Choosing a winner for our New You competition was not an easy task, all the entries were from women who wanted to make a change but needed the help to do so. None of our candidate were obese, most were around 40 lbs overweight and knew that over the long term this carried health implications, wanted a fitness regime they could stick with and to look and feel better. What the Observer on Sunday was offering them was the chance, over six months, to have access to a personal trainer, a nutritionist, vitamin supplements, a beauty and make up consultant, a hair consultant and sport clothes and equipment. With a great offer like this, it is no wonder we had loads of entries to our competition.
Our winner, Denize Solomon, 34, admitted that she had tried to change her lifestyle time and time again but just gave up and that she really did not know where to start with preparing meals that were healthy. Added to that, she has a family history of cancer and knew that changes were urgently needed to reduce her risk factors. Finally there was a plea from the heart that many women can understand, “I don’t make any efforts with my appearance (have yet to figure out eyeshadow) and decline invitations because I just don’t feel at ease amongst happy ‘normal’ people.”
Our first aim was to get Denize’s health checked out with Dr. Sook Yin. “She told me that this was the best possible time for me to start the changes because of my age weight and body fat,” says Denise. Next priority was to look at Denize’s diet and see where changes could be made. Denize says, “My husband and son are active enough to eat the starchy Caribbean foods we love to cook and I am sometimes at a loss as to how to cook any other way. I have tried to cut down on rice but find I get headaches and reactions when I stop.” Nutritional and fitness expert Helki Weber at Anytime Fitness, who will be advising Denize on diet and nutrition, says that withdrawal symptoms are not uncommon when people have this type of craving and the key is to try a healthy version i.e substitute brown for white rice.
Helki wanted Denize to keep a food diary and fill in a detailed nutritional evaluation form. Helki does not believe in cutting out food groups, it is more about portion control so Denize was given a portion control chart for all the food groups. Helki also had a good look in Denize’s fridge and had a lot to say about additives and trans fats but more on that in our up-date next month. The change has begun!
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