Slimmers step onto the scales for the last time

Our famous five were Ken Fletcher, deputy editor of The Scottish Farmer; Rog Wood, agriculture editor of The Herald; Bob Carruth, communications director of NFUS; Ian Thomson, former president of the Blackface Sheep Breeders’ Association; and Sandy Wilkie, sales and marketing director with Wiseman dairies. All of them had both pride and waistlines at stake, and for one, Rog Wood, his health was also on the line.

They were duly signed up to Scottish Slimmers, publicly shoved onto the scales, and their weight was recorded in front of a bemused audience at The Scottish Farmer stand, and they all duly agreed to provide a blog of the challenges that they faced in the six months they were given to lose weight before they were to be weighed out again at AgriScot in November of 2009.

They all did their best, following recipes from the Scottish Slimmers recipe books, counting their checks which allowed them to follow how many calories they were consuming and for some of the guys, the weight came tumbling off quite quickly, for others, it was more of a steady loss.

At AgriScot, when the overall weight loss was counted, it came to a staggering 14st 13lb, the breakdown being Ian Thomson lost 56lb, Rog Wood lost 46lb, Ken Fletcher lost 25lb, Bob Carruth lost 50lbs, Sandy Wilkie lost 32lbs. They then all treated themselves to a huge lunch and that was to be the end of their public scrutiny.

However, a couple of the chaps were beginning to see the benefits of the weight loss and having the added pressure of the public eye on them, it was decided that three of them would continue through to The Highland to see just where their weight loss would take them.

And so, on the Thursday of this year’s show, Rog Wood and Ian Thomson came back to the scene of the initial humiliation and quietly popped back onto the scales to record their 12 month progress. (Bob Carruth couldn’t make the show on Thursday and was weighed at home).

Having been in touch with the volunteers throughout the 12 months, it was heartening to see what a difference a year makes.

Last year Rog Wood shuffled on the scales with some help to even take the step up, and this year he almost skipped on, looking dapper and lighter on his feet than has ever been seen for Rog, who suffers from arthritis in both his feet.

With a total weight loss of 58lbs so far, he is rightly proud of himself, and he hopes to continue to lose the pounds until he reaches his target weight.

Ian Thomson was losing pounds with no problems, until he had a hip replacement operation, which saw him confined to his home during the winter months, and rather near the biscuit barrel.

During this time, he also missed the weekly check that the local Scottish Slimmers representative Brenda was lavishing on him, so he signed himself up to the local class which he will have attended by the time you read this – well done Tompy. His total weight loss so far is 57lbs. (Tompy also managed to raise more than £10,000 for Clic Seargent children’s charity through his weight loss).

Bob Carruth had managed to lose a few pound more than the 14stone 10lbs he weighed at AgriScot, by increasing his weekly run to three or four times each week. However, like Ian before him, Bob’s joints were in need of some TLC and he had to go for a knee operation the day before the Highland Show.

Previous to the op, Bob had not managed to run for around six weeks, and realised he was in danger of undoing all the excellent work he had managed to achieve, but now that the knee is on the mend, he hopes that 14 and a half stone will be his new manageable weight from now on. Bob’s total weight loss is 52lbs.

Sandy Wilkie and Ken Fletcher quietly bowed out of the slimathon at AgriScot and have been living the good life, however, they know where the recipe books are, and the website address, if they ever feel the need to lose a few pounds in the future.

That just leaves me the job of thanking all our volunteers for the time and effort they put in to this challenge, for agreeing to a very uncharacteristic fashion shoot without too much complaining, but also for the grief and scrutiny they had to endure in the name of The Scottish Farmer and Scottish Slimmers – I will let the boys have the final say in their own words (see right).

Ian Thomson

Well here we are, a year on from the first ‘slimathon’ weigh-in at the Highland.

I managed to lose four stone seven pounds over the first six months, getting down from 22 stone nine pounds to 18 stone two pounds.

The first six months of the healthy eating plan went well, with only one week recording a weight gain, two or three weeks just breaking even, then things all started to go a bit wrong in January, when I had to go to hospital for a hip replacement. I was two months housebound, and along with the bad weather, not able to venture out on slippy ground, this left me open to my old tricks and I managed to achieve a weight gain of some 12 pounds.

The Scottish Slimmers healthy eating plan is a tremendous way of losing weight. The first half of the exercise I was fortunate to have Brenda from Scottish Slimmers call every Monday to monitor how I was progressing week in, week out.

Unfortunately, Brenda was also house bound with a bad back, and has been off work since the end of last year. I wish her well and miss her keeping me on the straight and narrow.

Personally, in my mind, I set myself a target and aimed for that weight loss each week.

It helped when I planned my weekly food intake for the seven days ahead, and everything I ate in that time was recorded in a diary. It was all calculated using the Scottish Slimmers check book, it all worked very well and gave me the incentive to go on, and do exceedingly well in the following six months.

The second half I must say was more difficult. Not so mobile after coming out of hospital, getting bored, not getting out when I wanted, eating all of the home baking, cakes and rich food that my sister brought in. It was really appreciated, but certainly not within the Scottish Slimmers check book guide.

I gave up filling a diary and also counting the calories, the very thing you must do to be successful in this healthy eating plan. However, I must say I enjoyed the whole exercise from start to finish.

The comments I received in the first six months were mixed – you would meet someone and they would say how well you look and encourage you to stick to it because it could only do me good; then you move another 20 yards, speak to someone else, their comment would be how gastly you looked!

Thursday, June 24, was the final weigh out and I was heavier than I had been anticipating, but will be back on course after the Highland Show week, as I will be joining the local Scottish Slimmers class which I will attend on a weekly basis, set myself a new target and, hopefully, achieve a much lighter weight by December this year.

I would fully recommend the Scottish Slimmers healthy eating plan, to all of you overweight unhealthy binge eating and drinking farmers (like I was) and not forgetting the farmers’ wifes who only want to shed a few pounds to ensure they look their utmost best in there bikinis for the summer holidays!

This eating plan really can be of benefit to all shapes and sizes!

A big help to me was Lorraine, the promotions manager from Scottish Slimmers, who helped me to manage my plan. Also Brenda for her weekly calls. Thanks to you both.

I would like to thank Karen, The SF lifestyle editor, for coverage of the whole slimathon exercise.

Lastly, a huge big thank you to all who supported me and very generously donated towards the Click Sargent Charity which is a very worthwhile cause.

Rog Wood

The past seven months, since I was weighed at AgriScot, has been a difficult period for my dieting as it was interspersed with festive-season feasting, a wonderful trip to Argentina in February and many other opportunities to over-indulge.

I managed to get through the festive season without gaining any weight, but sadly I had too many rib-eye steaks, cold beers and bottles of Malbec wine in sunny Argentina that left me three pounds heavier.

I knuckled down to shedding those extra pounds and by May 11, had managed to get down to 16 stone 2lbs, about 70lbs lighter than my all-time heaviest on April 26, 2009 when the needle on the scales whirled up to 21 stone 3lbs. That was followed by a run of parties and deliciously tempting meals accompanied by that scourge of diets, wine, that put another 9lbs back on. So the moral of this salutary tale is that I can never drop my guard and will always have to watch what I eat.

One of the biggest aids to my weight control has been going to my local health centre at the same time every Friday afternoon to be weighed by my diabetic nurse. Regular, independent monitoring of my weight allows me to see the error of my ways when I have let myself go and is a big incentive to get back onto the ‘straight and narrow’.

Fortunately, I no longer crave food the way I used to, and I generally eat all the right things, so barring a few hiccups, should continue to gradually lose weight. I certainly have no intention of ballooning back to my former very rotund shape.

The biggest benefits of losing all that weight are that I no longer puff and blow as much, I can walk a lot better and I no longer take medication for my type two diabetes. It’s also heartening to hear folk tell me how well I am looking.

My doctor, Dr Chris Burton, put it very succinctly when he told me that my obesity had become life-threatening. According to him: “Obesity is one of the main causes of diabetes in middle-aged people and also leads to high blood pressure. High blood pressure in turn is a major factor in strokes and heart disease.”

I may never achieve the sylph-like body of the tango dancers that I watched at a show one night in Buenos Aires, but I reckon I don’t need to. If I could get down below 16 stone and stay that way, whilst far from an ideal weight, is probably as much as I can realistically hope to achieve. I may do better over the coming years, but I won’t set my sights too high, and content myself with gradual weight loss over a long period of time.

In the past I didn’t really care about my diet and by eating all the wrong things to excess allowed the pounds to gradually pile on. It seems to me that changing my attitude and carefully watching what I eat is the best thing I have ever done for my health and all I stand to lose is more weight. I strongly recommend it to anyone who notices that they are regularly letting their belt out yet another notch.

Bob Carruth

As a kid, my favourite Saturday morning TV show was the Banana Splits.

Only people of a certain vintage will remember, but the four main characters were Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky – an oddball collection of hirsute bodies that, in a certain light, probably resemble my fellow dieters – Messrs Fletcher, Thomson, Wood and Wilkie. I’ll let The Scottish Farmer readers decide who could be which character but I’ve certainly got Kenny Fletcher down as Drooper!

The reason I mention the Banana Splits is because my favourite part of the show was when Fleegle announced the live action cliffhanger with the words: “Oh, oh! It’s Danger Island time.”

As far as my dieting is concerned, it is ‘Danger Island’ time.

My whole weight-loss effort was (note the past tense) based around running three or four times a week. That ground to a rather painful halt five weeks ago. It is ironic that in the last month or so I have been hobbling about like a decrepit old farmer while a truly decrepit old farmer, my father, is skipping about like a young thing having just had his knee replacement replaced.

Even more ironic is that my new best friend is eminent Scottish knee specialist Dr Colin Walker, who had a hand and a scalpel in my father’s Lazarus-like recovery. Dr Walker took great delight in informing me that I have ‘split the cartilage’ in my left knee. The biggest insult he hurled at me was when he suggested that my finely honed athletic legs had already ‘gone flabby.”

I resisted the temptation to punch the eminent surgeon because, as The Scottish Farmer went to press last week, Dr Walker was slicing and dicing my left kneecap. Physically assaulting someone who is wielding a scalpel on you while you are under the influence of a general anaesthetic does not sound like a good plan.

So I missed the Flab Five reunion weigh-in at the Highland Show. There was the possibility that Rog Wood, with his arthritic ankles, and Ian Thomson, with his recent hip replacement, could have pushed me in a wheelchair to the weigh in – what an advert that would have been for Scottish Slimmers!

However, I am prepared to step onto the scales in front of an independent adjudicator (also known as my wife) to see if I have kept the pounds off since our last public weigh in at AgriScot in November. I am fearful of the results.

My biggest problem is that I am still eating like a person who still runs three or four times a week. The Scottish Slimmers recipe books have come back out the cupboard. I need to get back to the low-cal soups and the salads or it really will be ‘Danger Island’ time.

Sandy Wilkie

I CAN’T believe it has been a year since the weigh in, and while the other three gentleman have continued to make sound progress after the half way weigh in at the mid winter AgriScot Event in Edinburgh, young Mr Fletcher and I have slipped somewhat and have had a rather bumpy ride in 2010!

However dear fellow blogger, I do have some very valid reasons for my limited success (sorry, some very valid excuses for my limited success!)

It’s been a busy 12 months within the Wiseman organisation, even so, I did shed the pounds initially with a modest lifestyle change in both exercise and diet – a healthy breakfast of Special K and ‘the One’ each morning seemed to set me up for the day with fruit generally replacing sweets and crisps in the cow car. Trouble is, these initial minor alterations weren’t big enough alterations to keep me on track.

I’ve explained before that I travel a lot so I spend a huge amount of time in airports, railway stations, garage forecourts, convenience shops and fine hotels where fast food, rich food and bulky pastries and fizzy drinks, are all too common. And then there’s the not inconsiderable amount of corporate entertainment with our clients.

Kenny and I have agreed to carry on in the search of a solution for us to shed pounds and we’ve agreed to help each other, the deal being that I’ll call him to say I saw him eating a cream cake and he’ll call me to shame me when he hears about drinking too many Magners while corporately entertaining some of our customers! You may call it banter, but we’ll call it support. So what’s a bit of bullying to help us on our weight loss way!

Ken Fletcher

I’M NOT quite a failure of the Slimathon, but I’m close to it.

My starting weight of a bag of sugar short of 21 stone and the finishing line weight at AgriScot last November of 18stone 11lbs has now, regretfully, crept back up again to 19 stone 3lbs (as of Tuesday morning).

The good news about that was that I actually had a first ever – I came back from the Highland Show lighter than normal. That was probably all down to a dodgy whelk consumed in the Countryside Area putting my system into some kind of meltdown.

The facts of the matter are, for those of you out there who want to lose weight, then it takes a strong will to keep it up. For those of us who are not in a controlled environment, ie are constantly on the move and find themselves in a fair number of hospitable situations, it is really difficult.

However, for those who work from home and can really keep tabs on what they eat, then there’s no doubt that Scottish Slimmers’ plan works and gets results.

There’s also no doubt that losing at least a little bit of weight does make you feel better. You have more energy and you definitely feel more mentally alert. I have been really impressed with the efforts of Rog, Bobby and Tompy during our campaign and I would reckon that at least for the ‘twae auld yins’ this has brought them a much better quality of life and may even have saved it!

The two (partial) failures, Sandy and I, have suffered from an inability to say ‘no’ to canapes and a glass of wine at the many functions we attend and that, I think, is the main reason for our partial failure.

Now, if they only made diet wine and foie gras!