Healthy lifestyle programme helps Anton get his life back on track

After the problem with his foot, Anton de Beer then suffered a hernia caused by picking up a sleeper whilst at work.

Having been told by his doctor to scale back the amount of physical work he was doing, Anton found that his weight began to steadily creep up. After undergoing an operation for the hernia, his six-week recovery period resulted in even more weight being gained.

“My GP told me it would be worthwhile to lose some weight, but I didn't really know how to,” explains Anton. “So, she referred me to gloji.”

The gloji program gives users access to personalised coaching through specially trained health mentors, who are on hand to support by phone as needed.

It is a twelve-week programme that helps you lose weight and keep it off based on the latest science of what it takes to change behaviours. It is free in certain areas as part of the government’s adult weight management services grant.

Since being on the programme, Anton has seen his weight fall from 134 kilos to 121 – that’s a loss of over two stone.

“It didn’t take long for me to realise that these guys could actually help me,” continues Anton.

“Talking with my gloji coach, Gemma, we worked out that I didn't drink nearly enough water.

"The amount of food I was eating wasn't suitable, so she pointed me towards recipes. She also explained how to look at food labelling, which is confusing because the green labelling may be concealing the fact that it’s only 20 grams, which isn’t big enough for one portion.”

Anton has now changed his diet so that it includes more fruit and fewer carbohydrates.

“We also worked out that I used to rush to work in the morning and then go to work all day, not really eating or drinking anything. And then I would come home in the evening about six o'clock and I would be like a tiger in the kitchen.

"Anything that looked like food would get eaten, and then I'd eat dinner and then five minutes later I'd be hungry again because I hadn't eaten all day.

“gloji showed me that I had to slow down, make sure I ate some breakfast in the morning, to make sure it's a balanced breakfast. I was struggling to lose weight at the time but the more I spoke to Gemma, the more advice I got, the more I realised I wasn’t helping myself by not eating in the morning.

"So, even if I ate a little and drank in the morning, it seemed to turn things around and suddenly, I was checking off the weight a little bit more.”

The main thing that gloji coach Gemma kept hammering home to Anton was that he didn’t drink enough water.

“I needed to drink more water and, when I did, things changed. I used to eat breakfast, have some lunch and drink enough water and, suddenly, I wasn’t hungry. Gemma explained that sometimes when you are dehydrated, your body confuses it for being hungry when what you need is water. And when I found that balance, I began shifting weight.”

And that, says Anton, was when he found he had more energy.

“This made me happy. You can see on the scale that you’re losing weight, but you realise it when you start moving down the holes on your belt. And then people come and say, oh my God, you've lost weight. That was when it felt good.”

“It’s a slow process,” continues Anton. “The weight doesn't just fall off overnight and you put it on a lot faster than you lose. But you need to stick with it. With gloji, I didn't feel hungry. I think the failure of previous diets was being too strict. You crave things and then because you've been so strict, suddenly you rush anything.

"With gloji that weekly phone call is so important. They’re not like policing you, but it's that conversation that keeps you on the straight and narrow.”

Gloji has also helped Anton make other lifestyle changes.

“It really educated me. A lot of things that didn't make sense began to make sense. Things like getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, eating breakfast and getting some exercise. People put too much focus on dieting. Changing your diet isn’t going to solve everything. Don't overeat.

"We are all conditioned to finish our plates as children and I'm the same. I hate wasting food, instead of eating leftovers in the evening, now I'd rather give it to the dogs.”

Gemma also asked about Anton’s sleeping habits.

“After talking with Gemma, I realised that sleep was also a problem. Now, I have a strict curfew so I try to get everything done before ten o'clock so I can be in bed by ten. That way, at least I try to get seven or eight hours of sleep. This has made a huge difference, and my weight began to fall again.”

For more information, visit www.gloji.co.uk.