I was sure I had made an entry this week, but it appears not.
It has been a solid week for the program - a great second week for our second group.
Learning from our pilot, we are mixing up these sessions better, and it was a really good Tuesday morning in Camden.
We started off as usual on our "mindset" promotion - challenging people to think a bit more and realise a growth mindset is the way forward - instead of being stuck in a fixed mindset. We did a small game giving two groups different situations and making them look at things in a negative way (which would be the natural way to see them - we did a failed job interview, as well as the break up of a relationship). Both of these showed similar emotions and thoughts of blame, self-pity, anger. But actually both can be seen as a challenge with positive outlooks. It's all down to mindset. I think it got our message across well.
Luke did a great presentation on "Protein" for our nutrition section. I learnt stuff, and I continue to do so. We gave a very good handout to accompany it too. We do not believe in tell people what to eat - they are adults and they can choose what they consume for food and drink. But if we can raise awareness of why we need certain things in our diet (such as vitamins and minerals from our first week, and proteins in our second week) and how our body can stay health because of them, we are seeing if we can get people thinking about their own short term and long term nutrition needs.
We did three more exercises following last week's squat, crunch and press up. This week we introduced the lunge, plank, and the always popular burpee. Sadly I am unable to make the personal training session today, due to commitments, but I know that Dean and Luke will be doing some circuits with the group - and involving these exercises. The group are pushing themselves into all of this, which us terrific.
Our health section had Fisayo, from Solutions4Health, come in to talk about stopping smoking. They run an excellent service that can help people move forward with this. He gave a very good presentation and it involved a carbon monoxide test for all the group - which proved informative.
Yesterday, Friday 13th, we had an amazing trip to the British Library. We met outside beforehand, and six of us enjoyed a chat and some lunch before going in at 2pm. Dan was our guide, taking us around the building, including some places that are staff only. We learned a lot, and it is an incredible place. I was most impressed with the library that had been gathered by King George 1, and he managed to collect a large number of books from all over the world, and it was thought provoking seeing so many on shelves proudly displayed. We were also shown how to become free members of the library so we could use research, and I know one of our group who expressed interest around her own college course. I also am anxious to do some more research.
We have to offer our heartfelt thanks to the British Library, who gave us a lot of time, and have said they would be delighted to offer more of our groups a tour in the future - something we will definitely be taking up.
On Thursday evening I met up with Osh Gantly, one of my councillors. She is heavily into mental health issues - as is Jeremy Corbyn (with whom I am meeting at his surgery next week). I updated Osh on our progress and she said she wanted to be kept up to date.
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