The Chairman of NHS Bath and North East Somerset has led by example by shedding the pounds to improve his health.
Malcolm Hanney has lost two stone, or 28lbs, in just four months dropping three/four inches off his waistline after he decided to lose weight and get more active. He now weighs 12 st.
Malcolm, who has chaired the primary care trust since its inception in 2001, wants to promote the benefits of being more active and healthy.
The NHS estimates that diseases related to being obese, such as diabetes and heart disease, will cost the health service locally £49 million by 2015. That’s up from £44.1 million in 2007.
“My weight crept up on me. I didn’t realise how much I had put on before I decided last September that I needed to do something about it because I wasn’t a very good advert for the NHS!” said Malcolm.
“I started to do a bit more exercise and changed some of my habits. I stopped taking sugar in my coffee and cut back from six cups a day to two. At breakfast I now have muesli and fruit, or a yogurt, and I have a light lunch.
“No matter how good dinner is I’ve stopped going back for seconds and I’ve cut back on wine. I am quite surprised just how much weight you can lose in quite a short time if you keep to a few simple principles. For me it needed to be a change to more healthy living and not just a short term diet”
Dr Pamela Akerman, Director of Public Health, added: “What a lot of people don’t realise is that you don’t have to be significantly overweight to compromise your health.
“We live hectic lives and don’t always have time to cook a healthy meal from scratch or take exercise everyday.
“After a busy day at work or school a lot of us relax in front of the TV or play computer games, which is very understandable.
“But healthy eating and exercise don’t have to be hard and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Changing attitudes and behaviours can be difficult but that’s what we are addressing in our strategy ‘Shaping Up’. ”