I was told that I would look fat in my wedding photographs. I will remember that comment for the rest of my life.
For Ashley, 22-years-old and over 100kgs, this was the turning point. She knew that she had to change her relationship with food and her lifestyle dramatically. A diet wasn’t going to cut it. Simply eliminating sugar and carbohydrates wasn’t working. She needed much more than a crash-diet that wasted her time and compromised her health.
This is how the happily married legal receptionist found herself on Genoeg – a television programme that is broadcast on VIA, DSTV Channel 147. Launched on 15 January and airing until 9 April, the show follows the journey of 13 contestants who are put on The Diet Everyone Talks About, a scientific carbohydrate controlled 10-week lifestyle programme. Health experts Gert Coetzee – pharmacist and founder of The Diet Everyone Talks About and Pierre Spies – a performance coach and personal training specialist – provide guidance to these participants on how to live healthy lives, while making sustainable and effective food choices.
So effective is this guidance that Ashley shed an impressive 7kg and 8.8% of her body mass throughout the process. Not only does she feel lighter and more self-confident, but she no longer struggles with migraines or energy dips.
“I am ready to take on my day-to-day life with plenty of energy,” she says.
After being hospitalised for over six months and then discharged, Ashley began to lose some of the weight. But it was Genoeg that gave her the guidance that she needed to keep going. Not only did she reach a healthy weight, but when she married her high school sweetheart, she was not in the least bit concerned about how ‘fat’ she might look in her wedding photos.
It was with the support of her husband, family and friends, however, that Ashley could achieve such incredible results. While she would like to lose a few more kilograms, she knows that she will maintain her healthy weight easily by being on The Diet Everyone Talks About.
Even better is that while Ashley has always done resistance training, cardio and weight exercises, she now has energy for even more exercise. Following the show, she has also maintained a personal trainer who she says trains her hard.
With delicious recipes on the menu such as mince muffins filled with mushrooms, spinach, onions and green peppers, there was also no going hungry.