IT’D BE NOTHING FOR ME TO EAT 25 COOKIES OVER A SHIFT

After discovering he had diabetes chef Richard decided that it was time for a change

A CHEF who discovered he had diabetes after falling asleep at the wheel has lost around 75lbs – after changing the way he eats.

Richard Watson, 41, from Cowbridge, in the Vale of the Glamorgan, was a chef who liked to try his own food in the kitchen. Perhaps a little too much.

At his heaviest, Richard weighed 23 and a half stone.

The father of one found working 15-hour shifts in a hot kitchen was a bit of a struggle when it came to food, where he picked instead of having planned meals.

He said: “I was eating on the go around the kitchen and picking at things on the pretence of ‘I am the chef, I am trying food’.

“I didn’t sit down and plan my meals and didn’t check my eating. It would be nothing to eat 25 cookies a day over the 15-hour shift.

“It was a case of having long working hours, the environment I was working in and trying food. It was pure greed and I was out of control.”

Things came to a head when Richard fell asleep at a red light in his car while driving down Newport Road.

As a result of this, he visited his doctor and was diagnosed with type two diabetes.

Having dropped to around 20 stone, Richard put the weight back on, which made him think that something had to change.

He said: “I thought to myself ‘I need to do something here’ and joined Weight Watchers, in September last year.

“I didn’t think it would be for me, but it wasn’t a diet thing. It changed my life.”

Richard, originally from Cardiff, lost six pounds in his first week at Weight Watchers, a stone after three weeks and another stone after another three weeks. After six months on the programme, Richard has lost a whopping 75lb.

In all, he lost 25% of his body weight and his trousers shrunk from a size 48 to size 36.

He said: “It took the Weight Watchers programme to realise I could eat good but eat controlled.

“I was eating like I never ate before but I was still losing weight.

”Six months ago you would never have seen me eating fruit but now I eat bananas, apples, berries and all sorts.

“Weight Watchers was basically an education for me. We all know what we’re supposed to be eating but by going to a weigh-in you become accountable to other people and ultimately yourself.

“It made me focus and I became quite strict about my eating. I would write down what I was going to eat before it went in my mouth.”

Another result of Richard’s weight loss enabled him to come off his medication for diabetes, with his daily dose of Metaformin stopped, in agreement with his doctor.

The chef at St Cyres School, in Penarth, is now running two of his own Weight Watchers groups in Cardiff – Penylan and Pontprennau – after he wished to give something back to the organisation.

He said: “I try to encourage more men to join the group, as I was the only male who attended my Weight Watchers class.

“I try to make sure my meetings appeal to both men and women at the same time.”

Richard also has more time to spend playing with his eight-year-old son as a result of his weight loss.

He added: “Now I am an active father.

“When we used to play hide and seek I would let him catch me, but now I can catch him.

“It’s now a pleasure to go cycling, swimming and taking my son to the park.”