Cutter - The 80/20 Diet

Thanks to my wonderful husband Paul whos has been my driving force and tremendous support for the last 22 years of our life together. You are my best friend and I love you with all my heart.

Thanks to the talented Anouska Jones for editing my revised edition and Nanette Backhouse for her art direction and skillfully managing to fit everything in.

Thanks to my health coach and mentors Dr Anish Singh from the Empire Clinic and Dr Albina Dela Bruna; your passion for fitness and optimum health is paramount.

When people ask me how I got into all of this, what influenced my love of cooking and what started me on my own health regime, I sometimes feel a little silly telling them how young I was when it all began. I started helping out in my aunts kitchen when I was about four years old and embarked on my health crusade when I was nine years old!

My great-aunt was a good cook and baker; she would mix cakes by hand with a wooden spoon and churn out babka and sernik on a weekly basis for our Polish family and friends. I would watch her and help out in the kitchen; she would get me to sift the flour, prepare all the ingredients and shape piroshki with my tiny fingers. This was the beginning of my love of cooking.

Food was a big deal in our household; there were always extra-large portions and second helpings, coated with lots of butter. At the age of nine, I realized I was overweight. A group of high-school students were doing a survey and they recorded the weight and height of our class. I was shocked to discover that I was the heaviest in the class; 1015 kg (2233 lb) more than most of my classmates. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. It changed my life forever and was the inspiration for what I do today.

The very next day I asked my mother to buy more fruit and vegetables for me to eat and to buy a healthier breakfast cereal with fibre and less sugar. I started refusing deep-fried foods, which forced Mum into practising healthier cooking methods with our meals. Instead of catching the school bus, I began to walk to school. From then on, Id walk straight past the shops after school instead of popping in and buying bagfuls of mixed lollies or ice creams, as I used to do every day.

Id never really participated in much sport, but I enrolled myself in the school netball and basketball teams and tried out all sorts of fun school sports when we had carnivals. My aunt and uncle bought me my first bicycle and encouraged me to go riding with them regularly. They were in their late fifties at the time, had never owned a car and used to ride their bikes or walk everywhere. I think their example inspired my later love of bicycle racing.

I remember watching shows such as the Richard Simmons Show in school holidays and joining in with the exercises. I also experimented with the healthy recipes they made on these shows. I made my first egg-white omelette and showed Mum that if you drain the juices from a roast chicken and put them in the refrigerator, youll be able to skim off all the excess saturated fat and make a delicious gravy just by thickening the juices with a little cornflour (cornstarch). Without realizing it, I had lost all the excess fat within a year. I felt great! I felt fit and healthy for the first time. I could move around freely and not puff and pant. I was eating healthily and exercising regularly, and, as a result, was happy and full of energy.

Today I am a qualified chef, an internationally accredited fitness trainer and founder of the healthy chef.

My recipes are for people who love food, who love to eat and who have made a conscious decision to maximise their health and wellbeing. The healthy chef is not about deprivation; its a realistic approach to healthy eating that will last a lifetime.

My philosophy is BUY FRESH KEEP IT SIMPLE MAKE IT YOURSELF.

We have the power to change the health in our society, we can be part of the solution, using less salt, choosing better quality ingredients and designing healthier recipes that taste amazing and are good for us. The choices we make are shaped by the choices we have.

In an ideal world, it would be great if we could all eat healthily 100 per cent of the time. But if I can get people to eat healthily 80 per cent of the time, then Ive made a difference and we can help reverse the current trend towards obesity. Thats the simple philosophy of the 80/20 diet eat well 80 per cent of the time, and 20 per cent of the time you can enjoy a little indulgence. So six days a week, try eating foods that are good for the body. Think about what you put into your body. For fat loss, the recipes are specifically designed to provide the right carbohydrates at the right time of day. Those of us who eat too many carbohydrates will burn those in preference to fat; consequently, fat-burning is not activated and weight loss becomes difficult. If the right carbohy drates are eaten at the right time of day and you supply your body with enough healthy food, then your body will allow fat to be burnt. Eat most of your good carbs combined with a little protein for breakfast and lunch, when you are most active. Dinner should be a mix of water-based, high-fibre, lower-carbohydrate vegetables and protein.

Make one day a week your 20 per cent. Thats the day you can indulge your favourite cravings and eat what you like in moderation. Its not a licence to pig out; its about having one or two chocolate biscuits, or four little squares of dark chocolate, on a Saturday night not the whole packet or block. Eat enough to satisfy your sweet tooth, not enough to make you gain more body fat or make you feel sick. I just want to make it very clear that its 20 per cent once a week, not 20 per cent every day. This will allow you to nourish your body with good foods and give you the best opportunity to lose weight and burn body fat.

This diet and exercise plan is based on positive action and disease prevention, making us responsible for our own health and wellbeing. It doesnt matter if you have a lot of fat to lose or just need to take a little off your tummy, legs and arms; it is suitable for everybody. After 12 weeks of following the 80/20 diet and getting regular exercise, youll be leaner, your body will be more toned and youll feel fantastic and energized. Youll also have discovered a program that is so easy to follow, you will be able to continue this lifestyle for the rest of your life.

These are the three essentials to being able to lose body fat and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Most people expect to see instant results perhaps this is because of all the fad diets around promising reductions of 10 kg (22 lb) in just one week. But such diets fail because people cant sustain the ultra-low-calorie strict eating demands for long periods. They have no energy, and feel grumpy and lousy. Quick-fix low-calorie diets cause a rapid loss not only of fat but also of essential muscle tissue. Everyone is out for the instant fix! But the reality is that although quick-fix diets may cause a speedy weight loss, this usually leads to speedy weight gain soon after.