For most of us, the idea of losing weight means dropping that extra 5-6 kilo that we gained over Christmas when we were unthinkably stuffing our faces with roast meats, vegetables, cakes and creams. It's a dream that most of us share, and achieve throughout the year. But if you're like Chris, 30 from Melbourne, Australia, a 5-6 kilo weight loss wouldn't have scratched the surface of his hefty 160 Kilo weight, and the health concerns that came with it. That was then... but this is now...
The new face of the man who ate himself thin.
"I was always the chubby kid through school, and that continued into high school" he told The Naturally Nourished Collective in his interview. Struggling with his weight since he was a young child, Chris found his weight soaring to 120 Kilos at the young age of 15. "For a brief period from 16-18 years of age, I managed to lose a lot of weight, getting down to around 78kg and hitting the gym regularly. Unfortunately not too long after that, I fell back into old habits and put the weight back on tenfold" he said. As time went on, Chris found himself inevitably getting heavier and heavier which came with an array health concerns. At his heaviest, he tipped the scales at a hefty 160 kilo and found himself struggling with severe denial of his weight gain and health issues, and began to shut down and change the topic of conversation whenever his health or weight was bought up by concerned loved ones. Chris battled with an unhealthy relationship with food for most of his adolescence, "and limiting myself to salads is just something that never worked for me" he explained.
On the journey with Chris to regain health, was his partner in crime Megan, 30, Melbourne Australia, who also struggled with her weight for most of her life. Growing up in a family that consumed takeaway multiple times per week took it's toll on Megan's young body and saw her become a chubby child. She found herself restricting caloric intake in high school to lose drastic amounts of weight at a time in a desperate bid to fit in. Managing to maintain a 60 kilo weight for the last few years of high school, the wheels fell off the bus when she was working as a store manager at a Pizza shop. Megan tells The Naturally Nourished Collective that she then gained 40 kilo in one year. "That was when I was 19, I have been around 100kg ever since."
Soon after meeting the love of their lives, Chris & Megan fell pregnant, and in April of 2016, they welcomed their beautiful baby boy Lincoln to the world. "Not long after the birth of our first son, I decided I needed to make some changes If I wanted to be a part of his life in the long run and going the way I was, I'd of been lucky if I hit the age of 40" states Chris.
For Chris, the penny dropped when he did his regular jump on the scales, and instead of his regular reading of 140-150kg, (which he figured was ok, provided he wasn't still gaining weight) he tipped the scales which just began to read 'Overweight' instead of giving him a figure. "I looked in the mirror and saw what I had become. The man staring back at me looked completely different to the man that had been standing in that same mirror for the last ten years. I have been in denial about my weight for so long that I barely recognised myself anymore and this was the Life Changing moment for me."
Meanwhile, Megan found herself at the young age of 22 sitting in the office of her ObGyn being told that "as an Obese smoker, you aren't doing much to help your health" which was later amplified by her diagnosis of Cervical Cancer. "That year I quit smoking and lost 25kg" and while her weight has fluctuated in the last few years, she hasn't looked back at cigarettes since.
Megan was 105kg when she fell pregnant "which I was really unhappy with." Megan told us that she gained 23kg in her pregnancy which saw her balloon to 128kg at 38 weeks pregnant (April 2016). She remained at 119kg until October 2016.
When the challenge in front of you is health, knowing that you have an unhealthy attachment with food, finding the right lifestyle that fits with your personality, likes & dislikes, family, time, work schedule is something that needs serious thought. Common fad diets often see those that follow them lose weight in the short term and then gain even more in the long term which can be extremely detrimental to long term health. "I tried a few diets including Lite'n'Easy and even prescription medication, and while they all helped in bits, I ended up putting the weight back on and then some" Chris told us. This time "I'd read about Ketogenic Diets on Reddit a while back, and people seemed to have great success" so Chris and Megan spent the next few weeks, if not months, researching the ins and out of the Ketogenic Lifestyle. The benefits, drawbacks, risks and rewards and September 17, 2016, Chris and Megan both took the plunge!
Chris mentioned that he has always been a big meat lover so the Ketogenic way of eating seemed perfect for him. "I could literally have my steak, and eat it too." Chris owes a lot of his success to his lovely wife Megan who committed herself and their kitchen to prepare Keto-Friendly meals for Chris to help him shed all of the excess weight. For those of you unfamiliar with Keto, this means that Megan was weighing and portioning meals to the gram to make sure that Chris's body was utilising his own fat to burn as energy resulting in weight loss. In the beginning, following a Low Carb - High Fat version of Keto saw the pair reach some success but "I was eating a mountain of calories in fat, and often they weren't very nutrient dense" Chris told us.
After reaching a weight-loss stall caused by the butter-chuggers that provided information for medical ketosis (low carb high fat), Chris stumbled across a facebook group called Ketogains, and after further research and utilising the groups scientifically backed information, and seeking help of other members, Chris re adjusted his Macros as set by Ketogains for Nutritional Ketosis, which placed a larger emphasis on Protein and consumption of less fat - and before he knew it the weight was melting off! The Ketogains group on facebook are a low carb, moderate fat and high protein focused Keto lifestyle. Focusing on a higher protein form of Keto helps the body retain lean body mass which aids in further fat burning long term and ensures the 'weight' you are losing is Fat, and not wasted muscle and bodily tissues. This also means instead of consuming large amounts of fat for energy, the body will utilise its own fat stores.
As at 14th August, 2017, eleven months after Chris commenced a Ketogenic diet, Chris hit the 60kg loss mark. He weighed in at 96.6kg. "My eventual goal is to maintain around 95 kilos but get lean by continuing to eat Keto and lifting." Meanwhile, Megan has lost an amazing 21kg from commencing a Ketogenic Diet in October 2016 and reaching her lowest weight of 99.6kg on the 14th August 2017. While the pair say that losing weight on the Ketogenic Diet has been 'easy' (within reason), it hasn't always been this way. Megan says "I've always struggled and tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle for the last 6 years or so. I was clean eating and exercising as much as I could, but the weight just wasn't budging. I watched Chris do keto for about 6 months before I was game enough to try it for myself. Now, we have completely changed our lifestyles around and aren't going back to old habits."
When you have been 'battling the bulge' for such a long time with failures mounting up behind you of previous tried an failed 'diets', it would be easy to become discouraged and let the weight take over and spiral even more out of control. Chris recalls the day before his transition to this way of life and he was feeling "Excited, racked with nerves and scared of failure" - but the most important part, he recalls being Optimistic that this was the right change for him. Optimistic that this would be the leap that would finally help him make the biggest step toward changing his life, and most importantly, his health.
While Chris was generally lucky that his Obesity didn't have more dire effects on his health, he did spend time battling debilitating, gut wrenching Migraines that completely wrecked his quality of life, and even put strain on his relationship with Megan, and effected his parenting when it came to his beautiful little boy, Lincoln. "One of the unexpected benefits of changing to this way of eating has been the complete curing of my migraines" Chris told us, proving yet again that Food certainly is medicine. Only young, Chris was suffering from 3-4 headaches a week that left him in debilitating pain, and often times saw him end up in the Emergency Room at the nearest Hospital. "I'd seen multiple doctors, had MRI's, CT scans, Blood Tests..." he recalls, and his diagnosis was "Maybe you're just someone that suffers from Migraines". In a world where we treat symptoms instead of the root cause of illness, Chris was left taking fistfuls of heavy painkillers just to get through each day. Not only has the Ketogenic Diet taught the young family of 3 how to eat better, it has also taught Chris how to listen to his body, "I still get the occasional headache, but they seem to generally be after a few drinks, or just a lack of sleep", and that in itself we think is a major gift.
Chris Enjoying his new active lifestyle out fishing with the family.
Like anyone, making a change on as large of a scale as this when you've been over weight most of your life, the family stated it was daunting and required amazing time management skills. "Researching low carb foods, weighing and tracking food and cooking dinner is almost impossible with a Sooky or Crying Baby" Megan told us. But that didn't stop them from completely jumping head first into the change in lifestyle. "I do as many 'fast' meals as possible, but always try to maintain variety. And feeding a toddler toast and fruit while we went without was really hard. We wanted to eat it so badly...Growing up I've always been told that eating fruit is good for you, now all of a sudden we can't eat it, but can eat bacon. It was really hard to comprehend for a while".
On top of all of these amazing changes to better their health, Megan took the reigns and before long, they were becoming a chemical free household as well. "I Make my own baby wipes and cleaning products, and we use essential oils in the bath and use cloth nappies". The pair have spent their time since making these changes becoming more active as well, getting out and about and even restricting TV usage.
There's a lot of misinformation when it comes to Diets like Paleo, Keto, Primal etc which often deters people from making changes to their health and lifestyle. Being scared of 'missing out' on certain foods, and even thinking that it is unhealthy to live without certain foods as a result of marketing, are also among the reasons many people continue to live an unhealthy lifestyle. The world is at a point now where if you eat proper clean Wholefood's, people will criticise you and tell you "eating excess fats or limiting carbs isn't healthy" but yet, they won't comment and think its completely fine if you sit down and eat a whole pizza chased with a litre bottle of coke. So we asked Megan and Chris what they thought of the food choices on a ketogenic diet, they said the claims couldn't be more wrong, "We eat Wholefood's - Plenty of fresh vegetables, meat and poultry, fish & eggs etc and our meals are always delicious and never boring. Lincoln eats everything now and isn't picky and we think its because of the variety of foods he has access too".
It's no secret that what the two of them have done is nothing short of amazing, so we thought we would ask them for any advice they had for other people wanting to make a positive change in their lives an this is what they said: Chris - "There are no excuses, every decision is a choice, choose to be better. I've lived the last 11 months by that mantra, and the results speak for themselves." Megan - "Keep it real. If you aren't enjoying it, you won't stick to it. Slip ups happen, you can undo any damage you do".
For anyone wanting to begin to better their health and change their life, you can join the facebook communities for information and support. Click HERE for the Keto for Beginners Australia - support group, and click HERE for Wholefood Keto - support group. To follow Chris on his journey, you can follow @cmarico on Instagram. For more articles like this and healthy easy recipes to help you regain your health, follow us on instagram - www.instagram.com/naturallynourishedcollective and facebook www.facebook.com/naturallynourishedcollective