Tile Hill Lifestyle Clinic

 

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Welcome to the Tile Hill Lifestyle Clinic!

Group sessions teaching “Lifestyle Medicine” to  boost your health and well-being.

We have been granted funding by a wonderful charity, ‘Think Active’ to provide group support to people wishing to improve their health through exercise and lifestyle change.

As a ntwork of GP practices called Go West Primary Care Network (PCN), we have chosen to dedicate the lifestyle group sessions to help people who are overweight or obese to lose weight. (Body Mass Index (BMI) over 25)

If you want help losing weight but also wish to boost your health with diet, exercise, sleep, community and stress management tools you’ve come to the right place!

These sessions are free to people who are eligible and who book a place.

 

Am I eligible to sign up for the lifestyle group?

If you have a BMI (Body Mass Index) over 25 AND you are a patient registered to the following GP surgeries within ‘Go West Primary Care Network (PCN)’ then YES you are eligible! 

Surgeries include: Forrest Medical Centre, Jubilee Healthcare, Kensington Road Surgery, Limbrick Wood Surgery, Westwood Medical Centre and Woodside Medical Centre

If you are not registered, don’t worry! You can still be involved by taking part in the group walks we are running AFTER the sessions. For dates, times and further details please search for ‘Walk Talk Walk Tile Hill’ on Facebook or Instagram.

 

Who is running the group sessions?

The group sessions have been developed and are being run by Dr Tom Gedman.

Dr Tom is a local GP with a specialist interest in Lifestyle Medicine and psychological therapy. 

For the last 4 years he has been helping his patients individually to lose weight and feel better in his NHS clinical practice. He has used this training and experience to develop a group course framework to make weight loss easier.

Other local experts including nutrition and fitness coaches and specialist nurses will also be helping to run the sessions.

 

What is lifestyle medicine?

The group sessions are based on principles of Lifestyle Medicine. 

Lifestyle medicine involves finding ways to change your diet, exercise, sleep, stress management and other lifestyle habits to improve your health without the need for additional medications. 

This may reduce your risk of or improve the nature of a number of chronic medical conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, being overweight or having chronic inflammation, tiredness and pain.

 

Where are the groups based?

St Oswald’s Church, Jardine Crescent, Tile Hill, Coventry, CV4 9PL.

The entrance to the Church is opposite the Woodside Medical Centre and over the green patch of grass in front of the church hall.

The groups are being held in the community room on the left as you walk into the entrance.

Despite this being a church venue, you do not need to have any religious beliefs to attend. You do, however, need to be respectful to other people’s faith.

 

How long are the sessions, what time do they start and on what dates?

Sessions last for 90 minutes. 60 minutes is aimed towards group discussion and teaching about healthy lifestyle change. 30 minutes is dedicated to light and fun exercise, tailored to anyone’s ability.

Sessions run from 1:30 to 3:00pm - please arrive 5 minutes before the session to allow us to start on time.

The groups start on Monday 22nd May 2023 and will run on 3 Mondays out of 4 in the month on the following dates below. 

All dates listed are Mondays. 

  • Group 1 - 22nd May, 5th June, 12th June
  • Group 2 - 26th June, 3rd July, 10th July
  • Group 3 - 24th July, 31st July, 7th August
  • Group 4 - 21st August, 4th September, 11th September
  • Group 5 - 18th September, 25th September, 2nd October
  • Group 6 - 16th October, 23rd October, 30th October
 

How do I book a place?

If you wish to sign up, you will need to be available for each of the dates within your chosen group. 

For example, if you sign up for group 3 you need to be available to attend sessions on the 24th and 31st July, and 7th August.

If you are free to attend all of the Mondays within a particular group, please contact your own GP surgery and ask reception to book your place for week 1.

We are currently training all surgeries in the process but there can be teething problems because we are a new service. If your receptionist is unsure about how to book you into this clinic please read details at the bottom of this page. 

 

What will I learn during each of the 3 sessions?

Session 1: Dream goals, finding your why and building your tribe.

This introduction session allows members of the group to get to know each other in a safe environment without any judgement. We are all in the same boat trying to live the healthiest life we can given our circumstances. Some people may have more barriers to doing this than others.

In this session we build upon the experience of you and other group members and learn how to set achievable and satisfying long term ‘dream goals’ and short term ‘SMART’ goals.

We tap into the underlying ‘purpose’ for behaviour change. Everyone will be different but the strongest way to keep on track with a healthy lifestyle is making this ‘why’ more powerful. We talk you through how to do this to boost your results.

We also introduce the idea of building small, automatic habits in your day to make changing behaviour easier to keep on track in the long run.

We finish off with a guided walk around the local community. Weather permitting we will be walking through nature in the local wood. 

Please bring suitable trainers or walking shoes with good grip just in case there is a little mud on the route.

Session 2: We are what we eat and how we sleep

This session introduces ways to improve your diet without breaking the bank. 

We discuss reading food packages for food quality and calorie content. We talk about the NHS ‘Eat well’ plate and how to build a balanced food plan which is tasty and affordable.

We also discuss the impact poor sleep has on your weight and eating habits and how to make small changes to improve the quantity and quality of your sleep.

The session ends with 30 minutes of guided bodyweight exercise training in the church hall or outside on the grass in front of the building. This will be guided by 2 expert fitness coaches from CV life who have lots of experience making exercise manageable, adapted to everyone’s ability and most importantly, fun!

Session 3: Stress, mood and toxins

In this final session we recap all of the information discussed in the group so far.

We also tackle one of the most important barriers to sticking to a healthy lifestyle in the long term; poor mental health.

When we feel low, stressed, anxious, guilty, worthless or hopeless we often become demotivated. We can even start eating more, doing less exercise and sleeping less as a result of the stress.

We discuss simple breathing, movement and meditation tools to calm your stress levels quickly and boost your motivation to get back on track with your health habits.

We also talk about the link between the way we think and the way we feel and give you lots of tools to help to change negative, automatic thoughts if you suffer with them.

Finally, we discuss how alcohol, drugs and smoking can get in the way of your health goals and ways to reduce or even stop these habits safely.

We finish off with another guided walk with intervals of slow and faster pace to get your heart pumping and happy chemicals flowing. We always have pace leaders so no-one is left behind, whatever your fitness ability.

 

What happens after the sessions are complete?

We believe that in order to learn something, it’s best to teach others how to do the same. 

With this in mind, we would love to welcome you back to any group session in the future that you can attend to facilitate discussions and share the successes and challenges that you have faced.

Often people are happier learning from people who are on the same journey as them but 2 steps ahead. 

You are a valuable asset to the community so we would love to use your new skills!

Just speak to any course leader at the end of the 3rd session to discuss coming back. 

We will also give you information about other free or low cost community services that can help you to continue your weight loss and healthy lifestyle journey.

 

Are there any reasons why I cannot join the lifestyle group?

We need to make sure it is safe for you to exercise before you join the groups. Please complete the PAR-Q questionnaire on the link you have been sent in a text message prior to booking into the group clinic. 

If you answer ‘Yes’ to any questions then please book an appointment with your GP to discuss your health in more detail.

Certain conditions that need to be discussed with a doctor before exercising include:

So the absolute contraindications (reasons not to exercise without discussion with your own GP) would be:

  • Unstable angina (heart related chest pain)
  • Systolic blood pressure higher than 180 and/or diastolic blood pressure over 100mmHg 
  • Blood pressure drops below 20mmHg during ETT 
  • Resting heart rate above 100bpm 
  • Uncontrolled arrhythmias  
  • Heart failure 
  • Unstable diabetes 
  • Illness accompanied by fever 
  • Deep vein thrombosis  (blood clots)
 

If my GP surgery receptionist does not know how to book me into this clinic what should I do?

If your staff member does not know this process please ask them to do the following.

  1. Click on the appointment book in EMIS 
  2. Click ‘Find a slot’ with down arrow - below the magnifying glass in top left of the screen
  3. Click ‘Find GP Connect Appointments’ from the drop down menu
  4. In box ‘Organisation Group’ click ‘Go West Enhanced Access’
  5. Under ‘Organisation’ unclick ‘All’ and just click ‘Go West PCN’
  6. On ‘Dates’ only click the starting date of a group you can attend. For example, if you can attend group 1 - ask them to search 22nd May. If you can attend group 4 ask them to search 21st August.
  7. Click ‘Go West Lifestyle Group Clinic (Healthy Lifestyle Week 1) 1hr30 mins and ‘Book appointment’.
  8. If there is an available slot they will see this on the screen. If all the slots have been filled please ask them to search for alternative group start dates.
  9. You do not need to book week 2 and week 3 on the system – the course leader will book these in for you after week 1.

We will try to update the practice website information when groups are full but this might be slow across different practices. Apologies for any frustration.

Again, you can join us on a guided walk from St Oswalds Church on 3 Monday’s in 4 by searching for ‘Walk Talk Walk Tile Hill’ on Facebook or Instagram.

We look forward to seeing you at the Tile Hill Lifestyle Clinic. Book now with your GP practice to avoid disappointment!

Published: May 23, 2023