Bianca (54)
Bianca Vet works as a radiodiagnostic lab technician and weight consultant, and is single. She keeps track of everything she eats.
I always weighed 120 kilos, secretly I ate more than I burned. I thought I was eating fairly normal and healthy, but it was too much of everything. Friday was fries day, in the morning I spread pasta with butter on my sandwich, after dinner I had dessert and if I was bothered by my hormones I could eat a bag of chips. I didn’t want to die, because I saw people who were on a super strict diet end up heavier than when they started.
pulmonary embolism
In 2015 I got a pulmonary embolism. The doctor said it was because of my weight. Then a switch flipped for me. I downloaded a nutrition app and started tracking what I ate. I was shocked. One day I was just hitting 800 calories, the next I sometimes ate 4,000. I started to eat differently: more protein and less processed food. I have been weighing between 70-75 kilos for four years now. The app allows me to keep an eye on my food intake. If I want to eat out once, I adjust to that for the rest of the day.
Consistently keeping track of what I eat works for me. I also weigh myself every day, but take the average of a week. One day you can be 2 kilos heavier than the other. In the beginning, my environment thought I was too extreme and they regularly asked why I didn’t want to participate in ‘fun’. Everyone is now used to it and nobody persuades me to have a pastry if I don’t want to.”
Lisbeth (64)
Liesbeth Peels is a volunteer and single. She loves the Burgundian life.
Only when I started living on my own and started cooking myself, did I become a real Burgundian. I cook for myself every day. Sometimes I go for a standard Dutch meal, other times I love making sushi. A good steak makes my mouth water; I am a real meat eater. When I wake up, I often think about what I will prepare that evening. I make a party of every meal; I sit down with a glass of wine and eat really at ease.
Balance day
You can get me out of bed for Greek cuisine, but honestly you can for any kitchen. There’s almost nothing I don’t like. Yes, pasta in the shape of a butterfly, I don’t like that. Of course I also have to watch my weight. I went on a real diet once in my life. Then I lost quite a bit, but that weight was just as hard again not much later. ‘Never again,’ I decided. Nowadays I occasionally do a balance day, but I find that very difficult.
I really miss the good food. I understand that there are people who want to live healthy and stay slim, that’s just not for me. Give me a nice breakfast at the weekend with an egg and a croissant. Or lunch with a fresh roast beef sandwich. I really enjoy eating out on vacations. The friends with whom I eat together are Burgundians just like me. We are well matched.”
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