Flabu-less @ 40 – My Milestone Weight Loss

Posted: Monday 3 January 2011 09:31am

Monique Butterworth is a leading Sydney freelance journalist. Unhappy with the way 20kg had attached itself to her since her 30th birthday, she vowed to be 10kg slimmer by her 40th and on the road back to her “fighting weight”. With the help of Sydney’s Alkaline Spa and a prescribed low-carbohydrate weight management program, she’s already half way there.

There’s nothing quite like a fast-approaching milestone birthday to snap you into weight loss frenzy. Call me vain, but the fact 20kg had “snuck” on in the last 10 years between my 30th and soon-to-be 40th – and the fact my milestone soiree was likely to be posted across that very public of photo albums, Facebook – I was keen to be as fabulous at 40 as I could be.

With only 12 weeks until the big Four-O, I realistically gave myself the goal of losing 10kg. If I achieved this, I vowed I would continue on to lose another 10kg, bringing me back to my 30-year-old “fighting weight”.

A consultation with naturopath and wellness consultant Erin Gall, at Alkaline Spa and Clinic in Sydney’s Potts Point www.alkaline.com.au, seemed like a good start.

I was booked in for a VLA Bioimpedance Analysis. What the …? I was told this little machine I was being hooked up to all very briefly would measure my “bioimpedance”, or  internal body composition. The findings would provide me with a full health assessment and “the dietary and lifestyle tools needed to improve your general wellbeing, age healthily, increase vitality and address any specific health concerns that may arise”, according to the blurb.

Ever the sceptic, I was dubious about how this little machine attached for a little over three seconds to my foot and wrist could do all that.

Not surprisingly my results were not good. So in the name of science (and vanity) I asked Erin for help to see if I could improve my VLA “situation” and lose weight.

Erin started me on a weight management program designed to switch on your body’s fat-burning capacity. This involves eating healthy, low-carbohydrate meals.

I was given booklets with recipes, a weekly meal planner, prescribed products to assist my weight loss, told to drink more water and pursue resistance training-type exercise.

I was also told to cut alcohol from my diet. Given my lifestyle, I knew this would be one of the toughest things to do, so instead of completely eradicating the pleasure of the odd glass of champagne from my diet or a social glass of wine with dinner, I vowed to cut out what I deemed “unnecessary” alcohol from my diet. For me, that was not having a glass of wine while cooking dinner, an ice cold beer at the end of a long day or that glass of wine at lunch when meeting with girlfriends.

Pasta also had become an all too easy thrice-weekly dinner for me – and my portion control was out of whack. Surprisingly, sticking to the program was easy for me. Even dining out was easy.

I made an appointment to see Erin for another consultation and follow up VLA test in two weeks. I had lost 2kg and my VLA results had improved. The sceptic began to believe. Erin recommended I do Colon Hydrotherapy and booked me in for three colonics over three weeks. Determined to see results, I told myself this would give my body the spring clean  it needed and got over my fear. Surprisingly, the colonics were nowhere near as bad as I had imagined. After three weeks, I had lost 5kg in total.

There’s nothing like seeing results to spur you on …

At the end of the 12 weeks and merely five days before I was to turn 40 I had lost 10kg and felt great. People were complimenting me on how I looked and it felt good.

Needless to say, I didn’t exactly adhered to the diet on the day of my birthday (or the day after!!!) but my motto is if I manage to stick to the program 90 per cent of the time, it’s a whole lot better than what I was doing three months ago!

My goal now is to lose the next 10kg and feel just that extra bit more fabulous!

How the program worked

Your body has three main sources of energy. It can burn fat, glucose (carbohydrate) or protein. High levels of dietary carbohydrates (high G.I foods such as sugars, bread, rice, pasta and potatoes) work with the hormone insulin to “switch off’” fat burning and increase fat gain. Losing fat is virtually impossible if you have raised insulin levels.

When your body’s blood sugar and insulin levels are low enough you will switch to a higher level of fat burning. To burn fat you need to restrict high glycaemic load foods to a level where your body will produce less of the hormone insulin thereby increase the rate of fat burning. Eating less food is not the answer; you need to specifically reduce the high G.I. carbohydrate-rich foods in order to “switch on” fat burning.

What is VLA Bioimpedance Analysis (Body Composition and Cellular Health Analysis)?

VLA is a non-invasive tool for measuring “bioimpedance”, or your internal body composition. In minutes you will find out how your diet, lifestyle and genetic make-up affect how quickly your body ages. Leads are connected to your hands and feets and a low voltage electric current passes through your body to obtain your body’s ratio of muscle to fat, the quality of your lean muscle mass, your metabolic rate, cellular age and hydration levels.

Bioimpedance analysis is safe, painless and scientifically validated test that was developed to monitor patients in a hospital setting during rehabilitation; and has since been used in several missions to space to monitor changes to astronaughts’ muscle tissue and cellular health.

VLA™ tells you what your body is made up of and what you need to change to improve your health. It also tells you how your lifestyle and toxicity levels may have your body responding like it’s 10 years older than you are, biologically speaking, and what effect this has on your energy levels.

A VLA analysis and diet and lifestyle consultation aims to provide you with a holistic view of your body’s needs and give you access to a full range of treatment solutions to manage your weight effectively,  increase muscle tone and fitness, improve your energy levels and minimise fatigue, age healthily and learn how to support your body nutritionally.

A 60-minute test with naturopathic consultation and analysis of findings costs  $140. A reading only or follow-up test of 20 minutes costs $60.

by Jenni Gilbert

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