Richard’s Success Story

Since my early forties I’ve struggled to maintain my weight at a reasonable level, which for me is south of 13st, despite exercising regularly and eating what I considered a sensible diet.

About 4 years ago I was diagnosed with a large tumour in my left thigh. Following the surgery running was no longer possible. Running with Ilkley Harriers, as I had for 20 years, was the love of my life. No longer being able to run was a massive loss to me. In addition I suspected that without the running there was the potential for further weight gain.

When I got myself moving again some 2 or 3 months after the op I went to the gym around 2 to 3 times a week and continued with an hour or two of cycling at the weekends, weather permitting. Despite my best efforts with exercise and being mindful of what I was eating I very gradually put on weight. By May of this year [2010] my weight peaked at an all time high of 14st. 4lbs. All very frustrating.

Just before we went on holiday in May, my wife who has always been

supportive of my efforts to reduce my bulk, announced that she had bought me a book to read whilst we were away. It was titled ‘Waist Disposal’ by Dr. John Briffa.

So I dually read it and must say that I found it very interesting. Particularly in that the recommendations flew in the face of what I, and many others considered to be healthy eating. I enjoy my food and a typical day would be fruit and cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and vegetable based evening meal, sometimes with meat or fish. I don’t do puddings and I love milk chocolate. I’ll have to confess I enjoy sampling fine wines – oh yes. As an overview I suppose my diet would be considered a high carbohydrate diet with plenty of pasta, wholegrain bread and vegetables.

What Briffa recommends is eliminating sugary and starchy carbohydrates and replacing these with foods high in protein. So I decided to give it a go and to my surprise since changing my eating habits at the beginning of June it’s had a dramatic effect on my weight.

Over the three months I’ve lost 25 lbs whilst at the same time by and large still enjoying my food. It’s proved to be an interesting experiment for me and I’m now where I wanted to be weight wise, although it’s taken me 20 years to get here!