"I wake up a lot better. When I wake up, I actually feel refreshed!"
Before Richard decided to lose weight with The Total Wellbeing Diet, he admits he indulged in too many fried dim sims and commercial treats, such as chips, chocolate and ice-cream.
“I ate a lot of healthy food plus a lot of unhealthy food,” he says. “Now I'm eating healthy and get nervous at the idea of eating a potato, and high GI carbs such as pasta have gone from my regular meals.”
Richard’s dramatic change in his approach to food can be attributed to his newfound love for creating healthy eating habits while on The Total Wellbeing Diet.
“I had put on the weight because of the lack of information about tasty but healthy recipes, using more fat and oil than necessary and an ‘all or nothing’ attitude to indulgences.”
Indulging on a diet
One of Richard’s biggest motivators for sticking to the program was still being able to eat a pie or dim sims without feeling guilty. This is because the allowance of “indulgences” on the program, along with the flexibility to substitute meals as you go, appealed to him the most.
“The opportunity to choose how meticulous you wanted to be and the language of “indulgences” was probably the most powerful thing for me while on the program,” he says.
“Although I drink wine most days, my diet now looks pretty much like any day out of the Total Wellbeing Diet. I’ve learnt to cook with spices, lots of them. I can have the same sautéed or steamed vegetables three nights in a row but they’ll all seem different when I use French spices one night, Moroccan ones the next and Chinese five spice on another night.”
Did it together
Besides discovering and enjoying new and delicious ways to cook food, Richard admits the program was easier to stick to with the support of his family.
Having gone from 116kg to a healthy weight of 85kg* with the help of his wife and daughter has been a bonding and motivating process.
*In 6 months. Individual results may vary.
“We decided as a family that we’d do the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet together. Rosie (my wife) and Ellie (my daughter) and I supported each other in terms of what we ate and when we ate it and just little encouragements like that. We would look at each other and say, ‘How did you go today?’ And encourage each other when we lost weight,” he says.
“I lost 3.5kg in the first week. And then I lost another kilo and a half the next week.*”
Not just nutrition
Richard’s life has changed in so many ways since his 31kg weight loss*. Not only has he learnt about the science behind a higher protein and lower GI diet and has discovered spices to transform any meal into something delicious, Richard has been able to fit into “clothes that look like they’re in brochures” instead of his previous size 44 or 46 clothes.
His sleeping has improved, too. “I’ve had bouts of sleep apnoea in the past and I’ve had advice from doctors about the risk for heart disease and other conditions. And since I’ve lost the weight, I know I snore a lot less, I sleep a lot better. I wake up a lot better as well - when I wake up, I actually feel refreshed,” he says.
Richard's tips for losing weight
- See it as a choice rather than something you “have” to do. In this way, you take a proactive approach to everything and feel more empowered and in control when you achieve your goals.
- Focus on the progress you’ve made, not how far you have left to go.
- Don’t deny yourself the indulgences. You don’t learn to manage them if you run away from them.
- As good as it is to have a different breakfast recipe every day, two or three regular recipes on rotation makes it easier.
- Get support from family, friends or get a dog! Exercising on your own is a lot harder. You don’t want to let anyone else down if you do it with somebody else.
*Individual results may vary
