#2 How'd they do it?
Chris Allison
The How’d they do it? interview series is designed to share the tips and tricks of how members of the Alfred community lost their weight.
This week, we chatted with Chris Allison, a co-working space manager, husband, and dad, to share how he caught a food company lying, and how he never forgets what it’s like to feel great.
Tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m 35 and I have a wife who also works full time, and we have a beautiful son. I’m pretty active, and have completed a Half Marathon, Marathon, Triathlon, Half Ironman and recently completed an Ironman.
From your heaviest, how much have weight you lost?
I have been 96kgs, but now sit around 85kg.
Why did you want to lose your weight?
I use to be all about putting on muscle and getting big, but I didn’t really know why. I guess it was to attract someone from the opposite sex, but my why has changed overtime as I was often questioning “what can I do with this muscle?”. The answer was rather pretty simple… nothing! And I realised I wanted to achieve more in life than just bench pressing 100kgs, and found I could get into running and do races if I dropped some weight.
Was there anything holding you back from losing weight in the past?
I just love eating and finally realised that I can’t lose the weight through exercise alone.
I tried every diet, but I’d never looked at the nutritional content of products, and would fall for the clever food marketing. Looking back, I hated that I was fooled by creative labelling and marketing that make things sound healthy.
This is probably biggest realisation I had when starting tracking my food. I even had a moment where I caught a company lying about their calorie content, by claiming to be “under 95 calories” when it was actually much more. So I wrote them an email calling them out, and they changed it!
What’s been the biggest benefit from losing weight that you didn’t expect?
I didn’t understand the concept of “having energy” as much as I do now, and I’ve become use to having extra energy to use in other parts of my life. I didn’t realise what carrying 5 or 10 extra kilos had on my body, and the energy I wasted from carrying it around. Now I hate when I put weight back on because I’m so addicted to feeling great and having plenty of energy.
What’s your favourite meal?
Pizza or a Bacon and Egg roll.
How often do you have it?
Pizza once a week and B&E’s regularly.
If you could go back, what would you tell yourself at the beginning of your weight loss journey?
I’d give myself a 3 step process:
Step one - just track and don’t worry about the calories.
Step two – analyse your day and see what habit you can modify to make your day’s eating a bit better.
Step three – Then when some weight is lost, enjoy feeling great and never give up that feeling of having lots of energy.
Got a message for the Alfred community?
I’m still learning and understanding, but if I had one message it would be to learn from your mistakes and tinker with the process until you find the best way to make this crazy weight loss journey work for you.
Also you don’t have to give up everything you love. Just balance it out.
Thanks Chris!