The 1:1 Diet In It Together Award Winners 2019
Pete’s story: “Over the last 20 to 30 years I’ve tried many diets, but nothing worked long-term. Nothing kept the weight off.
“Then, Francesca and I watched this TV show that said The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan was, without a doubt, the best thing out there. Francesca turned to me and said ‘Let’s try it!’
“I can absolutely say this is the first diet which made absolute sense to me.
“We are busy people. I’m a musician and travel a lot for work, we have two rescue dogs who we love walking together, elderly parents we care for and two grown up kids, who keep us busy too.
“Francesca is a great cook, and her Italian roots resulted in friends and family gathered around our dinner table multiple nights of the week.
“When we’re not working, we like doing stuff together. We are married, but we are also best friends.
“As happy as I was, my health was not doing as well. My doctor had put me on pills for high blood pressure and high cholesterol and I’d just been told my blood sugar was too high. That was a big wake-up call - I didn’t want to become diabetic.
“I was feeling the strain of those extra pounds too. I was out of breath, getting aches and pains and finding it hard to perform on stage for long periods of time when it always used to be a doddle. I was feeling like an old man.
“As soon as we started The 1:1 Diet, everything improved. We decided to attack it front on and followed the plan 100 per cent.
“Even over a busy summer period of music festivals and travelling for gigs. Some days I’d wake up in London, have my 1:1 Diet shake, a couple of bars on the road or on a plane, then grab a Step 2 dinner after the gig.
“Back home, Francesca was doing the same (without the travel). Together or apart, we were absolutely committed.
“It didn’t take long before our friends and my band mates started to notice my shirts were fitting a bit better and my energy levels were radically different.
“We are so confident in The 1:1 Diet we recommend it to everyone. My tour manager has even lost weight and got his diabetes back under control with his Consultant Jenny!
“Even though I was on the road a lot, my happiest times were always coming home to Francesca. We saw Michelle every week, kept busy walking the dogs and I swim regularly at our community pool.
“Yes there were a few ups and downs along the way, but we tackled this diet as a team. Some weeks Francesca’s losses were less than mine and I always felt bad for her, but we kept going because we knew we would get to our goal in the end. And we did.
“We’ve celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary this year and both feel like we’re in our twenties again!
“I’m planning on making it well beyond our 50th anniversary too – we are absolutely in it together!”
Francesca’s story: “I struggled to shift my post-baby weight after giving birth to two beautiful children, but it wasn’t until the youngest’s 18th birthday that I finally accepted my post-baby bump was actually stubborn belly fat.
“I was miserable. My favourite clothes hung unloved in my wardrobe as I donned flowing tents to disguise my shape.
“When I hit 50, I woke with a sinking realisation that no one really saw me any more: my friends, my colleagues, my family or myself. I was the invisible woman.
“I am a great cook and our social life centred around eating. Our plates groaned under the weight of delicious Italian meals, but we were eating ourselves into an early grave.
“My husband, Pete, is older than me, so with the combination of increasing portion sizes and increasing age, we both just ballooned.
“I felt eons away from the first time I saw Pete at a filming of Top of the Pops in the early 1980s.
“Who were these two old dears who had to groan every time they got out of bed?
“Then, the universe sent me a sign (well the TV did) – an exposé on popular diets with The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan coming out on top, especially with the marked effect on diabetes and cholesterol (both of which Pete suffered from).
“That night, we decided to do something about it and contacted our wonderful Consultant, Michelle Toner.
The only frustration was that each week, Pete would lose roughly double the weight that I would but he was always my number one cheerleader, encouraging me & keeping me going. We make an amazing team.
“We deliberately cleared our social diaries so we could focus on the diet and not let anything steer us off course. We were focused, determined and losing weight – every single week.
“It didn’t take long for our friends to notice and their comments and compliments were amazing. We even have a little ‘club’ for friends who have followed in our footsteps to lose weight themselves. Pete’s tour manager has even managed to lose weight and get his diabetes under control again.
“As wonderful as compliments are, nothing really compares to the way we felt about ourselves as our ‘old selves’ began to emerge.
“As my confidence grew, it enabled us both to take on new challenges in our professional lives. I was newly employed, which meant being very visible in court rooms and the fact that I could show up every day in a sharp fitting suit, was without doubt, a big part of what made me feel like I could take on the world again.
“We never dreamed that in our 50s and 60s respectively, we would feel and look better than we ever have. It has been a total transformation for us both and we shall be forever grateful.”