Chris: “I was surprised and delighted that I was able to lose the 7% that we'd originally set as a target”
My name is Chris Newlands, I’m 65 and I retired in the past year. I'm entering this new chapter of life with plenty of opportunities to do what I want, rather than what my job tells me to do, and I wanted a new lifestyle plan so that I don't spend my time just sitting around reading, watching TV - and putting on weight!
I've managed to lose weight in the past, but I've never managed to keep it off successfully and it's always come back fairly quickly afterwards. This time, I needed to do something a bit more radical. The Counterweight programme seemed to offer a way to do that, as it is much more
comprehensive.
“I was surprised and delighted that I was able to lose the 7% that we'd originally set as a target”
By moving over to the porridge in the morning, a soup for lunch and a much better calorie-controlled meal in the evening the weight came off quite quickly. I was surprised and delighted that I was able to lose the 7% that we'd originally set as a target – and within a much quicker time frame than I had even thought possible.
By the end of the programme, I'd managed to go down from 102.5kg to 88kg - a very significant weight loss! I was extremely pleased with it (and not only the weight loss in terms of the number on the scale, but also on the inches - nearly four inches difference in my waistline).
“I didn’t want to be a statistic”
I think that the key thing that I take away from it is that by doing something really quite simple, which is focusing on what you're eating, you're improving your own health and you're taking strain off the National Health Service because so many people have weight related health problems. I didn't want to be one of those statistics. I wanted to take charge of my own health. It’s been great for me and for my partner, who is a doctor, and continually urging me to be healthier in my lifestyle choices.
“It’s good news all round!”
I have an appointment with my doctor this week to talk about coming off the blood pressure tablets because I'm so much better and my blood pressure has improved significantly since I lost the weight.
My fitness levels are also much better. We use a station here to catch the Tube into London, and there are plenty of steps! Before, I used to look at those steps and think – do I really need to go to London? These days, I can sort of skip up those steps without any problem at all! The weight loss has made such a difference in terms of regaining the stamina levels, the energy and the ability to do things which were becoming challenging.
“The programme works!”
It's worth sticking to. If you set an achievable goal and work to that and then you achieve something which is not too challenging, just losing three or four kilograms to start with and seeing how easy it is to achieve that, you can then set continuing targets until you get to what you really want to achieve. The difference is apparent very, very quickly. It certainly was for me.
I thoroughly recommend Counterweight to anybody who wants to improve their health, lose
weight and just be the person they can and want to be... We can all make the right choices and make the change!