A Body Mass Index of more than 25 doubles the risk of coronary heart disease. The risk quadruples if BMI is 29 or more. (from Food and Lifestyle: Healthy Eating and Weight Management by Pinki Sahota, PhD, RD, RPHNut, in Lifestyle Management in Health and Social Care, ed. Miranda Thew and Jim McKenna, 2008)
Last fall, magazine writer Rachel Goldsworthy convinced her father, 75, to sign up for a locally run weight-loss program with her. By Christmas they’d both lost more than 25 pounds and they’ve kept it off — easily.
“It’s not a diet — I don’t count calories or fat grams. The program just retaught me how to eat properly.” Goldsworthy hitches up her baggy pants. “I’m so stoked I couldn’t help myself; I had to blog about it.”
Calorie Neutral is a twice-weekly account of the ups and downs she and Fodder (her thinly disguised parent) faced as they ditched the pounds.
“Within a couple of weeks of starting the program last September my dad had to stop resting in the afternoons,” she said. “By the end of November, he had so much energy he also had to increase the length of his gym workouts. That’s pretty good for a guy with high cholesterol and coronary artery disease.”
Goldsworthy herself broke her lifelong cracker addiction and has increased her support of local thrift stores as she sought first size 10 and then size eight jeans.
“I’m not telling anyone else what to do,” she says. “I only want to share what worked for me. Of course I hope people will read the blog and take away some inspiration or ideas that might help in their own lives.”
In fact, some regular readers have already requested a plan to help them create their own healthy-weight lifestyles, so Goldsworthy will have that up and running right after February 14.
Goldsworthy, 50, is a lifelong Victoria resident and UVic science grad who is “encouraging” her Fodder to live longer — and herself to live better.
For more information, check out calorieneutral.blogspot.com.
editor@peninsulanewsreview.com