Success Stories

Ian Corbridge's Get Healthy Journey

‘A photo of Ian before the Get Healthy Service coaching program'	‘A Photo of Ian after the Get Healthy Service, taken at the Oxfam Trail Walk in August 2010’

Initially Ian was quite reluctant to enrol in the Get Healthy Service and he explains that “My wife actually signed me up”. She wanted him to participate with her on the journey to ‘Get Healthy’.

Prior to commencing the coaching program, Ian was eating junk food, sugary drinks, hardly any fruit and vegetables as well as eating meals at irregular times and snacking throughout the day. His activity consisted of walking the dogs daily and doing 3 hour bushwalks occasionally on the weekend.

In the first call, Ian set a goal to increase his physical activity levels by aiming to make his bushwalks a regular occurrence on the weekend and to set a date to complete a 30km walk he had always wanted to do. In addition, he was going to work on increasing his walking pace with the dogs each morning.

By the first review call 3 weeks later, he reported to his coach that he had lost 7kg and 7cm of his waist circumference due to eliminating all soft drink, take away and snacking junk food. Instead he increased his consumption of fruit and vegetables, lean meats and appropriate portions of food at regular meal times. He had set the date of his 30km walk for the Easter long weekend and had already commenced longer bush walks of anywhere up to 22km.

“I found the initial lifestyle questionnaire was one of the most helpful tools with the coaching service as it provided me with a snapshot of where I was and where I was headed if I did not do something. It was a wake up call” said Ian. Using the free and personal service, Ian gained the motivation to start his more active lifestyle and has not looked back since. “Once I noticed a difference in my energy levels and the fact that I was losing weight, it encouraged me to go on and then I found I was actually enjoying the exercise because I was actually getting something out of it” he said.

Ian has continued to lose more weight throughout the coaching program and has reduced his risk factors, especially his BMI and waist circumference. He is now in the process of training for the Oxfam Trail walk which is a 100km bush walk in August “If you had said to me 6 months ago, Ian in 6 months you would be doing this, I would have laughed at you!” said Ian.

“I have gone from being an overweight guy who did not exercise, to now consider myself as very fit, very healthy. This has turned my life around!”

When asked whether Ian could see himself going back to his previous lifestyle, he said “I don’t see this as a diet that I have been on; I see this as a lifestyle change as I have changed how I go about my life. It is not a diet, it is my life.”