big nev is not so big anymore

Hair by Neville Lenus Cooper, Newcastle

I had my second visit to Nev, the hair stylist, today. Nev owns a salon that does hair and makeup. An animated and client-focused stylist, turns out Nev was born the same year as me. And the same month! He is 17 days older than me. We talked animatedly during the hair appointment about painting, Edith Piaf, blogs, and Newcastle while he clipped, cut, snipped, combed and “foofed” (a word) my hair.

But the biggest excitement was the discovery that we each share an interest in weight loss! Yes we do! Nev has recently lost 6 kilos! He has achieved this just by doing the ‘swap it’ theme from telly. He has swapped a lot of fried food and does a walk on his walking machine at various speeds and inclines at about 30 minutes a day. He says he doesn’t want to go to a gym, and is not into strict diets. He doesn’t want to make this weight loss thing so strict that he can’t keep going.

I was so delighted to hear his story. I like the following things about his ‘swap it’ weight loss strategy:

1. It’s not a hard and fast rule to never eat fried food, but generally he avoids fried foods. He won’t deny himself a fried chicken schnitzel if he really wants it. I like this because the idea of ‘avoid’ rather than ‘never-eat-that-food-I-love-ever-again’ idea never works long term. Nev’s approach of “I’ll have it if I really want it, but mostly I’ve avoided it” is a great approach.
2. This type of approach also gives a person a sense of ownership and power over their own weight loss strategy. He’s in charge of it. He can work harder or not, depending on his choice. He is not following a drink-this-shake-twice-a-day type of so-called quick-fix plan. He is making changes to his diet as he’s ready.
3. His expectations are not unrealistic. “I’m not into fast” he says. He knows that slow is good when it comes to weight loss. I couldn’t agree more. Fast weight loss (by ‘fast’ I would say more than a kilo a week) only reduces muscle tone. And because muscle is heavier than fat, the scales tip in the right direction. But it’s muscle that is the fat burning engine of the body, so the more muscle you have is good. Quick-fix diets know this. Good old fashioned, slow weight loss is the healthy way as it actually burns fat, rather than loses muscle tone.
4. He is exercising at a level that he has discovered works for him. He is finding his own level of exercise and doing it.

So good luck Nev! I love finding like-minded others who are interested in the healthy way to lose weight. Keep up the good work!

You can check out the ‘swap it’ program by clicking here.