Your Success Stories

‘A low GI diet – best thing I've done in a long time’ says Lorraine
‘I started hearing about low GI diets back in 2004 but only looked into them properly in early 2005. At the time I weighed 90 kg which was at least 20 kg over a healthy weight. Ironically, I work in the fresh produce industry, I had a good working knowledge of nutrition and healthy eating guidelines plus I have quite good cooking skills. Previous attempts at calorie-controlled diets failed because the hunger pangs would win out in the end. And a few months going low carb in search of a quick fix left me heavier than ever.

After reading up on GI principles and seeing that this clearly wasn’t another complicated fad diet I opted to join an excellent online site offering a personalised GI diet plan. Pretty quickly I could see that I hadn't been eating regularly enough, my food choices hadn’t been ideal, there hadn’t been enough variety in my diet and that my portion control had been non-existent.

Today I am 21 kg lighter and have a healthy BMI (body mass index). I maintain my weight by a combination of sensible portion control and food selection. Fruit, vegetables, salads and pulses are now the major part of my diet. Pasta/rice/bread and potatoes are limited to much smaller portions and are always the wholegrain version. I limit meat to two or three small portions per week (red meat just once a week) and I try to include a low-fat dairy item every day. I've found that the GI principles are flexible enough to be applied to eating out, holidays, special occasions and so forth. It’s a rare event when I'm faced with a choice where nothing is suitable. Not everything I eat is low GI by any means, but certainly the majority.

Medically speaking I feel much fitter. An asthmatic condition has all but disappeared and I am confident that I have halted what would have been an inevitable slide into diabetes, heart disease and a host of other more minor complaints.’

Jaws dropped at the gym when Margaret walked in
‘I was 60 years old last July. When I saw the photos of me at my surprise birthday party I was depressed at the amount of fat that had accumulated around my midriff! I weighed 80 kg and should have weighed 65 kg. I set out to put this right by eating ‘diet’ and ‘low fat’ foods along with my regular gym sessions and lots of walking. I was attending my local gym on average five times weekly for aquarobics and Pilates. Nothing was working. Very frustrating and even more depressing! I attended a session at the local RSL Club at which Dr Sandra Cabot was speaking about the effects of high GI carbs and sugar in foods and their impact on the syndrome X condition. It just clicked with me that I was going down the wrong path to achieve weight loss. I weighed 82.7 kg that day.

By 24 January 2006, I weighed 76 kg and my doctor was impressed! My subsequent blood glucose, cholesterol tests were all in normal range. They were all raised to upper levels of normal range in the previous year. Exactly one year on from my 60th birthday I am 72 kg and my BMI = 26.4, a bit too high still. Waist is 84 cm and hip 111 cm. I am wearing size 14 much better than the 16–18s of last year! I feel great but know that a few less kilos would be preferable. My goal is 68 kg. However, I have so much more energy for all the activities of daily life including an upcoming trip to China, Northern Thailand and Nepal assured in the knowledge that I will have the energy to enjoy fully all that these countries have to offer. All the people who attend my gym classes have remarked on how great I look and want to know what the ‘secret’ is!’

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