seven bridges to weight loss

Without enough money to book an exotic holiday -- and feeling glad in a way that they would avoid airport crushes and possible terrorist strikes -- Giovanna decided to treat the kids to a holiday experience in their own city craftily designed to whip herself (and them) into shape!

"At first they were happy, thinking it would mean movies and McDonald's every day," laughs Giovanna, "but they moaned and groaned and tried to make me feel like a mean and nasty mom when they heard what I had in mind."

"Around where I live there are seven bridges," says Giovanna, "and I proposed that we walked all of them."

"We all needed to lose a bit of weight and it sounded like a healthy thing to do and hopefully a fun thing, too," says Giovanna, "and I was right on both counts. It was the best experience we could have had."

"We started off with the nearest bridge, about an hour's walk away, and packed a picnic lunch," says Giovanna. "It was strange leaving the car at home, but I reminded the kids that we were having an adventure. We were on holiday!"

"Actually, the first walk took us much longer than an hour, but that was okay," says Giovanna. "We weren't out to break any records and I didn't push the kids to walk faster because I wanted them to enjoy themselves and look forward to the next bridge walk."

"My daughter is 8 and surprisingly she coped much better with the walk than my son, 10," says Giovanna. "I suppose he thought we were doing something girly, and didn't care, but when he saw how his sister was way ahead of him he woke up to himself."

"As we walked, we talked and laughed and pointed out things that interested us,"says Giovanna, "and reaching the first bridge was a wonderful achievement. The picnic was a welcome reward, and although I expected fatigue on the walk home it wasn't an issue at all. In fact, we all seemed to gain extra energy!"

"I'm so glad the first bridge walk was a pleasant experience because it would have been very difficult getting them to accompany me on the second bridge walk --two hours walk away!"

"The next day they were up before I was, excitedly talking about the second bridge walk," laughs Giovanna. "And we made it in less than two hours. Suddenly,it had become a goal to achieve, a mountain to climb, and I was so proud of my kids for taking it on like a real challenge."

"Yes, we made all seven bridge walks and the only one we had any trouble with was the fifth one, which didn't have pedestrian access."

"We walked for miles around it, trying to find a way to walk the bridge,but apparently it was for vehicles only and this information wasn't mentioned on the map we used," sighs Giovanna. "Several passing motorists honked us and one guy shouted out something about a crazy lady. It was a nasty experience."

"We got home about 11pm after the fifth bridge walk, hungry, thirsty and exhausted -- feeling disappointed that we couldn't claim it as an actual walk over the bridge -- and I didn't think the kids would want to try the 6th and 7th bridge walk," says Giovanna, "but to their credit they did."

"They're back at school now and I'm back at work, and we still talk about our bridge walking holiday as the most exciting thing we've ever done."

"It's the first holiday we've had -- at home or away -- where we did something memorable together and in doing so we became very close and shared thoughts that we otherwise would have kept to ourselves."

"I got to know my kids really well on the bridge walks," says Giovanna, "and I'm so proud of them both for being little troopers, and slimmer little troopers now, too."

(Giovanna's story first appeared as bridge walking and is reprinted with permission.)

weight loss analysis

When she retired at 60 Gypsy was at her heaviest weight ever (80kg/176lbs) and with time at her disposal she tackled her weight problem with the same analytical skills that she once used at work.

"I made weight loss my full-time job," laughs Gypsy, "but it's no laughing matter really because my health was being seriously compromised by my weight."

"Because I approached weight loss with a professional accountant's eye," explains Gypsy, "my weight loss spreadsheet took into account everything about the food I ate."

"My base year comprised the contents of my last shopping cart when I weighed 80kg (176lbs)," says Gypsy. "I listed every item in the cart along with its weight and nutritional content."

"I rarely drink, eat junk food or obviously fattening things like ice cream, cake and chocolate," says Gypsy, "so I couldn't understand why my weight over ten years had ballooned from 60kg (132lbs) to
(80kg/176lbs)."

"It was pretty obvious even at that early stage of analysis that the main culprit was bread," sighs Gypsy. "It accounted for twice as much in calories or kilojoules as the next culprit, full cream milk."

"Just by cutting out bread and increasing my fruit intake -- and substituting full cream milk for skim milk -- I lost a huge chunk of weight within three months," says Gypsy, ''and I managed to continue to lose weight for the rest of the first year."

"By the end of the first year of this simple diet I weighed 69kg (152lbs) and looked and felt great," says Gypsy. "My gaol was to slim down to a healthy 60kg (132lbs) and I naively believed that by reducing my calorie/kilojoule intake I would achieve that goal by the end of the second year."

"My base year's average daily intake was 10,101kj, my first year's average daily intake was 7,472kj and my second year's average daily intake was 7,165kj," says Gypsy, "and guess what, I gained weight."

"I was so disappointed and couldn't believe that by literally starving myself for a year -- keeping my average daily intake well below the previous year -- I now weighed 72kg (159lbs)."

"In my third year I experimented with a variety of diets -- high protein and then a nut diet -- and because my weight didn't shift much I then reintroduced bread in moderation and at the end of the third year I weighed 73kg (161lbs) with an average daily intake of 9,621kj."

"Hello? What's going on here, I thought," laughs Gypsy. "In the base year my average daily intake was 10,101kj and I weighed 80kg (176lbs), in my first year my average daily intake was 7,472kj and I lost 11kg (25lbs), in my second year I reduced my average daily intake to 7,165kj and gained 3kg (7lb) and in my third year I increased my average daily intake to 9,621kj and I gained just 1kg (a few pounds)."

"On the basis of my calculations, with an average daily intake of 9,621kj I should have gained heaps and be almost back to my base weight," says Gypsy. "That I wasn't pleased me, but it just goes to show that there is much more to weight loss than counting calories."

"I then looked at the amount of food I was eating -- it's weight -- and took a simplistic view that if I was eating more I might weigh more," says Gypsy, but that didn't pan out either."

"In the base year my average daily intake was 1457g, in my first year my average daily intake was 1,575g (more!), in my second year my average daily intake was 1,483g (less) and in my third year my average daily intake was 1,882g -- which was far more than my base year!"

"Right now I'm in my fourth year and almost ready to give up," sighs Gypsy. "So far, my average daily intake is 8,710kj/1538g, I weigh 76kg (165lbs) and it looks like I am soon going to be back to 80kg (176lbs) despite watching everything I eat."

"My only ray of hope is a factor I have just discovered," confides Gypsy. "It's the kilojoule per gram ratio which you arrive at by dividing the average daily kilojoule intake by the average daily gram intake."

"In the base year my average kilojoule per gram ratio was 6.93, in my first year my average kilojoule per gram ratio was 4.74 (less), in my second year my average kilojoule per gram ratio was 4.83 (more), in my third year my average kilojoule per gram ratio was 5.11 (more) and right now it is 5.66 (more)."

"The kilojoule per gram ratio is the only factor which can explain why I have been gaining weight since my first year of dieting," says Gypsy. "I won't know until my fifth year of dieting whether or not it is going to be the magic bullet, but in the hope that it is I am now in the process of cutting out all food that has a high kilojoule per gram ratio and increasing all food that has a low kilojoule per gram ratio."

"And guess what?" laughs Gypsy. "The dietitians are right about eating more vegetables. By increasing my fruit intake -- especially grapes, melon and plums -- I was inadvertently increasing my kilojoule per gram ratio!"

"If a gram of mushrooms has a ratio of 1, a gram of grapes 5 and a gram of bread 10 then you don't have to be a mathematician to work out that you can eat the equivalence of a loaf of bread in mushrooms and feel full as well as losing weight."

"My initial weight loss was due entirely to substituting fruit for bread!"

"The only fly in this theory," sighs Gypsy, "is that when I weighed a healthy 60kg (132lbs) I ate a lot less vegetables and far more bread than I do now."

"At 76kg (165lbs) I may not look too good but I feel a lot better than I did at 80kg (176lbs) and everyone says I should be grateful for improved health," says Gypsy, "but I do want to look good as well."

"I'm now using my analytical spreadhseet skills to look at other factors in my life since I turned 50 that caused me to gain weight," says Gypsy. "I think stress was a huge factor in my last 10 years at work -- I literally worked, ate and slept -- but that's all behind me, now."

"If my weight gain since 50 was just a hormonal thing then there's not much I can do about it -- or want to do about it," says Gypsy, "but if it's a matter of eating more vegetables and starting a solid exercise regime at the same time then I can do it."

"I have to bear in mind that it took ten years to put on weight and might take another ten years to lose it."