THE DO-ABLE DIET

CONTENTS
W ELCOM E . . . ix
PART 1: EARLY DAYS
CHAPTER 1 Free at last 3
CHAPTER 2 Trial and error 14
CHAPTER 3 Desperate measures 28
CHAPTER 4 Fed up! 40
PART 2: NUTS & BOLTS
CHAPTER 5 The secretrevealed 51
CHAPTER 6 Dieting danger zones 71
CHAPTER 7 The social dieter 84
CHAPTER 8 Sweating it out 96
PART 3: CLAIMING VICTORY
CHAPTER 9 Keeping up appearances 111
CHAPTER 10 Thinking thin 122
CHAPTER 11 It’s a wrap 130
PART 4: THE ESSENTIALS
Sample weekly menu 139
Do-able recipes 147
Kilojoule comparison 153
Do-able tips and tricks 162
WITH THANKS 167
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WE L C O M E . . .
My name is Barbara and over the past two years I have undergone
an ‘Extreme Makeover’. I have lost 45kg and gained a new body
and a new life that I never dreamed was possible.At 167cm tall and
weighing in at 97kg I was a desperate size 22; I now weigh 52kg
and wear a size 8—chalk one up for the fat kid! After exhausting
all of the usual programs and fad diets, I was fed up and decided
to develop my own weight loss solution.I needed a plan that was
flexible, easy to follow and could fit in with my extremely busy
life.Armed with a little bit of knowledge and a lot of determina-
tion, I single-handedly transformed myself from a ‘fat chick’ into
a ‘hot chick’.
This book is a frank and honest account of how I won my life-
long battle with obesity and ultimately took control of my eating
and my life.The success of my diet surpassed all my expectations
and the results I achieved were spectacular! Even better, I did it
all without spending a fortune, giving up my sweet tooth or
attending embarrassing public weigh-ins. I didn’t join an expen-
sive gym or waste money on organic ingredients that turn your
bowel movements into compost.
This book does not offer a new miracle cure,just a simple no-
fuss way to make healthy living a part of your daily routine.I was
able to lose weight, have fun and keep enjoying food all at the
same time. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. Mine is
the most do-able diet you will ever find: try it and see!

PART 1
EARLY DAYS

CHAPTER 1
Free at last
Free at last, thank God Almighty I’m free at last!
Ask yourself these questions:
Have you ever said,‘I’m starting a new diet on Monday’?
Have you ever ‘busted’ on a diet and thought, might as well
blow the day?
Have you blown a day and thought,might as well write off the
whole week and start again next Monday?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you need this
book!
A highly qualified ‘serial dieter’, I have road-tested numerous
weight loss schemes in a desperate bid to win my lifelong battle
against obesity.All of these ‘solutions’had one thing in common:I
stayed fat.Some of themshowed more promise than othersbut the
final results were never spectacular and always short-lived.I would
make limitedprogress under strictsupervisionbut as soon as I got
bored,my old friend the local bakery was waiting to comfort me.
All of that changed two years ago when I decided to take
matters into my own hands and the Do-able Diet was born.
Following my simple plan I have managed to lose eight dress
sizes,eat at least six times a day,have dessert every night and only
exercise a few times a week.
In high school I was given the nickname F.A.B. (Fat-Arse
Barbara). It was catchy and spread through the school like wild-
fire.These three lettershave been significant in my lifesince then;
3

they have been my torture and eventually my motivation. F.A.B.
now means Fabulous And Beautiful and those awful schoolyard
days are a distant memory.My attitude to weight loss is no longer
one of restriction, frustration, failure and disappointment. I still
enjoy my food—the difference is that now I respect its power and
treat it much more wisely.
I gained 20kg after my first son was born and was terrified that
history would be repeated after I had my second baby. I smashed
through all my weight barriers and endured the nightmare of
watching the scales enter into triple figures. I felt lost and help-
less. It was easier at that stage to pretend it wasn’t happening.
I blamed it on being pregnant and sank further into the quagmire
of denial.The truth was I felt disgusting and could feel the rolls of
fat on my body jiggle every time I moved.I was so torn—on one
hand I was delighted to be having another child but on the other,
felt myself disappearing under the weight of my obsession with
food.
I finally decided at 26 years of age that enough was enough.For
years I had ignored fashion trends and worn clothes that could be
easily converted to a family-size tent. I longed to be sexy and to
trade my ‘big girl’s blouse’ for short skirts and fitted tops. I had
heard of the ‘Yummy Mummies’and,damn it,I wanted to be one!
I was ready to put an end to my love/hate relationship with
food: love food/hate myself. I had to get my priorities in order
and assess what was most important in my life. If I could create
two beautiful human beings then surely I could control what
went into my mouth—I at least owed it to myself and my family
to try.
I began to think seriously about my legacy and the way my
boys would remember their childhood. I wanted to win the
three-legged race, chase them around the back yard and teach
them to swim in the surf. The reality was, in my condition I
4 THE DO-ABLE DIET

couldn’t even keep up with them and before too many years
passed they would have left me behind.
Any parent will agree that having children brings a whole new
purpose and meaning to your life.You constantly see yourself
reflected in their perfect little faces.You know they adore you
regardless of your dress size or ability to run an hour on the
treadmill.Your kids just love you because you’re ‘Mum’. They
actually enjoy cuddling your ‘squishy belly’and snuggling into an
over-ample bosom. It was from within the security of this
unconditional love that I found the courage and determination
to set myself free.
Do-able tip: We all want to give our kids the world. What they
really need is happy, healthy, confident parents. Be a good role
model—don’t eat anything you wouldn’t give to your children.
The best way to take care of them is to take care of yourself.
I began with a visit to the doctor: something I recommend to
anyone starting a weight loss program.The results were a bleak
assessment of how poorly I was caring for my body. My blood
pressure was up, cholesterol and blood sugars were too high, my
back was shot and my iron levels were too low. I had the body of
an 80-year-old at the ripe old age of 26.The doctor prescribed a
stern warning that some lifestyle changes were overdue.I thought
deeply about where my future was headed and decided diabetes
and heart failure weren’t on my ‘to do’list.It was time.
The truthis,there is only one way to lose weight and keep it off,
and we have all known it for many years.You cannot live on high-
kilojoule convenience foods and expect your waistline to hold its
shape. Neither does changing the channel on the remote qualify
as exercise.You do have to put in some effort but despite what you
may have heard or experienced,it doesn’t have to be torture.
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No one could believe that I lost half my body weight by
enjoying normal food and without professional assistance. Over
the past few years I have been asked the question ‘What did you
do?’ more times than I can remember. I’ve had countless emails
and phone calls from strangers who heard my story through
friends and acquaintances. Everyone wants to know ‘the secret’.
I always answer this question honestly:‘I changed my eating habits
and did a little bit of exercise.’
This is not the answer many people want to hear and when
I can’t give them the name of a magic pill,I watch their eyes glaze
over as they start to think about lunch.I understand this reaction
as I used to feel the same way. I’d often cried,‘I’d do anything to
lose weight’—commit murder, take drugs, have surgery—any-
thing except eat less food! After many years of searching it turned
out that the answer was right in front of my nose, I just couldn’t
smell it over the chicken salt!
It isn’t rocket science, so why do we find it so hard? I think
clever marketing by weight loss ‘experts’ has destroyed the con-
fidence we have to fight this problem on our own. My body is
living proof that excellent results can be achieved without a great
deal of inconvenience or expense.
Typical diets severely restrict eating and limit food choices to
all or nothing. This allows little room for flexibility or compro-
mise—two key elements of a do-able diet. If you falter in a
moment of sugar-crazed weakness it can be very hard to get back
on track.On my plan,I was never on a diet,I just had days where
I ate more kilojoules than others.As long as my weekly intake was
within an acceptable range I had nothing to worry about.This
was important as it helped to take the daily pressure off.
Words you won’t find in my book are ‘can’t have’ because on
my plan there is no such thing; nothing is ‘off the menu’.That
said, I would be lying if I told you that you can eat anything, in
6 THE DO-ABLE DIET

any amount, at any time and lose weight—you already know
that’s not true or you wouldn’t be needing this book.
This plan is not a fad diet. I have little faith in the ability of
‘quick fix’ solutions to be the answer to your weight loss prayers.
I know from bitter experience that rapid weight loss usually leads
to rapid weight gain. Consequently your metabolism can take
years to recover from the shock. I was sick of the diet merry-go-
round and was ready for a new ride.I wanted to feel better as well
as look better so I needed to find a more balanced approach.I was
determined to improve my overall health and wellbeing without
depriving myself of the food that I love.
Do-able tip: Do your body a favour and steer clear of the latest
Hollywood diet. They only work for thin people who have a
personal trainer and plastic surgeon.
I openly confess that I have a shocking sweet tooth,it is a simple
fact of life. Sick of trying to fight it, I found a way that I could
still enjoy my naughty little treats.My poison of choice is cheese-
cake. I love the stuff, can’t give it up. I was thrilled to discover
that I didn’t have to.That’s the beauty of this plan: I didn’t have
to be perfect,I just had to be better.I found ways to lose weight
whilst continuing to enjoy a full social life. I can offer advice to
steer you through some typical dieting disaster scenarios such as
the dreaded PMT munchies and hosting a child’s birthday party.
I am not a doctor or a dietician, just a young mum who com-
bined commonsense with gritty determination and finally won
the ‘Battle of the Bulge’.I hope that by sharing my story I may be
able to inspire others to take a chance and turn their eating habits
and lives around.If you have the will,I can show you the way.
Throughout my story I have included the specific details and
strategies I used to put my plan into practice.The basic explanation
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is that I became a ‘conscious’eater and gained the ability to eat by
choice,not by habit.These lessons are critical as they are the corner-
stone of any long-term weight management plan. I needed a
simple yet effective way to decrease my kilojoule intake and increase
my level of physical activity.
It was important that I constructed a psychological safety
barrier between genuine hunger and an unhealthy compulsion to
eat.Based on prior performanceI was reluctant to trust my mind’s
ability to rule my stomach. My brain had already proven to be
the weaker contestant. If you stay with me I will give you clear
instructions on how to manage your cravings as we progress
through the plan.
You can make this plan a normal part of your daily routine;
it can be applied easily to any lifestyle or situation. One of the
aims of my book is to dispel the negative perceptions people have
of traditional dieting. I believe I can offer a more positive and
user-friendly alternative. Think of it as ‘Dieting for Dummies’.
With my guidance you can find the confidence you need to
successfully lose weight independently. Accepting responsibility
for managing your weight significantly increases the chances of
achieving permanent and life-changing results.
I developed a simple way to keep track of my eating without
the need for kitchen scales or complicated food diaries. Some of
the tricks I learned along the way are so obvious you will won-
der why you aren’t writing this book yourself! There is no huge
revelation, just loads of practical, easy-to-follow advice on how
you can change your life by making subtle changes and being
honest about your behaviour.
Join me for an easy lesson in FOOD 101 as I share with you
the useful information I gathered whilst formulating my plan.
Follow my journey as I learned how easy it was to make better
food and nutrition choices. I can offer many suggestions on
8 THE DO-ABLE DIET

healthier food options that are cheap, easy to prepare and that
even your kids will love.
I have created a series of Do-able tips to make your weight
loss attempt easier.I also offer suggestions on ways to ‘bust-proof’
your home and lifestyle.This process helps you to safeguard your
diet in situations that make you feel vulnerable.It is important to
establish an environment that is conducive to losing weight.This
step is an essential part of the program and can help you stay
strong when the sweet voice of temptation whispers in your ear.
I have often heard people say ‘I just can’tget motivated’.I have
been known to quote this excuse myself. I used to say this as
though it were a valid reason to let my weight spiral out of
control. I found that this process is self-motivating and the elusive
force of willpower is actually not necessary if you are well organised
and patient.
It is easier to stay focused if you have a strong reason for want-
ing to lose weight. Perhaps you have had a health scare or you’re
trying to fall pregnant.Is the wedding date getting closer and you
really want to look good in that dress? Our reasons for wanting to
lose weight are as many and varied as the ones that make us gain
it in the first place. I set myself a clear goal and imagined every
day how great it would feel to achieve it.
Do-able tip: Eliminate the word ‘fail’ from your vocabulary. As
long as you keep trying you can never fail.
It was important that I set myself an achievable target and allowed
a realistic amount of time to reach it. We booked a tropical
holiday one year in advance. I scoured the travel brochures and
imagined myself in the picture relaxing under a palm tree.(Truth
be told, I was wider than the trunk and it could have used me
for shade!)
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I decided that by the time we arrived I would be 20 kilograms
lighter. I reached that goal by Christmas and by the time we
touched down in Cairns I had lost a whopping 40 kilograms,
double my original target! Setting a longer time frame and a more
reasonable goal weight was a key factor in my success. I was able
to relieve the devastating pressure that had hindered my previous
efforts to lose weight.
If I can convince you of nothing else I hope you believe me
when I tell you that it REALLY IS NOT THAT HARD! I was
convinced for years that controlling my weight was too difficult
and it was a fight I could not possibly win. I couldn’t say that it
has always been easy but with a little self-control,some education
and a lot of honesty it certainly wasn’t as tough as I thought.
Let me tell you from personal experience that reaching your
goal weight feels ten thousand times better than you can even
imagine.I always knew it would be good;I didn’t realise it would
be this good. No food in the world could be more satisfying
than the happiness I have found—not even my beloved caramel
cheesecake!
I feel that I have been given a great opportunity to help others
by sharing my knowledge. Every day I see people who I know
could be encouraged by my personal experience and benefit from
my plan. Sometimes on my morning walk I pass courageous
people clearly struggling to walk even a few metres.I want to tell
them to keep going because it does get easier. Once you have
started just keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep
your eyes fixed squarely on the finish line.
This plan is not intended to be completed in a matter of weeks
or months. It is an ongoing process of change and education.
These practices have become second nature for me and I am now
maintainingmy weight with relative ease.Iam stillcautiousabout
my eating habits and understand that what has come down can
10 THE DO-ABLE DIET

obviously go back up. It is important that I never become com-
placent or take for granted the long road I have travelled. I am
confident that as long as I stay focused and continue to eat con-
sciously—by choice,not habit—I will be free from the shackles of
obesity forever. I used to say ‘I can’t lose weight, I love food too
much’; now I say ‘I can’t eat that, I love my life too much!’
When I reached my current weight I approached a leading
women’s magazine to see if they were interested in telling my
story.Two weeks later I posed proudly for the photographer in
one leg of my old jeans for the magazine’s photo-shoot! People
were inspired by my transformation from frumpy, suburban
housewife to a role model for healthyliving.
This process has changed my life in more ways than you can
possibly imagine.The fact that you are even reading this book tells
you how far my own journey has taken me.Two years ago my life
was held down by fat and frustration.Today I feel as light as a
feather and appreciate my newfound freedom.
By conquering my weight demons I proved that I could be
consistent, I was highly motivated and that I had willpower to burn.
I gained the confidence to pursue my ambitions and found noth-
ing was beyond my reach.A few years ago feeling proud of my
body was unimaginable. Appearing in magazines and writing a
book were part of a fantasy that I never thought would come to
life. I now know that if I could achieve even my wildest dreams,
anything is possible.
Life is looking pretty good at this moment. I want to go back
to that little fat girl alone in the playground and tell her that
everything is going to be all right. Who would have thought
that being overweight would open up so many opportunities for
me? Remember your childhood dreams and if you haven’t fulfilled
them, ask yourself why.When do we give up on our naive ambi-
tions and choose to follow the safe route? The past year has been
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one of the most thrilling, challenging and terrifying of my entire
life and I have treasured every moment.
Have the courage to stop hiding beneath a layer of fat and let
the real you come to the surface. It is never too late to start.
Everyone deserves the chance to try. I firmly believe in the say-
ing,‘Where there is life, there is hope.’ Unless you suffer from an
underlying medical condition, the only thing stopping you from
losing weight is yourself.Whenyou want it badly enough you will
throw away the chips and dips and go out for a walk.
12 THE DO-ABLE DIET

GET TO THE POINT
You can lose weight by enjoying normal food
and simple exercise.
The only thing stopping you from losing
weight is yourself.
Find a reason to lose weight.
Set achievable goals.
Eliminate the word ‘fail’ from your vocabulary.
Enjoy your food, but respect its power and
treat it wisely.
Eat by choice, not by habit.
You do have to put in some effort but it doesn’t
have to be torture.
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CHAPTER 2
Trial and error
Yo-yos went out with bike pants and big hair!
I strongly suspect that this book is not your first attempt to lose
weight.Most experienced dieters have a lengthy and distinguished
career in weight loss trials.In my experience new ideas on the sub-
jectare treated with a mixture of hope and skepticism.Peopleread
the book cover at least three times and eye the before-and-after
photos of the author to establish their credibility.Eventually,over-
come by curiosity and desperation,theyfork out theirhard-earned
cash,secretly praying that this will be the one.
I, too, am the proud owner of an extensive weight loss library.
Unfortunately, the only thing that ever got leaner from these
particular purchases was my wallet,which groaned along with the
waistline of my pants at the sight of another diet manual.With
all the money I have wasted over the years trying to lose weight
I could have had as much plastic surgery as Michael Jacksonwith
enough left over for a holiday in the Caribbean!
My issues with weight began at an early age when my adoles-
cent hormones kicked in a few years ahead of schedule, bringing
with them all the emotional angst and physical changes that nor-
mal teenagers go through.The problem was that I was only ten
and my peers were not ready to accept girls with breasts or hips—
and if you had already got your ‘rags’ you might as well go to
school naked. I had experienced all of the above by sixth grade
and my new curvaceous figure was not admired by any of the
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flat-chested,skinny-legged kids in my class.I became different
and when you are entering puberty that is about as desirable as
growing an extra limb!
Upon reflection I’m sure I wasn’t the hottest topic of con-
versation in the girls’ toilets but at the time I was convinced
everyone was talking about me. During these incredibly self-
conscious yearsI was sure that I didn’t measure up and my fragile
self-esteem copped a battering. My friends were not approaching
physical maturity as quickly and could still ‘pig out’ without fear
of any repercussions.Iwas justa kid and didn’twant to be leftout.
The result was that the more I tried to join in, the worse my
weight problems became.
I was badly bullied in high school for being fat and that is a
kind of shame that only victims of similarcruelty can understand.
To offer some perspective, I was about 65kg and a size 12 when
I started being bullied (quite a healthy weight for my height). By
the time I left school, I had ballooned to 85kg and was a size 18.
I copped daily insults such as ‘barge-arse’ and ‘thunder thighs’.
Despite my humiliation I would pretend I hadn’t heard them and
continue talking to my friends as though nothing had been said.
God, it hurt.
I began to see a distorted reflection of myself and thought that
I was bigger than I actually was. If only I had been able to see
what was really in the mirror,I would have spared myself a lot of
heartache. I had to find a way to protect myself from the daily
ridicule so I became fat, happy Barb. I would make the jokes
before anyone else had the chance. I have noticed this self-
deprecating humour is common in people with weight problems.
I have approached weight loss from every angle and any successI
enjoyed was moderate and short-lived.We all know that if you
don’t eat you will lose weight—sounds simple, but it doesn’t last.
TRIAL AND ERROR 15

The only thing more depressing than being overweight is losing
5 kilograms to immediately put back on 10. In my experience,
the quicker you take weight off, the quicker it piles straight back
on.What really sucks about the yo-yo diet trap is that you screw
up your metabolism and each time it gets harder to ‘budge the
bulge’. Slow and steady really does win the race!
I have always been impatient, wanting everything yesterday.
Instead of ‘get rich quick’ schemes I was attracted to ‘get thin
quick’ schemes. I have embarked on diets ranging from the
unusual to the completely nuts in my desperate quest for a pin-
up figure. Bad diets offer no assistance in bringing your weight
under control and can do untold damage to your health, body
and spirit.
Each time you fail to lose weight it strikes a blow to your con-
fidence and undermines your own commonsense.The following
are just a sample of the extreme diets that I (and I suspect you)
have endured in the long search for my ultimate weight loss
success.
The Grapefruit Diet—now there’s a catchy title!Doesn’t it just
make you want to run out and eat a doughnut? I am not a big fan
of this particular fruit in the first place and the plan to make it the
staple ingredient of my diet was never going to work.I love sweet,
rich and strong-flavoured food so something that looks and tastes
as bland as a tennis ball was not going to satisfy my intense
hunger.For this plan to work I would have had to develop a love
of grapefruit—and fast!
Though I don’t dispute the healthy qualities of fresh fruit,
this type of diet is extremely repetitive and restrictive—not a
formula for success, in my opinion. It is difficult to replacewhat
you normally eat with a specific substitute unless it happens to be
your favourite food. I’m sure I would have had no trouble with
the Cookies & Cream or the Hot Chips & Gravy Diet!
16 THE DO-ABLE DIET

The Grapefruit Diet tells you to eat fried eggs and bacon with
half a grapefruit for breakfast, grapefruit with meat and salad for
lunch,the same for dinner and washed down with a black coffee.
The grapefruit serves no actual purpose that I can see; you lose
weight because you are eating substantially less calories.It was just
a healthy-sounding title for a boring diet that its clever author
sold to millions of desperate dieters.This one is the Daddy of all
FAD (Fat And Desperate) diets and set the benchmark for the
multitude that followed.
One of the earliest entries in my dieting resume was the Apple
& WaterDiet.I attempted thisdrasticdiet severaltimes during my
teenage years in the period I refer to as my ‘dieting apprentice-
ship’.As the name suggests,you could only eat two peeled apples
and a litre of water over an entire day.In those days I was far more
interested in seeing rapid results than I was about achieving a
healthy, balanced diet. No thought was given to the long-term
consequences of such dangerous eating. It must have taken a toll
on my education because it made me so tired and cranky. I am
surprised I learned anything over the noisy rumblings of my
extremely unhappy stomach.
The most alarming thing about this simple but potentially
dangerous diet was how widely practised it was throughout my
all-girl high school.Everyone I knew tried it at some stage (even
girls who were not overweight), always without any adult super-
vision or advice.The basic idea of this diet is to push yourself to
the edge of starvation and eat the bare minimum needed to keep
you alive.Thisdiet was torturebut I was convinced that ‘you have
to suffer to be beautiful’ and gave no thought to the unhealthy
attitude I was developing towards my body.
Like most things in life, it was a competition and everyone
wanted to be in the game.I was jealous in high school of girls that
I suspected of having anorexia and joked about how I wished it
TRIAL AND ERROR 17

was contagious.I tried many times to go all day without eating in
the hope that I would magically become anorexic and my life
would suddenly be perfect.
Thank God our bodies are usually smarter than our brains.It is
actually very difficult to intentionally starve yourself. It is only as
an adult that I have come to see anorexia as a sickness and feel
incredible pain and sympathy for its sufferers.
Several times throughout high school I also tried to make myself
vomit and one time even succeeded. If I couldn’t make myself
anorexic, maybe bulimia was the way to go? I could eat as much
as I liked and then just get rid of it before my body absorbed the
calories. Luckily for me, it is not that easy to make yourself puke
and my disgust at regurgitating soon put an end to that.
When I was eighteen I tried another popular diet called the
Cabbage Soup Diet. I barely lasted three days before I was so
hungry I began to hallucinate. The idea of this particular plan
(other than to sell a lot of cabbages) is to get all your nutrition
from a vegetable soup made primarily from cabbage (which, by
the way, has no special weight loss benefits).
These types of drastic diets dangerously restrict your kilojoule
intake and rob your body of essential nutrients, which actually
defeats the purpose of trying to lose fat. If your body thinks it is
starving it stops burning fat which of course stops you losing
weight.If the scales reflectany positive change,it is only fluid that
is lost—and usually regained within 48 hours of resuming normal
eating.
What made these diets even more of a failure was that a week
of near-starvation was inevitably followedby a week of bingeing,
trying to fill the enormous gap that was left by my disappoint-
ment. Each time I would eventually crack and scoff down a loaf
of bread with butter and Vegemite, followed by a huge glass of
chocolate milk.My diet,motivation and confidence would all get
18 THE DO-ABLE DIET

flushed straight down the toilet.Years of extreme dieting damaged
my metabolism and compounded my ever increasing problem
with obesity and low self-esteem.
You’d have thought by now that I’d learned my lesson but I did
try another variation on the ‘fruit themed’ diet formula with the
Watermelon Diet.True, it tasted better than the Grapefruit Diet
and filled you up a little more than the Apple & Water Diet, but
I was still doomed for failure.
A friend suggested this plan as a great way to cleanse your body
and flush out your system.That’s a nicer way of saying ‘it gives you
the trots’! Eating nothing but watermelon all day guarantees that
you’ll spend a good part of the evening in the bathroom.It is great
to see a 3 kilogram weight loss in a few days but the same result
can be achieved by eating a dodgey oyster—not my favourite way
to spend a Saturday night!
I must clarify at this point that fruit and vegetables play an
important role in any healthy diet. The important thing to
remember is that a balanced diet must include a combination of
all the essential food groups; no one food can provide you with
all the nutrients you need for good health.
As soon as you remove an important element from your diet
such as fat,sugar,carbohydrates,iron or calcium your body retali-
ates and starts to compensate for what it is lacking.If you get low
on iron, for example, you will feel tired and run-down and less
likely to make the effort to eat properly and exercise. If we were
meant to live only on watermelon and grapefruit, why did God
give us cows and fish and Baker’s Delight?
A few years ago I heard about the Fit for Life weight loss pro-
gram that had exploded onto the dieting scene in America.This
is a more balanced approach but it still requires you to dramatic-
ally change your normal eating habits, thus making it harder to
be consistent.
TRIAL AND ERROR 19

It is very strict about only eating fresh fruit and vegetables in
the morning until lunchtime and then having small serves of
carbohydrates and protein in the afternoon.You are allowed to
have an unlimited amount of fruit and vegetables at the specified
times. From what I can find, there appears to be no scientific
evidence that these ‘food combining’ diets have any effect on
long-term weight loss. My other issue with this plan is that it
limits the amount of protein,carbohydrate and dairy foods.These
foods are an essential part of a healthy and balanced diet.
I found this plan too complicated.And as soon as you tell me
I can’t have something, I want it even more. Has anyone ever
warned you, ‘Do not turn around’? My first instinct is to look.
If I am told I can only eat fruit until lunchtime, by nine o’clock
I would just about kill for a plate of pancakes with maple syrup.
When it comes to food,I have the willpower of a two-year-old
with an open jar of peanut butter.My diet needs to be more flex-
ible. If I feel like toast for breakfast but my diet says I’m not
allowed, I will obsess over the bread until lunchtime when I am
likely to eat the whole loaf.
Apparently many people have lost weight using this popular
plan but I suspect it has more to do with eating less fat and
carbohydrates than it does to do with the time of day you eat
them.I agree that the timing of meals does play a part in success-
ful weight loss but if you need some variety in your life, the
Do-able Diet is for you.
Another weight loss direction I tried was the ‘meal replace-
ment’drink which has been cleverly marketed as a ‘shake’and sold
in three equally tempting flavours: chocolate, strawberry and
vanilla.How bad can it be if it encourages you to drink chocolate
milkshakes twice a day? Sounds like a dream come true,until you
get to the fine print and discover that you must choose one or the
other—food or the shake.
20 THE DO-ABLE DIET

These are at least nutritionally viable because the drinks con-
tain the recommended amount of the vitamins and minerals that
make up a healthy diet. By replacing a meal with one of these
drinks you are getting a very precise,measured dose of the nutri-
ents your body needs to function properly.
The basic purpose of these types of meal replacements is that
you swap two main meals for a shake and eat one low-kilojoule
meal per day with no snacking in between.I did lose weight quite
quickly on this program but once again it did nothing to change
my behaviour or attitude towards food. I found it impossible to
maintain and I regained the weight as soon as I was weaned off
the bottle and reintroduced to solids.
Whilst there are no long-term negative effects on your health,
there is the big challenge of convincing your brain that dinner in
a glass is as appealing as home-cooked lasagna. These types of
weight loss solutions focus solely on the technical issues of reduc-
ing kilojoule intake and do nothing to change behaviour or
encourage better lifestyle habits.
I have identified this as one of the key factors to losing weight
and keeping it off: the right diet has to fit into your lifestyle, not
the other way around.This is not to say that you don’t need to
change the unhealthy habits that have made you overweight but
the solution lies within your daily routine.If a diet is too compli-
cated or doesn’t easily blend in with your normal life,it is hard to
stay focused.If a diet is too hard to follow your weight loss dreams
will never be fulfilled.That is what is special about my plan—the
basic principles can be applied to anyone, regardless of gender,
job, financial status or age.
There are several varieties of the ‘Supermarket Diet’, as I call
them,becauseyou don’t need any specialinstructionsand can buy
the products easily from the local grocery store. I tried using a
combination of low-fat and ‘lite’ convenience products. I would
TRIAL AND ERROR 21

eat a low-fat breakfast bar, then a pre-packed salad with low-fat
dressing for lunch, followed by a meal from the frozen cuisine
cabinet for my dinner.
This plan was easy to preparebut aftera few weeks I was bored
stupid and dead broke! You pay for all that glossy packaging and
convenience definitely comes at a high price.With the money it
was costing to continually purchase these foods I could have
afforded a personal trainer and a chef! This diet ultimately failed
for the same reasons as all the others:it didn’t fit into my lifestyle.
I was trying to change to suit the diet, not changing my diet to
suit me.
When I started to come around to the idea that I might be able
to lose weight and continue eating real food, I headed off down
the calorie-counting path. Anyone reading this book would be
familiar with calorie-counting guides—little encyclopedias con-
taining everything you ever wanted to know about the food you
eat. They are complete numeric guides that list the nutritional
value of many popular foods and products.The idea is that you
consult the book each time you eat to check how high it is
in calories.
They are an excellent resource, but only need to be used in
moderation. If you have the time and patience, you keep a daily
record of the number of calories you eat at every meal. After a
week or so,for me the novelty wore off.I began to dreadconsult-
ing my ‘calorie conscience’ in case it told me something I wasn’t
prepared to hear. It took the fun out of eating a chocolate bar
when I found it contained the same number of calories as a
regular Hawaiian pizza!
Using this approach does help to curb unconscious eating but
on its own does not teach you about making better choices.
Finding out what you shouldn’t be eating is only half of the equa-
tion.You also need help to determine what you should be eating.
22 THE DO-ABLE DIET

These guides can be helpful as an aid to complement your healthy
lifestyle change but on their own I found them little more than
a good party trick.It was fun to quote the book and see the look
of shock on my friends’ faces as they tucked into a plate of
barbecue ribs and wings.
As part of my motivational strategy I used to make myself
reward charts and stick them on the walls of my bedroom. I
would give myself a tick if I had been good for the day (the same
way you do for a toddler who uses the potty!). I constantly tried
to find new ways of keeping myself on track and staying focused
on my goal.I decorated the refrigerator with fat photos of myself
as a reminder of what it was I was trying to overcome.
In my teenage years I made collages from magazine picturesof
women whose bodies I was desperate to emulate. I stuck them
inside my wardrobe door and would gaze jealously at their toned
legs and perky boobs each time I squeezed into my size 20 pants.
Instead of helping me, these strategies made me feel even more
hopeless and depressed,which led me straight back to the pantry.
It was a vicious cycle.
What I never took into account when I compared my inferior
body to that of the swimsuit model was the amount of support
celebrities get to maintain their million-dollar looks.Think how
great you would look too if you had a personal trainer, home
gym, private chef and a masseur on staff.The bad news is that
these resources are out of most people’s reach.The good news is
that excellent results can be achieved without using an army of
expensive assistants.
The most successful attempt I made at dieting prior to ‘going
it alone’ was the Low Fat/Low Carb Diet.This does not qualify
to me as a FAD diet because it encourages a mixture of food and
a more sensible eating schedule.The basis of any successful weight
loss plan is the key principle of less energy in and more energy
TRIAL AND ERROR 23

out.The Low Fat/Low Carb Diet was built on this philosophy
and in that respect I have to give it some endorsement.I empha-
sise this idea in my own plan and also support the idea of eating
smaller meals at more frequentintervals.
In the Low Fat/Low Carb Diet you are told to avoid as much
as possible foods containing high levels of carbohydrates (energy)
and limit foods with a high fat content. Sound advice, but many
people take it to the extreme and don’t realise that your body
actually needs these things (in moderation) to function optimally.
You are encouraged to cut bread, pasta and rice from your diet,
potato is banned and you can just forget all about chocolate cake!
Obviously these foods cannot be eaten in unlimited quantities
but I have proven that they can still play a part in your daily
diet.I often eat boiled rice,bowls of spaghetti and my lunch regu-
larly includes a fresh crusty bread roll. I have learned to balance
the amount of these foods in my diet with the other equally
important food groups such as dairy and fresh vegetables. I didn’t
give up drinking milk or eating cheese and, as I have previously
confessed, I still found a way to enjoy sweets such as cake and
chocolate.The Low Fat/Low Carb Diet had the same fatal flaw
of all the other diets I had tried: it focused too much on what
you can’t eat instead of making you excited about what you can eat.
I do give some credit to this plan for teaching me about the
types of foods that are more conducive to weight loss.I discovered
the importance of protein and how some foods can fill you up for
longer and reduce the need to snack. I achieved a steady weight
loss over the three months that I followed this plan and compared
to the other diets it did take a little longer to put the weight back
on again. It worked well as long as I only ate at home and never
went out for dinner with friends or Friday night drinks after work.
Even though I was getting good results,this diet was still lack-
ing the flexibility I needed to stay on track. Whichever way I
24 THE DO-ABLE DIET

looked at it,I was still on a diet and whenever I stopped it,my life
(and waistline) would revert back to the way it had been before.
There is only one guarantee that any diet can offer, no matter
what the outcome: at some point you will go off it.When that day
comes, will you be strong enough to make it on your own in a
world full of temptation?
The latest incarnation of this type of diet is the Low GI
(Glycemic Index) Diet which is heavily backed by the medical
establishment but doesn’t sound terribly sexy,does it? For all those
non-medical people (like myself) who don’t even know how to
pronounce glycemic let alone explain what it actually means, my
basic understanding is that low GI foods contain slower-burning
carbohydrates,which give you a slower energy release.Thiskeeps
you feeling fuller for longer and takes longer to turn into fat. By
all accounts this is a very safe way to lose weight but I found it
too complicated and without the constant guidance of a dietitian
I lost interest very quickly.
The newest diet craze to hit our shelves is the popular CSIRO
Total Wellbeing Diet. This diet is scientifically based and has
achieved positive results in testing and sales. I support its basic
findings, a diet high in protein and low in kilojoules. It always
comes back to less energy in and more energy out.It tells readers
very specifically what to eat, whereas I focus on teaching people
how to eat.The main difference between this book and mine is
that it was written by scientists and reads like a biology textbook!
I believe my story is easier to relate to as I have a personal under-
standing of all the issues surrounding weight and body image.My
plan offers a ‘whole person’ solution and doesn’t rely on science
to cure what is a social and emotional problem.
The fact is that most reputable diets and weight loss programs
will help you lose weight if you follow them to the letter and
don’t ever stray off course.Thisis the biggest challenge all weight
TRIAL AND ERROR 25

loss programs face: the ability to be maintained in the long term.
A successful diet has to be do-able.The most weight I ever lost
on a diet was 12kg and the longest time I kept the weight off was
five months. Following my own plan, I lost half of my body
weight and I have been ‘97% fat free’ for a year and a half.
The only thing better than reaching your goal weight is feeling
confident that your new body is here to stay—for good!
Do-able tip: Keep some old photos of yourself: one day you
might need them. Not for a second during my ‘fat years’ did I
think I would be needing ‘before’ photos to share with the
entire country!
Don’t be intimidated by so-called experts. No-one knows your
mind and body better than you, trust yourself to make the right
decisions. Being overweight does not make you a bad person; be
proud of who you are on the inside and tell yourself that you
deserve to look that good on the outside. Stop ‘crash’ dieting. It
will make you fatter—and extremely boring! Who wants to have
dinner with someone who can only eat a grapefruit? Get a life,
your body will thank you for it.
26 THE DO-ABLE DIET

GET TO THE POINT
FAD diets DO NOT provide healthy, long-term
weight loss.
The quicker you take weight off, the quicker it
piles straight back on.
Each time you fail to lose weight it strikes a
blow to your confidence.
It is difficult to replace what you normally eat
with a specific substitute.
Drastic diets dangerously restrict your kilojoule
intake and rob your body of essential nutrients,
which actually defeats the purpose of trying to
lose fat.
You need a balanced diet with a combination
of all the essential food groups.
If a diet is too complicated or doesn’t easily
blend with your normal life you will not stay
focused and your weight loss dreams will
never be fulfilled.
Stop ‘crash’ dieting; it will make you fatter and
extremely boring!
TRIAL AND ERROR 27

CHAPTER 3
D e s p e r a t e me a s u r e s
If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again!
My unsuccessful career as a dieter wasn’t restricted to books,
magazine articles and pre-packaged food that tasted like card-
board.Whenall these attemptsfailed Itriedothermeasures to lose
weight including support groups, Weight Watchers, medication
and compulsive exercising. It is quite amazing what torture we
will put ourselves through in the quest for the perfect physique.
I used to say I would give up anything to lose weight—anything,
it seemed, except food!
At one point I was so frustrated that I joined Overeaters
Anonymous, a support group like Alcoholics Anonymous where
we worked a twelve-step program to free ourselves of our addic-
tion to food.I know it sounds extreme but desperate times call for
desperate measures.
I found out about this ‘secret’weight loss movement through
my aunt,who is heavily involved in AA.At the time I was going
through a rough patch and felt that I had little control over
what was happening in my life. Throughout this turmoil my
comfort eating increased and surprise,surprise,so did my back-
side!
I felt like I had literally become addicted to food and sometimes
it seemed I was using it to punish myself. I would keep eating
long after my hunger had subsided and would feel bloated and
disgusting. I couldn’t understand why I was doing this to myself.

I never drank or smoked;why was I eating myself to death? I was
very confused.
I only went to a handful of meetings.To be honest, the whole
thing scared the hell out of me.I took the whole anonymous issue
very seriously. I was terrified someone would find out my secret
and I would be publicly humiliated again.There were approxi-
mately fifteen women in my group. I was the youngest. Most of
them were in their mid-forties and had children and husbands. I
felt like an intruder because I was barely out of high school.The
thing I had in common with each of these women was frustration
and despair. Listening to their very personal accounts of how
they had battled with obesity and low self-esteem used to make
me cry.
Quite a few of the members had been long-term sufferers of
anorexia and bulimia and their stories were frightening. I finally
recognised these conditions as serious illnesses and realised how
obscene my jealousy had been.It was an important lesson for me
to learn that happy was not spelt T-H-I-N. I started to discover
that what was going on inside was not always reflected on the
outside.The smallest women in that room were as confused and
vulnerable as the largest ones. It was very confronting.
The format of these meetings follows very closely that of the
AA program and each person had to learn the Serenity Prayer:
‘God,grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the
difference.’
I am not particularly religious but I believe that there is some-
thing in these words for everyone.Long after I stopped attending
the meetings I still remember this prayer.
I must make very clear that Overeaters Anonymous is an emo-
tional support group, not a diet club. The idea behind it is to
acknowledge you have a problem with eating that is beyond your
DESPERATE MEASURES 29

control.At no point did we have to divulge our weight or discuss
low-fat recipes. This was purely about the emotional toll of
uncontrolled eating and low self-esteem.I heard many stories that
touched me but there was one particular woman I will never
forget.
She didn’tsay her name but I guessed she was about 35 and she
was the mother of a two-year-old daughter. She was on a low
income and her violent husband had bruised her heart more
deeply than her body. She broke down and cried as she told the
group how she ate to build a protective barrier around herself to
feel safer from his abuse.She shared the story of the terrible night
her baby had cried for hours in hunger because she had used
the money she had for formula to buy junk food for herself. I
will always remember the pain on her face when she made this
terrible confession. It was one of the saddest things I have ever
seen. If obesity was just about food, stories like this one would
never be told.
I didn’t speak at the meetings, I just listened. My story didn’t
seem that impressive given the suffering that I had witnessed in
the room. I convinced myself that I wasn’t like those people and
that my problems weren’t that serious. It took me nearly another
decade to accept that I was in denial and that my eating was
definitely out of control. It is this poor woman that I think of
every time I hear someone say, ‘She’s just lazy’ or ‘It’s just a
matter of willpower’.There are many reasons why people put on
weight and you never know what terrible truth may be hiding
beneath what you see on the surface.
Although these meetings did nothing to change my weight,
they did to some degree change my thinking. I came to under-
stand that my ‘weight control switch’ was actually located in my
head and not in my stomach. I began to see my eating as a cover
for all the other stuff that was going on in my life. It took me
30 THE DO-ABLE DIET

a few more years to actually ‘get it’ but I thank this group for
sharing their experiences and their courage.
Overeaters Anonymous had begun to help me identify some of
the reasons behind my weight problem but I still hadn’t made any
progress getting it off.That led me to Weight Watchers because
I wanted a support group that was less about the ‘why’ and more
about the ‘how’. I have to clarify here that I know many people
who have achieved good results with this program and it is not a
fad diet. I know that this organisation is very popular but once
again it just wasn’t for me.The public nature of the meetings and
weigh-ins were a disaster for me.It didn’t take long for me to add
it to the list of tried and failed.Years later I have come to the con-
clusion that group meetings just aren’t my thing.
The Weight Watchers meeting I attended was very busy and
had a much more positive vibe than the previous group. It was
very results-based, with inspirational before-and-after pictures of
the instructorsliningthe walls.Therewas an air of excitementand
hopeful anticipation in the room as people lined up for their turn.
I felt like a big fat Hereford standing in line to be weighed before
the slaughter—it was horrible. I have to state that the staff were
always encouraging and your weight does not flash up on a giant
screen on the wall. I still hated it.
At our first meeting I was given a bundle of literature—every-
thing from little food diaries to healthy recipe guides.A year later
they were still under the seat in my car. They had some great
recipe ideas which were perfect if you had a passion for cooking
or a family to feed.At that time I had neither. I agree that this is
probably the most nutritionally balanced program your money
can buy—that’s okay if you can afford to buy it.I was only work-
ing part time and studying so by the time I paid for the meeting
I couldn’t afford to buy the right food and ended up standing
back at the toaster.

I tried to get the hang of counting points but it seemed ‘point-
less’ to me to introduce another numeric system to count an
existing numeric system—confused? So was I! The points were
basically a way of monitoring the kilojoules in your diet and
reducing your daily intake.I support the idea of accountability but
I am flat out remembering to pay the phone bill let alone keep-
ing a score card all day of what I eat.
The Weight Watchers program had all the basic elements of a
successful weight loss strategy.I found it too complicated and very
quickly lost interest.Weight Watchers works really well for people
who have the money to pay for it,the time to go to weekly meet-
ings, who enjoy maths and have a good set of kitchen scales. No
matter how fancy the packaging or the fanfare, it always comes
back to eating everything in moderation and a little bit of exercise.
When Weight Watchers didn’twork out I tried to find the same
structure and accountability without the humiliation of attending
public weight loss rallies.I consulted a private dietician and agreed
to be completely open and honest about my eating habits.What
a liar:I obviously wasn’t ready to be that accountable.To give her
credit, she tried to tailor the diet to my normal tastes (the ones
I admitted to) but it was still very restrictive.
I didn’t like having a sheet of paper that told me exactly what
and how much I had to eat every day of the week.What if I was
invited out to dinner? What if I didn’t feel like ham and salad
for lunch? If you like to hand over all control and can follow an
eating plan to the letter (you are probably not overweight and
therefore don’t need to keep reading) then this solution would
work for you.If,however,you are more like myself and like a bit
of freedom in your food choices you would probably last as long
as I did.
I admit to being obstructive right fromthe beginning.I resented
the strict approach and never really applied myself.In addition to
32 THE DO-ABLE DIET

that, I really couldn’t afford the $80 consultation fee or the time
off work for appointments. Needless to say, I didn’t realise my
weight loss dreams that time either.
Do-able tip: Cut the crap! Not just eating it but also talking it—
don’t pretend you don’t know why you are overweight. Admit to
your behaviour and start changing it.
One of my more bizarre weight loss trials was a kind of Chinese
herbal powder.My mother,who has also experienced seesawing
weight over the years, heard about this from a friend and found
a ‘dealer’ in Chinatown.To this day I have absolutely NO idea
what was in the powder. I can tell you that it did nothing to
solve my weight problems. It came in an unlabelled container
with a bag of empty capsules that you filled with the powder
and I was told to take two before meals. One bottle cost $100
so Mum and I went halves. We must have been completely
insane! I know that there are a lot of people who swear by alter-
native medicine but I now realise that it’s not a good idea to
purchase any type of substance or powder without sound pro-
fessional advice.
My most extreme weight loss attempt was a few years ago
before I fell pregnant for the second time.How excited do we all
get when a new ‘diet pill’ comes on to the market? What a won-
derful fantasy to be able to eat anything and not put on a gram!
I was the first in line!
These weight loss tabletsare only availableon prescriptionand
my doctor warned me of the many possible side effects. I just
about took his hand off along with the script and skipped all the
way to the pharmacy.At $90 for a one-month prescription, this
was also my most expensive weight loss exercise. (I’m sure the
pharmacist was just as excited about it as I was!)

I gave no thought to the cocktail of chemicals I was putting in
my body and focused only on the outward change that I hoped
to see.Aware of the side effects,I took the pills before even read-
ing the enclosed information leaflet. The most common side
effects(and the ones I sufferedthe most) were diarrhoea andwind
pain.The basic job of these particular tablets is to stop your body
from absorbing fat. It effectively removes the fat from the food
you eat and binds it together before you eventually pass it out of
the bowel—sounds fun, doesn’t it?
At first I took this to mean that I could eat whatever I wanted
because I wouldn’t absorb any of the fat and who cares what
colour your bowel movements are—right? Wrong! The first time
I ate spaghetti bolognaise I thought an alien was going to explode
out of my belly button! I felt like there was a thermal spa bubb-
ling away in my intestines. Let me assure you that is one natural
wonder you don’t need to experience. I spent hours in the bath-
room and what came out of me was about as natural as what was
in those tablets—I learned my lesson.
The tablets do work—I think because after your first bad expe-
rience with it you are too bloody scared to eat anything high in
fat. In this way it helps to change your food choices but doesn’t
encourage a permanent change to your lifestyle.It works well on
expelling fat but has no effect on sugar which can be just as bad
for your waistline.Prescription drugs are as close to a quick fix as
I think you’ll find but it’s my bet that once you can’t afford it or
get sick of requesting a table near the toilet, you will put the
weight back on.
The extreme measures I took to change my body from the
inside were equalled by the lengths I went to in trying to change
how my body appeared on the outside.I spent a fortune on every
type of ‘body shaping’undergarment that money could buy.I had
more girdles than Queen Victoria. My rear might have been
34 THE DO-ABLE DIET

huge but it was so firm you could crack a walnut on it! I jumped,
wriggled, squeezed and pushed myself into everything from full-
body corsets to what I affectionately referred to as my ‘rubber
undies’.These implements of torture were sometimes so tight that
I could barely breathe,let alone eat.For ten years I was so depend-
ent on them that I never ventured out of the house without some
sort of fabric reinforcement.
I can’t describe to you the levels of discomfort that I endured
during that decade. My physical pain was only outdone by my
fear that someone would find out.Trying to smuggle a girdle in
my luggage on weekends away and keeping them hidden from my
husband was a high-level security operation. I could never wear
skirts or shorts for fear that the wind would blow them up and
expose my secret shame. I wore my apparatus rain, hail or stink-
ing sunshine. Summer was the worst and sometimes I would get
blisters where the hot nylon had been rubbing on my skin.
I used to drive across town to a shopping centre in a suburb
where I didn’t know anyone and would make a ‘snatch and dash’
to the register. I must have looked so guilty that I am surprised
I never got searched by store security.I know how it sounds now
but at the time I was pretty desperate. It was a momentous occa-
sion the day I realised I didn’t need them anymore.I confessedmy
secret to my husband and threw them in the wheelie bin!
I have never been passionate about exercise and to be honest
I still have days where I find it a chore.My attitudeto exercisewas
very similar to my attitude to dieting—all or nothing. I would
have months where I did no physical activity beyond walking
from the couch to the refrigerator and back.These periods would
be followed by a severe case of ‘fitness fever’ when I would
overexercise to the point of exhaustion.
Those hours spent in front of the television proved costly to
more than just my health.I could have opened my own gym with

the amount of exercise equipment I ordered over the phone. It is
amazing how much money you can waste without ever leaving
home.With each purchase I would get so excited that I had finally
found a tool to make exercise fun.The genius of this marketing
was that they had me convinced most of this stuff could be used
in your living room whilst watching telly and enjoying a snack at
the same time! I now know that for exercise to be effective you
actually have to crack a sweat.
Another failed plan to turn me into a fitness fanatic was the
hire-purchase scheme from my local chemist.These were at least
genuine pieces of exerciseequipment that came with some advice
from a health care professional (not David Hasselhoff) on how to
maximise their benefit. I tried an electric treadmill and an exer-
cise bike.They worked great for a month until I was bored and
then they made excellent clothes horses on rainy days.
These schemes are great for people wanting to get a kick-
start who are not comfortable exercising away from home.
Unfortunately, they are very expensive and you need to be
extremely disciplined to get value for money.I was very unfit and
couldn’t do more than half an hour on either machine. I would
spend every minute gasping for breath and praying for the sound
of the digital alarm that told me my time was up.
Blessed with the coordination of a dyslexic orang-utan, I have
never been good at aerobics. I was always going in the opposite
direction to everyone else and my grape-vine was a joke! There
are only so many times you can bang into other people and still
show your face at the class—I passed my quota.
Given my timing issues,I thought that the home video version
might be more suited to my clumsiness.Over the years I built up
quite a personal collection of aerobics and yoga videos (and I have
to say that the latter are much better suited to people who are
already fit). Interestingly, those videos were the first things to go
36 THE DO-ABLE DIET

at a garage sale I held a few years ago—more desperate people.
The sight of myself in tights and sweatbands thundering around
the lounge room like a rogue elephant proved too embarrassing,
even for me.
I tried my hand at water aerobics a few times because I thought
low impact meant low effort—I was wrong.I think I would have
enjoyed this activity if I had kept it up because I love the water
but the first few sessions nearly killed me and I gave up.
Not only can weight loss be an expensive exercise but it can cost
you a great deal more in self-esteemwhen things don’t go accord-
ing to plan.I am sure you have tried at least some of these things and
probably have ideas in your own ‘Diet Resume’ that I have never
heard of. It took me a long time to realise that the answers to my
weight loss prayers weren’t going to be found in crazy diets, pre-
scription drugs or ridiculous impulse purchases on my credit card.
Do-able tip: Weight loss is 90 per cent about what goes on in
your head and only 10 per cent what goes into your mouth.
If you follow my advice and commit to my Do-able Diet I am
confident you will find the results worthwhile.Not only does this
plan definitely work, before long you will actually find yourself
enjoying the process. I don’t want to criticise all other diets as
being ineffective, they simply didn’t work for me.
Do-able tip: Stop the madness! Make a decision to change
your life and do it in a safe and responsible way. Your body has
to last the rest of your life; treat it with respect.
You can see that my battle with weight has been all-consuming
and had an enormous impact on my life.So many times I thought

my dream was within reach. I had determination and motivation
but I was lacking the knowledge to make good food choices. I
have tried and seen so many ways to lose weight,ranging fromthe
unorthodox to the downright dangerous.I have to ask,when did
common-sense stop being common?
38 THE DO-ABLE DIET

GET TO THE POINT
Acknowledge that you have a problem; it is the
first step to finding a solution.
Eat less = weigh less.
Your ‘weight control switch’ is actually located
in your head and not in your stomach.
Happy is not spelt T-H-I-N.
Don’t be seduced by fancy packaging; it always
comes back to eating everything in moderation
and a little bit of exercise.
Make a decision to change your life and do it in
a safe and responsible way.

CHAPTER 4
Fed up!
Time to take action
Every time I saw a NO FAT CHICKS sticker or heard a fat joke
on the radio my insides would cringe. I tried to pretend it was
not aimed at me,I wasn’t that fat, deep down I knew it was meant
for people exactly like me. Being fat makes you part of a social
class, a special minority group that has its own place in society.
Living as a stereotype adds to your denial because you accept it
as your role and you aren’t forced to challenge your position in
the world.
A huge part of losing weight is accepting that you have a prob-
lem in the first place. I learned enough from support groups and
my own experience to know that denial is the biggest hurdle to
overcome.
Do-able tip: Do you ever say ‘It’s a small make’ or ‘At least I’m
not as fat as her’? These statements are strong indicators that
you are in denial.
I was convinced that if I cut the tags out of my clothes they were
not really size 20 or 22.I shopped in stores for ‘plus’sizes and felt
good because my size wasn’t hidden on the back wall. I avoided
looking in all mirrors and got rid of my bathroom scales. For a
long time I had myself convinced that as long as I didn’t see it,
it wasn’t there.

I remember a time when I went to the movies and I had to
struggle to fit my rear end in the seat. I felt the armrest digging
into my hips through the entire movie and came out pissed off at
the stupid guy who made such tiny chairs—how’s that for denial?
Do-able tip: There is no point in trying to lie to the outside
world—they can see the problem, even if you can’t.
I can pinpoint the exact moment that snapped me out of denial
and prompted me to choose life over food.
It was soon after my second son’s birth and I decided to treat
myself to a back massage.The very pleasant (and thin) masseuse
handed me a towelling robe to wrap around myself once I was
undressed.It looked to me like a huge sheet that was held together
with a bit of Velcro; no problems—it would have fitted Pavarotti
(so I thought).As she handed it to me she paused momentarily
and frowned,‘It is one size fits all,but we’ll see how we go.I may
be able to join two together.’
She smiled condescendingly and left the room to give me some
privacy (or perhaps she didn’t think we would both fit!).If I hadn’t
just had a caesarean I would have found a way to squeeze out the
window and run away.
After the hour was over and I was back in my car,I turned the
rear-view mirror down and studied my reflection with great con-
cern. I knew that I had put on some weight over the past few
years but I had two kids.Surely I wasn’t as big as she had implied.
Or was I? When did ‘one size fits all’ stop applying to me? It was
time to face the truth.
That day changed my life. Perhaps today will change yours.
My unhealthy eating habits started many years ago in childhood
and took two-thirds of my life to acknowledge and overcome.
FED UP! 41

Habit is a very strong opponent and when it is armed with the
delicious temptation of food it becomes one of the most power-
ful forces in the universe.At the height of my overeating not even
He-Man could have torn that fork from my hand!
Do-able tip: Each time you go to eat something because it is
easier, remind yourself how much easier everythingwould be
if you were a few kilograms lighter.
It was during these formative years that the connection between
being happy and eating was forged.From a young age I turned to
food as a cure for emotional angst and boredom. It became my
faithful and trusted friend; we were inseparable.
Most of the good times my family shared revolved around a
meal.When we sat down at the table, everyone was united and
I felt secure.We were often rewarded for good behaviour with
food, a pattern I unwittingly passed on to my own children.
As a teenager I lived vicariously through my friends and spent
endless hours on the phone quoting them advice from the latest
Dolly or Girlfriend magazines. I helped them scheme ways to
attract the attention of boys who I liked,and I admired how cute
they looked in clothes that I longed to wear.While I accepted my
place in the group I was safe. I didn’t challenge anyone and no-
one was threatened by me. I was just happy-go-lucky, roly-poly
Barb with a friendly smile and a chocolate bar always at the ready.
I became a cartoon character. Fifteen years later I was still the
token fat friend.
Do-able tip: My choice to be overweight gave me an identity
and a great excuse not to pursue my real ambitions. Don’t
make the same mistake.
42 THE DO-ABLE DIET

It took years to clear out all the emotional baggage of my early
life and I found that I was literally still ‘weighed down’. I wanted
the world to see on the outside the strong and confident person
I had become on the inside. Looking around, I saw that I had in
fact achieved many of the goals I had set for my life.All the tur-
moil and struggle was over and I found that I had run out of
excuses to comfort-eat.
Do-able tip: A healthy self-esteem is a great way to a better
body.
If it hasn’t already become obvious, let me assure you that
there is a good reason for my trip down memory lane. Losing
weight is as much an emotional journey as it is physical.Gaining
weight is not a goal most people actively pursue. It usually piles
on gradually over a period of time. (Unless you are a certain
Hollywood actress who can blow up and shrink down like a hot
air balloon—not a healthy habit, no matter whose diary you are
reading!)
Fluctuating weight can often be a symptom of other stresses or
unresolved problems in your life. I believe that weight gain fre-
quently goes unnoticed because we are too distracted by other
issues in our lives.My comfort-eating hit its peak at the same time
my weight did: money was tight, I started working from home
and I was having trouble falling pregnant. Emotionally I was
under enormous pressure and didn’t realise the flow-on effect it
was having on my expanding girth.
Weight and self-esteem issues are closely linked and unlike
people, do not discriminate based on race, gender, age or finan-
cial status.A Supreme Court judge can be just as insecure about
the figure under her official robes as the mum in her bathrobe
faced with a new baby and an unfamiliar body.You might be
FED UP! 43

rich,famous,talented and successful but if you aren’t comfortable
in your own skin you will never be completely happy.
There is a very well known talk show host in America who is
famous for two things: being fabulously wealthy and for her very
long and public battle with obesity.If you could simply buy your
way out of this problem,there would be a lot less fat people in the
world.The fact is that the solution to all weight problems is com-
pletely free.You can’t buy it,you have to earn it.Thisis great news
because it means we are all on a level playing field. If you aren’t
happy with your body, you have the same opportunity to change
it as anybody else.
Losing weight won’t make your life perfect but it can help you
find the confidence and inner strength to pursue your forgotten
dreams and ambitions.
I now recognise the far-reaching effect that being overweight
has had on every area of my life.It influenced the clothes I wore,
the relationships I pursued,places I went and even where I parked
my car.I subconsciously built a life that supported my overeating
and helped me to believe my own lies.Iwas making choicesevery
day to keep myself fat; I just couldn’t see that at the time.
Do-able tip: Don’t waste time justifying your choice to be
overweight. The truth is, if you want to change it, you can.
When I finally decided to get serious about losing weight I was
determined tofind a plan that would cater for my individualtastes
and lifestyle. I was finished with starvation diets that were based
on irresponsible and unsubstantiated advice.I wanted to enjoy my
life and my food but shed some kilos at the same time. I was on
a tight budget and not a very creative chef but I was convinced
there had to be a way. I knew I couldn’t look myself or anyone
else in the eye if I failed again. I wanted a new way, a foolproof
44 THE DO-ABLE DIET

plan that would see me conquer my Mount Everest and earn me
the respect that I deserved.
In the past, my attempts to diet usually entailed a miserable
week of eating ‘health foods’ that I hated, my stomach grumbling
in hungry protest.After counting down to the seventh day,I would
jump on the scales full of anticipation only to find I hadn’t lost a
bloody thing! I would burst into tears and eat a packet of biscuits
to cheer myself up. It was easy then to justify giving up because I
had tried really hard and achieved nothing.
I decided that my disastrous dieting history had not been in
vain and that I knew more about healthy living than I first
thought. I scoured countless magazine articles, read dozens of
books, watched television programs and had intimate conversa-
tions with other women facing the same dilemma.By combining
the information I learned along the way with my own common-
sense and experience I tailored a plan to suit my specific needs.
I knew that putting myself on a strict diet was not the solution.
With a new baby to care for,there was no time for private medical
clinics or metabolic analysis. I needed a simple, no-frills approach
that I could cook by myself, find easily at the supermarket and do
in my own time.
I hadn’t needed an army of experts or special programs to get
myself into this mess; why should I need them to dig myself out?
Surely what goes up must come down? Armed with this simple
law of physics and a bit of commonsense I put my plan into action.
It was revolutionary to me to realise that I didn’t have to
drastically change what I was eating if I was prepared to sacrifice
the amount I was eating. I found it easier to eat a smaller plate of
something that I liked than a larger serving of food that didn’t
appeal to my taste buds. How often have we heard experts
extolling the virtues of a ‘balanced diet’ or ‘all things in modera-
tion’? Wise words but easier said than done.
FED UP! 45

I also had to acknowledge the length of time it had taken to
reach my hefty size and accept that it would take equal time
to reverse the damage.As I mentioned earlier,yearsof ‘crash’diet-
ing had damaged my metabolism (the mechanism that controls
how quickly you burn energy) and each year that passed made it
harder to jump-start.
I didn’t think of my plan as a ‘diet’, a word that often inspires
negative feelings such as guilt and frustration. I had already been
there, done that, bought the (very large) T-shirt! This time it
would work because it was on my terms. No pressure, no wild
expectations, no chance for failure—only a hope for success.
I knew what I wanted but despite many years of searching
I was yet to find it.I wanted my ‘dream diet’,the one that allowed
me to continue eating the food I enjoy,didn’t need a lot of exer-
cise and was 97 per cent guilt free!
Sounds too good to be true? I thought so too.
Before you are ready to begin my plan you must first acknowl-
edge you have a weight problem, identifythe reasonswhy you are
choosing to be overweight,and lastly decide to make a lifestyle change
and set some achievable goals.Once you have completed these three
vital steps it is time to move on to the food.
46 THE DO-ABLE DIET

GET TO THE POINT
Losing weight is as much an emotional journey
as it is physical.
Fluctuating weight can often be a symptom of
other stresses or unresolved problems in your
life.
Recognise that habit is a very strong opponent.
Don’t use food as a cure for loneliness or
boredom.
You make choices every day to keep yourself
fat.
If you are prepared to change howmuchyou’re
eating, you don’t always have to give up what
you’re eating.
A good, happy, healthy self-esteem is a great
way to a better body.
FED UP! 47

THE DO-ABLE DIET

PART 2: NUTS & BOLTS
PART 2
NUTS & BOLTS

CHAPTER 5
T h e secret rev ealed
How to have (half of) your cake and eat it too!
I have discovered widespread confusion about what constitutes
good nutrition and eating habits.We are constantly bombarded
with conflicting information about food and new diet ideas come
and go with the tide.I discovered that there is no generic cure and
that each person has their individual strengths and weaknesses.An
important key to unlocking a weight problem is a basic under-
standing of the fuel that we rely on to power our bodies. Most
people know more about the type of petrol that is best for our car
than we do about what is keeping us alive.
Following my instructions you will learn how to make the
changes that are necessary without sacrificing the food and activi-
ties you enjoy.I won’t tell you to stop eating sandwiches and start
eating salad every day or stop having pasta and only eat steamed
fish. If you learn to eat and exercise in moderation you can lose
weight and gain taste at the same time. Learning which foods
actually made me feel fuller for longer was important and made a
significant difference to my food choices.
You already know that the key to solving your weight problem
is reducing the amount of energy that you eat and increasing the
amount that you burn off. That is not new information. My
‘secret’ is the uncomplicated and do-able way I have managed to
apply it to my life.
THE SECRET REVEALED 51

GETTING STARTED
C h a n g e y o u r b a d h a b i t s o n e a t a t i me
I know I promised no paperwork but there is a simple written
exercise that will help you get started. Don’t go to any trouble—
you can do it on the margins of this page. (I won’t mind.)
Make a note of what you consider are your top four food
vices—be very specific (and honest).Pick which one you want to
be free of first.Start with your least favourite and work your way
up to the one you think you will find the hardest to give up.My
top four were burgers with cheese, chocolate biscuits, toast with
peanut butter, and flavoured milk. I chose the biscuits first. Once
you make your selection,make a vow to yourself that you will not
eat any of that particular food for the next seven days.
You can eat anything else from your normal diet as long as you
go without the one you have chosen.If you don’t make the whole
week you must keep on trying with that same item until you can
go seven straight days without eating it. For example, if you
choose potato chips and start on Tuesday but only make it to
Saturday you have to start the seven days over again.
I tried to take it easy and not let thoughts of food dominate my
life.In my first week I gave up chocolate biscuits.I could eat any-
thing else as long as I avoided any type of chocolate biscuit.When
I reached the seventh day and found that hell had in fact not frozen
over,I started to think,I may actually be able to pull this off!
Do-able tip: Be careful not to replace one bad habit with another.
Each week you add another item from your top four and by the
end of the first month, hopefully you will be free of your top
52 THE DO-ABLE DIET

four diet destroyers. Don’t expect to see any drop on the scales
this month but you shouldn’t see any gains and your weight will
be starting to stabilise—this is the first step in resetting your
metabolism. Sounds simple—it is!
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE KILOJOULES
E a t the food y o u like—in mo de r a t i o n
My theory is that it is better to have a smaller amount of some-
thing that you love rather than a huge plate of something they ate
on Survivor ! I hate yoghurt and would much rather start the day
with the crunchy sweetness of cereal.By eating something I love,
I helped to keep myself from feeling deprived or resentful. By
replacing my large bowl with a smaller one I immediately reduced
the amount of kilojoules and managed to satisfy my appetite and
tastebuds.Thisbasic principleis applied to every meal and makes
this plan an entirely portable weight loss solution that can be used
in any situation from Sunday barbecues to tropical holidays.
Do-able tip: Weight loss is not only about what you eat, but
also howmuchyou eat.
If you ate a box of dairy milk chocolates every day and nothing
else,you would probably still lose weight.By the same reasoning,
if you eat too much of typically ‘healthy’ food you will still gain
weight.The main point is to eat less kilojoules, either by chang-
ing the types of food you eat, the way it is prepared or the size
of your portion. All of these are effective ways of cutting your
daily energy consumption. I now eat six to seven small meals
a day, which keeps me from grazing and snacking all day like I
used to.

Do-able tip: Snacking is weight loss enemy #1. Make a meal of
it—take time to enjoy your food and it will satisfy you for
longer. Never eat out of a packet or a carton. It is impossible to
gauge how much you have eaten and before you know it your
fingernails are scratching at the bottom.
A common diet trap can be seen in people who claim to be over-
weight while eating a ‘healthy’ diet. An example of this was a
conversation I had a year ago with a very overweight woman.She
was lamenting her lifelong struggle with obesity and how she did
all the ‘right’things but never budged a kilo.We talked for half an
hour and in that time I watched her snack on a whole kilo of
grapes and around fifteen ‘lite’cheese crackers.Grapes are healthy
but high in sugar and even though the crackers were ‘baked not
fried’theywere full of carbohydrate.Atthe same time I ate a small
peach and two soy and linseed biscuits topped with reduced-fat
cream cheese and tomato. She was making a classic mistake. She
had changed the types of food she was eating but was still eating
far too much and overdosing on the kilojoules.
Do-able tip: Just because it looks ‘healthy’ does not make it
low in kilojoules.
L e a r n t o r e a d f o o d labels
Don’t be afraid of the words calories or kilojoules. Before long,
you will have a reasonable idea of which foods you can afford
more of and which ones you should be eating less of. It may be
a pleasant surprise to find that some things you assumed were
high in kilojoules actually turn out to be lower than you
thought.
54 THE DO-ABLE DIET

The second thing to look for is the fat content. (I try to keep to
foods that have a fat content of less than 10g per 100g—this
means that they are less than 10 per cent fat) and,lastly,check the
carbohydrates (sugar).
Do-able tip: The most important indicator for weight loss is the
kilojoules. If something is high in fat or sugar it will show up in
the kilojoules. Rely on this as your guide.
The world of fat has become extremely complicated, with so
many products labelled ‘fat free’ and ‘low fat’. I learned very
quickly that these words are actually ‘advertising speak’ for ‘It
still tastesgood becauseit is full of sugar’!You will note thatvery
few products can make the claim ‘no fat and no sugar’—if you
manage to find one,eat the packaging instead;I’m sure it will taste
better!
Do-able tip: Never trust the advertising claims on packaged
food items; don’t assume because it says ‘fat free’ or ‘lite’ that
it is low in kilojoules. Always read the nutritional information
panel on the label.
Spend some time wandering the aisles of your grocery store and
practise learning to read labels.This skill takes time to master but
if you put in the effort you will learn how to find the relevant
information at a glance.This behaviour has become instinctive to
me and I rarely eat any packaged food that has no nutritional
information panel.
Reading nutritional panels will soon be much easier with the
introduction of strict new labelling laws.The criteria for a food to
be considered as‘diet’or‘lite’is to be severely tightened.Products
making these claims must prove to be lower in overall kilojoule

value,not only lower in fat or sugar.This should help to eliminate
the many traps that deceptive advertising has laid down to catch
would-be dieters.
Do-able tip: Don’t be afraid to ask for the nutritional
information. I once spent ten minutes at a popular bakery chain
while the cashier found a folder containing the facts and
figures on each item. With her help I was able to choose
something to snack on that was relatively low in kilojoules.
A l w a y s c h e c k t h e ‘ s e r v i ng size’ listed o n p a c ka g i n g
Another clever trick by advertisers is to claim a product is low in
fat or sugar because they have measured the serving size as much
smaller than the package contains.A good example of this is the
500ml bottles of ‘lite’ flavoured milk, which most people assume
is one serving.The label may well claim 250kJ per serve but they
are showing the serving size as 100ml.Who has ever bought one
of those drinks and finished it over five days? If you were to drink
the whole bottle (as most people do) you would actually have had
1250kJ—as much as a whole meal!
Do-able tip: To compare between products that display
different serving sizes, use the energy (kilojoules) per 100
grams or millilitres. For example, if one packet of biscuits
shows a serving size as one biscuit and another brand shows
a serving of two, compare the energy per 100g and the one
with the lower kilojoules is the winner.
56 THE DO-ABLE DIET

E a t b e t w e e n 4 0 0 0 a n d 6 0 0 0 k J p e r d a y , d e p e n d i n g o n
y o u r he i g ht a n d level o f phy s i c a l activity
Whilst trying to lose weight I kept my daily kilojoule intake
between 4000 and 5000 kilojoules. I have found a great deal of
conflicting information on the recommended daily intake as it
depends on your sex, height and level of physical activity. I sug-
gest that you follow my example as a guide and adjust your daily
limit until you are achieving your weight loss comfortably.To lose
weight I recommend an average daily limit of 5000kJ. Never eat
less than 4000kJ or more than 6000kJ per day.
L e a r n t he f o r mu l a of 3 x 4 0 0 kJ a n d 3 x 1 2 0 0 kJ = daily
i nt a ke less t h a n 5 0 0 0 k J
To lose weight I kept snacks (morning/afternoon tea and dessert)
to an average of 400kJ and my main meals (breakfast, lunch and
dinner) to an average of 1200kJ.That gave me an average daily
kilojoule total of 4800–5000kJ (including drinks) which gave me
a healthy weight loss of half to one kilogram per week. (For men I
recommend 3  snacks of 600kJ and 3  meals of 1500kJ which
is a maximum daily limit of 6500kJ.) Doing it this way, you
don’t have to constantly record your kilojoule intake or weigh
food. Using the information on nutritional labels you can easily
calculate an estimate of the kilojoulecount for each meal or
snack.The only numbers you have to remember are 3  snacks
of 400kJ and 3  meals of 1200kJ. Now that I am at my goal
weight I allow myself a daily intake of 5000–6000kJ and maintain
regular exercise.
Do-able tip: These totals are an average so if you save kilojoules
at one meal time you can use them later if you want to.
The only exception to the ‘kilojoule conscious’ rule is fresh
fruit and vegetables. Obviously they don’t come fitted with a

nutritional label but they are a vital part of a healthy diet.Because
they are high in nutritional value and low in fat, I don’t generally
include fruit or vegetables in my kilojoule assessment.Be warned
however,fruit is high in natural sugar and can increase your daily
kilojoule intake if eaten in excessive quantities.I recommend that
you eat at least one full cup of vegetables but no more than three
serves of fruit per day. Vegetables are an essential part of any
healthy diet and can be eaten freely as long as they are prepared
in a low-kilojoule way.
KILOJOULE CRASH COURSE
Here are some examples of how simpleit is to work out your daily
kilojoule intake. For more examples of the food that makes up
my daily diet,turn to the sample menu in the back of the book.
Breakfast
The label on the multigrain bread reads 580kJ per serve (it shows
that a serve is calculated as two slices). I only eat one slice so I
halve that and get roughly 290kJ, plus a teaspoon of low-fat
margarine (I allow myself a teaspoon of margarine or oil per day)
and a low-fat cheese slice,the label on which states that a serve is
one slice and that it has 320kJ.I add two slices of tomato and salt
and pepper.The total so far equals 610kJ, well within my range,
so I add a lite hot chocolate—the label says a prepared serve of
200ml is 316kJ. Just under the thousand mark—perfect!
Morning tea
The label on the low-fat apple and cinnamon muffin mix says that
of a batch of twelve muffins (which is the quantity I have made)
one muffin is the serving size and it is worth 505kJ.A little pricey
but just what I feel like. I saved on brekky, so I am in the clear.
58 THE DO-ABLE DIET

Lunch
Tuna and cheese toasted sandwich:we already know from break-
fast that two slicesof multigrain bread is a serve and worth580kJ.
No butter this time, just spray oil on the non-stick sandwich
maker.A light sprinkling of low-fat tasty cheese, 1 tablespoon of
chopped onion plus a 185g can of tuna.The serving size is 70g
(half a can) which has an energy value of 286kJ.The total sits
round 1000 kilojoules—day stillon track.Add a glass of diet cola,
which has virtually no kilojoules.
If I am still peckish or have a sweet craving I will finish lunch
with a piece of fruit such as an orange, pear, kiwifruit or small
bowl of grapes. Remember, you don’t need to count the exact
kilojoules in fruit—just be conscious of your sugar intake.
Do-able tip: Bananas are high in carbohydrates so are great
before going to the gym but apples are lower in kilojoules and
make an easy snack.
Afternoon tea
I choose a whole green apple and two low-fat caramel and
macadamia cookies. The serving size is two cookies, which is
worth 320kJ. Doing well so far.
Dinner
I always include a serve of lean meat in my dinner.Chicken,fish,
lean beef or lamb are some good options.They are high in pro-
tein and other essential nutrients.I decide on Thai coconut curry
with chicken (sauce from a jar).Thelabel for the sauce says 397kJ
per serve and the bottle serves four.That is the number of people
I am cooking for so I can use this as my serving size. I only
use skinless chicken breast and if you buy it packaged from the

grocery store it will have an information label on it. If you buy
your meat from the butcher don’t panic, buy lean cuts and keep
the portions small. As a guide I use 500 grams of chicken for
this dish and it serves four meals, which works out to roughly
125 grams of chicken for each person.
Do-able tip: I never serve two different types of high-
carbohydrate foods together. For example, if I make a
casserole and use lots of potato and sweet potato I don’t serve
it with rice. Also if I make a pasta dish I avoid serving it with
bread. Carbohydrates are important for fuelling our body with
energy but if you eat more than you burn off, they quickly
convert to fat.
I used to treat the meat as the main ingredient but now my
emphasis is on the vegetables.I fill the pan with at least three types
of vegetables (fresh or frozen) and add meat for taste and protein.
The label on my chicken says 100 grams is worth 500kJ. The
sauce plus the chicken equals 900kJ, add two cups of frozen
vegies (peas, corn and carrot) and two tablespoons of rice on the
side—I come in under budget.
Do-able tip: I used to spread rice or pasta across my plate and
then pile the sauce on top, now I fill my bowl with the sauce
andadd two to three dessertspoons of rice or pasta on the side.
Dessert
I have to finish my day off with dessert.Ihave two small scoops of
low-fat ice-cream which the label tells me is 380kJ. (Sometimes I
have one scoop and add a cup of strawberries or some peach slices.)
Low-fat vanilla custard or chocolate mousse are great alternatives.
60 THE DO-ABLE DIET

Do-able tip: Brush your teeth straight after dinner. You won’t
want to have to clean them again and probably won’t bother
eating again before bed.
It o n l y h a s t o b e a n e s t i ma t e
If a food is high in kilojoules or you’re unsure, opt for a smaller
portion. Remember, if you can’t work out the exact kilojoule
value it doesn’t matter. Just calculate as much as you can and be
disciplined with your portions.The key here is average and you
will soon be able to tell if you are getting it right because the
scales will start to reward your efforts in a very exciting way! If
you haven’t lost anything (that means even half a kilo) after the
first month, try cutting back your kilojoule intake a little more
but do not starve yourself.You must not drop below a total of 4000kJ
per day or you will cause damage to your body and metabolism.
It may take you a few weeks to get used to this plan,but before
long you won’t believe how do-able it is! If you feel like fet-
tuccine carbonara for dinner then have it; just compensate for it
with your other meals that day and don’t get carried away with
the serving spoon. I refer to my food as kilojoule dollars: by
investing them wisely you can save them up to afford a special
purchase. If you can’t resist and blow them in one extravagant
transaction it is a long bus ride home from the mall!
I haven’t had to keep records, weigh food or remember what
my calorie count was for the entire day.I have simply stuck to my
kilojoule budget for each meal and can go to bed with a clear con-
science.If I had a special event to attend or I just felt more hungry
I still had time over the rest of the week to make it up.If you think
you have overdone it today just be extra careful tomorrow.

Do-able tip: Aim for more ‘good’ days than ‘bad’ and you will
slowly change your eating habits and eventually see positive results.
WHEN IN DOUBT, EAT HALF!
R e d u c e t h e p o r t i o n size o f all me a l s
I started with my main meal at dinner time. For the first few
weeks I continued with my normal daily eating (minus the four
food groups I had given up) and swapped my big, shiny dinner
plate for a more modest bowl or bread and butter plate (without
the bread and butter!).I still made the same meals that my family
ate but by reducing the size of my plate I effectively halved the
number of kilojoules that found their way into my mouth.This is
a great tool for when you can’t work out the kilojoules or just
don’t have the time.
Do-able tip: Eat less = weigh less.
I have not eaten off a dinner plate at home in over two years. I
much prefer a full bowl of steaming spaghetti or roast chicken
than a few lonely morsels on a barren plate. It is really an optical
illusion but your stomach will feel much fuller and you’ll eat half
the amount that you’re used to.
Do-able tip: Cut your food into small pieces—it will take longer
to eat and trick your brain into thinking you are eating more. For
example, cut your sandwiches into fours instead of halves and
cut fruit into small cubes. It’s a simple but effective way to cut
down your portion size and control ‘brain hunger’.
62 THE DO-ABLE DIET

THE DO-ABLE DIET

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