Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

When losing is winning

By Stephen Hagan - posted Wednesday, 30 January 2008


African American comedian Bill Cosby once said “I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody”.

Christmas is a time for most Australians to meet up with family and friends to celebrate the festive season and to recount the year that was and reflect momentarily on those who no longer grace us with their presence.

It’s always great catching up with acquaintances that you may not have seen since the last Christmas gathering or to see a lost family member who has put in a surprise appearance after a break of several long years.

Advertisement

This special time of the year is indeed a joyous occasion to let your hair down with welcome faces around the dining room table over a meal or backyard barbeque with a drink: away from the hassles of personal and/or work related calamities spending a precious couple of days or weeks together.

After a very hectic year of jetting around the country attending functions and delivering keynote addresses - as well as collecting a couple of awards for my documentary on the way - I had time to show visiting family members some of the more memorable moments of the year that was through photographs and film runs.

Disappointingly for me I also had a few unwanted surprises in the form of a few extra kilos in weight gain - revealed in all its incriminating rawness in the scrap book and on the TV monitor.

Strange how these pesky little kilos tend to creep up on you throughout the year without you consciously knowing they’ve arrived.

When I say consciously - well I guess I knew they had jumped on board but lived in denial continually telling myself that they’ll only stay a while and then leave.

It probably would have helped if I had routinely climbed onto the bathroom scales which would have revealed the extent of my over-indulgence throughout the year - instead of treating them as if they were a hazard to be avoided at all costs.

Advertisement

Another sure give away sign of weight accumulation that I ignored is clothes that became more challenging and embarrassingly difficult to fit for me as the year progressed. And true to form I chose to disregard difficult fits as merely washing machine shrinkage and sought out larger size clothes (XL to XXL) that I stored in my walk-in-robe for awkward occasions such as these.

And still, without attempting to lose weight, I smiled those pearly whites whenever the camera was pointed in my direction at functions around the nation and crossed my fingers that the published image would not paint me in an unflattering light.

They say children are the best barometer, painfully honest and potentially cruel at times, in remarking on what appears before them. And my nieces and nephews were no exception to that old saying because that’s exactly how it panned out when unfavourable comments by them about my double chin in the documentary footage and bloated looks in one too many press release shots were offered up for all to hear.

After experiencing countless direct remarks and subtle innuendos of my expanding frame from my mob I decided instead of dismissing their remarks as little more than friendly family banter I thought I’d do something about my unacceptable predicament.

It’s not like I’m ignorant of the end result of adopting a prolonged unhealthy lifestyle without a balanced fitness routine. The old me succinctly mirrored that outcome.

All year I’ve seen saturation coverage of Indigenous Australians dying 20 years before mainstream Australians and recording horrendous results for diabetes, cardiovascular, kidney, chronic ear and eye diseases and a myriad other deadly illness that seem to afflict us more than our non-Indigenous counterparts.

One only needs to turn on the television today to hear of the current obesity problem being described by medical experts as an Australian pandemic. I understand obesity has doubled in Australian adults and tripled in Australian children in the past decade.

I’m patently aware that obesity increases a person's risk for Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, abnormal blood fat (for example, cholesterol) levels, some cancers, high blood uric acid levels, breathlessness, sleep apnoea, impaired fertility, osteoarthritis of the knees and lower back pain. It also reduces quality of life with respect to social interaction, anxiety, depression and mental wellbeing.

So armed with these pertinent and sobering statistics and never one for adopting the most orthodox approach to logical pathways i.e. starting a diet and exercise regime after the festive season - I decided to commence one prior to the most celebrated calorie loaded party oriented time of the year.

My old bathrooms scales showed an uninspiring result of the weight it had to assess and produced a reading of 105 kilos when I finally decided to clear away the cobwebs and hop on board. Now I’m talking about very old scale that precedes my daughter Jayde who has recently turned 12.

My wife Rhonda agreed to join me in my campaign to shed those dangerously high kilos from my 182cm frame. But in order for her to come on board she insisted that we do away with the old scale and buy a new one that displays weight electronically to the 100th of a gram.

So off to the local supermarket we went and jointly identified a Weight Watchers weight tracking and body analysis scale by Conair. This amazingly light weight scale has become a blessing as it not only records to the exact gram your weight but it can be programmed individually for several people.

Every time Rhonda or I step on the scale as person 1 or 2 it gives us a reading of our current weight, our weight when we last jumped on the scale, our starting weight when we commence this programme, our weight from our goal weight (how much more we desired to lose), our body fat, body mass index, body water and bone mass.

After losing an astounding eight kilos in three weeks on my old scale from the December 4 commencement date of my weight loss program I was most disappointed to hop on my new scale on the 25th to find my weight wasn’t 97 kilos but rather an unflattering 103.7 kilos.

My new Christmas present provided me with a bad start to an otherwise fantastic day; a reading of my weight on my new scale showed painfully that my old scale was almost five kilos out. In effect my starting weight on December 4 of my program wasn’t 105 kilos as thought but, rather, a sad 109.7 kilos.

Can you imagine my angst when the realisation set in that I now needed to factor in an additional five kilos that I thought I didn’t have - in order to achieve my goal weight of 88 kilos.

At precisely a month after I commenced my healthy living program I weighed in at an impressive 99.7 kilos - a total loss of 10 kilos since December 4 as read on the new scale.

I have a further 11.7 kilos to go in the next eight weeks to achieve my goal weight and then the hardest part begins where I’m aiming to maintain that size for the rest of my life.

I figure I will possibly add an extra 10 years on to my life should I reach my goal and maintain it. And to me that will be all worth the sacrifices that I’m going through at present to gain those extra years of quality time down the track to spend with my family including expected grandchildren.

To be a little more specific about my program: I began by following a 12-week plan from the No.1 best selling book The CSIRO total wellbeing diet by Dr Manny Noakes and Dr Peter Clifton as well as religiously sticking to half-hour sessions of exercise in the morning and evening.

While I no longer consistently follow the three meals and additional snacks offered by the diet plan - principally because it cost too much and is too tedious to prepare - I have gained immeasurably from the meals eaten to date and have now incorporated similar recipes tips to meals I believe would be well received by the family.

I now cook with a teaspoon of olive oil instead of half a cup and apply only light skim milk on my Hi-Bran cereals instead of full cream milk. I don’t drink any alcohol, coffee or tea. I now substitute sugar with honey, multi-grained with white bread and when I need a sweet fix I bite into a mango, orange, pear or apple. And if the hunger pains creep in between meals I eat multi-grain crisp bread with a little margarine and Vegemite.

In addition I run at varying speeds on my treadmill, cycle at various speeds on my gym bike and do sit-ups, push-up, skipping and a serious of weights in my half-hour program every morning before breakfast and before the main evening meal. However you don’t need fancy home gym equipment to work out as long as you have a good pair of running shoes and a preparedness to put in the hard work exercising indoors, around your neighbourhood or at your local park

I contribute the success of my program to my wife Rhonda who assists in meal preparations although she chose to go to a women’s only gym instead of using our home gym. My children, Stephen Jr and Jayde, also assist me in keeping focused by joining me in the afternoon sessions.

Where once I would have been banished to the guest room if I asked Rhonda her weight - I now record her weight along with mine every Monday morning and enjoy celebrating our progress together.

So the next time you hear those tempting words from family or friends of “just a little bit more - or try this new dish” remember Bill Cosby’s famous saying: “I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody".

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Stephen Hagan is Editor of the National Indigenous Times, award winning author, film maker and 2006 NAIDOC Person of the Year.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Stephen Hagan

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Stephen Hagan
Article Tools
Comment Comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy