Damien Oprel was tired of being overweight, constantly having colds and suffering from back problems, so he joined The Biggest Loser Club. After 12 weeks, he had shed a fantastic 16kg (almost 16 percent off his starting weight of 101kg) and reached his goal weight of 85kg.
Fifteen months down the track we caught up with Damien to find out whether he has been able to keep off the excess kilos.
Click to enlarge photos
Damien before
Hong Kong holiday
Damien after
The short answer is yes. Damien reveals, “All is going very well. My weight hovers between 83kg and 84kg so I have been quite successful and feel so much better for it.”
Maintenance mode
Having lost his excess weight, Damien is now using what he learnt from his days at The Club to stay in control.
Damien says, “My Biggest Loser Club journey taught me that there are consequences to everything I do. So if I am ‘naughty’ with my eating, I make up for it with exercise or I adjust my eating later. I live by the 80:20 rule: I am careful 80 per cent of the time and more relaxed for 20 per cent.”
While Damien is in his ‘good’ mode he maintains a healthy and varied diet of nutritious soups, sushi and fresh fish with vegetables. However, that 20 per cent of naughtiness allows him to have the odd treat, still manage his healthy weight and not feel like he is missing out.
“I am not nearly as strict with myself now and have learnt that I can have the occasional treat, but in moderation. For example, I still eat Tim Tams but now a pack will last me weeks. I have also gone back to butter but I don’t have huge quantities. When I have a takeaway I now stick to the regular size meal whereas before I used to polish off a family size! I won’t ever go back to supersize meals again but at the same time it’s important for me not to feel deprived. Everything in moderation.”
Keeping active
Doing lots of running and walking has allowed Damien to loosen the belt on his diet slightly. Maintaining this aspect of his new lifestyle is as important as eating healthily.
Damien says, “Exercise is such a big part of my life now and I really enjoy it. I am still sticking to a lot of the principles of The Biggest Loser Club. I still do my 55-minute walk home after work instead of getting the train and sometimes I even walk to work as well.” Having read an article on The Club about using a pedometer, Damien realises that he walks more than the recommended 10,000 steps a day. Where once he would have driven everywhere, Damien now walks and takes the stairs instead. He understands that “all these little things add up to a lot.”
Damien has built up his fitness levels so much that he even competed in the City to Surf race. “Events like this and the Sydney Bridge run really keep me motivated. My goal is to get faster each time.”
Looking back to where he was just over a year ago Damien is still amazed by how much he’s achieved, “When I was training for the City to Surf and jogging 11km around Sydney’s Centennial Park, it dawned on me that it wasn’t long ago that I couldn’t have done a quarter of this. I even used to have trouble walking around the park!”
Creating new habits
Habits are hard to break but when that habit is a healthy one, there’s all the more reason to keep it up.
As an avid fan of The Club’s online diary, Damien still refers to this essential tool even after 15 months. He explains, “When I was getting into these healthy habits I used the diary extensively and it was a great eye opener. I learnt a lot about nutritious foods and portion sizes. Now that I have stayed within my healthy weight range I am a bit more relaxed when it comes to filling it in. However, if I put on a kilo I get on top of the situation by logging on and recording all my food and exercise. My focus centres on cause and effect now; I ‘weigh’ things up much more as I don’t want to go back to where I was.
“Another change that has stuck is that I don’t take the lazy way out anymore. A 10-minute trip to the shops would have meant a car ride, whereas now I just walk. It took a while for this to become a habit but now I can’t see myself going back.
Looking ahead to the future it seems that Damien’s weight loss has changed more than just his diet and exercise regime. “This whole 15 months has changed me a lot. My experience has even got me looking into a possible career change, maybe something in nutrition!”