Foundation course, I decided to use the knowledge gained to take control of my condition. I embarked on a low car diet to help control my blood sugar levels and aid with weight loss, cut out bread, pasta, rice and potatoes and all sugary and savoury snacks immediately!

I reduced my calorie intake to around 1,500 kcals per day and weighed all of my food before cooking, with a big emphasis on eating lots of green veg, berries and small portions of nuts. Because I has my gall bladder removed in 1997 I realised I also needed to cut the amount of saturated fats in my diet, so all meats I consumed were lean cuts only and increased to three portions of oily fish per week.”

Wayne continued an exercise programme for one hour, six days a week, carefully planning everything he did to ensure he involved all muscle groups, either through cardio, resistance training or both. He explains that a key goal, aside from bringing his diabetes under control was:

“Small differences make big changes – was my motto along the way. Oh and the chance to buy some new sports kit!”

Wayne experienced some significant changes as a result of his improved lifestyle including:

• HbA1c reduced from 64 mmol/L to 43 mmol/L – bringing him under the target his GP wanted to see
• He reduced his weight from 95kg to 78.2 kg, with a BMI of 28.9 dropping to 23.8
• Energy levels improved and have remained high since
• Sleep has also improved compared to beforehand

Lorraine Nicholson, Director of Training at WRIGHT Foundation says:

“We often hear about the improvements our students make in the lives of their customers, but Wayne’s feedback was impressive and something well worth highlighting. I’m sure that the improved knowledge and skills gained while on the course not only helped transform Wayne’s health, but in applying what he learned in ‘real-life’ I’m sure his experience from this will benefit countless others too. Well done Wayne and keep it going!”

Wayne has some tips to share with anyone else thinking of changing their lifestyle as he did:

“What is key is finding a diet that suits you. I didn’t find the NHS eat well guide worked for me, so I did my own research after the course and made my own decisions using diabetes.org and diabetes UK information, I even invested in a few cook books as I do enjoy cooking, mainly to help with low-carb recipes, most of my meals are now geared toward Mediterranean cuisine and they have served me well.

I also have my own small gym, so accessing physical activity was not a problem and I was obviously able to design my own programme that was effective and enjoyable for me. However, sometimes your body will tell you to ease off a little, like the time I experienced a ‘hypo’, so I did!”

With a bit of planning and effort Wayne’s story shows just what is possible in turning around conditions like type 2 diabetes and we hope he has the chance to help many more to experience that same lifestyle change and improvement in their health and wellbeing in the years ahead!

To read more stories like this, why not check out our blog here.