Losing My Wellness Guru

One afternoon when I was in Italy on my recent holiday, the temperature reached 40ºC. I needed to pop into the town to get some money from an ATM, which took me about twenty minutes. It was absolutely unbearable to be outside with the sun beating down on my head and the heat bouncing off all those stone surfaces. And all the time I kept thinking ‘What was Dr. Michael Mosley thinking when he headed for a walk into the rocky hinterland of the Greek island of Symi at roughly the same time of day and in a similar temperature?’ 

We’ll never know, because very, very sadly Mosley didn’t survive to tell us his reasoning and, like many, I feel as though I have lost my mentor, my guide and even my good friend.

Which may sound strange to some of you because I had never met Dr. Mosley and, yet, in an age of Instagram influencers, YouTube stars and Tik Tok sensations, it’s all too easy to imagine that we have a personal connection to those we see on our screens. Like a lot of those ubiquitous influencers, Mosley was selling the concept of ‘wellness’, promising that if we listen to his advice and follow his recommendations then we can both feel and look better and even live longer and healthier lives. But his approach was not to promote healing crystals, expensive unguents or even a vagina scented candle for £500 (I kid you not), but to use a rigorous, well researched science-based approach, invariably having carried out some form of experiment on himself first.

Trust Me I’m A Doctor

I first came across Mosley’s work several years ago when he was a medical journalist on the BBC. He would often take a theme like ‘alcohol’, ‘sleep’ or ‘exercise’ and seek to bust as many myths as possible around that subject. I remember the programme in a series called Trust Me I’m A Doctor in which he was researching the effects of inebriation and he decided to get spectacularly drunk on camera so that various measurements could be taken to show the effects on his body and brain. I loved that he appeared to lack the kind of ego that many in his two chosen professions (medicine and journalism) tended to have in abundance, and that he was prepared to suffer a degree of pain, discomfort and indignity in pursuit of the truth.

Just One Thing

In more recent years I have found Mosley’s Just One Thing series for BBC Radio 4 particularly compelling. The idea is both simple and rather brilliant: health and wellbeing are not about big, sweeping changes to radically alter your whole way of life, but about small incremental choices which can easily be incorporated into your everyday life. I have documented in this blog most of those Just One Thing ideas as they have aired on the radio and you can find all of the fifty-plus short podcasts that Mosley made for the series on BBC Sounds (link below). So, if you regularly stand on one leg whilst cleaning your teeth to improve your balance as I do, you need to send a silent thank you to Michael Mosley for changing your behaviour.

Eat, Fast, Live Longer

However it is arguably in the area of weight control that Mosley has had the most enduring and important impact and, as ever, it was originally informed by discovering by chance that he had diabetes. My own recent health problems, including an ovarian cancer scare, have also driven me into his supportive embrace, which is possibly why I have felt his sudden and untimely death so acutely. Following his Fast 800 programme I have so far lost around 8kgs (17lbs) since the beginning of May, and have honestly found it both relatively easy to follow and, happily, considering how unwell I was feeling beforehand, extremely effective in a number of ways.

Intermittent Fasting

Mosley himself came to weight loss via intermittent fasting in 2012 when, after a random blood test, he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. His own father had died at 74 from a diabetes-related disease, so Mosley was keen to avoid that outcome and was also interested in finding a cure without using medication. He persuaded the BBC to let him make a science documentary called Eat, Fast, Live Longer with himself as the guinea pig. He was filmed testing a number of different forms of intermittent fasting before settling on the 5:2 diet. In this approach, instead of cutting his calories every day as would be normal on a standard diet, Mosley ate 600 calories just on two days a week, and then ate normally for the other five days. It worked. Mosley lost 9kgs and his blood sugars returned to normal, curing his diabetes without medication.

The 800 Fast Diet

A few years later Mosley came across some startling new research from Dr. Roy Taylor, a diabetes specialist at Newcastle University. This convinced Mosley that the main reason he had managed to overcome diabetes was because he had lost a lot of weight very rapidly. Taylor had done studies showing that, if you quickly lose more than 10% of your body weight as he had (and also as I have now done), the fat is drained from your liver and pancreas and your body is restored to its former health. Like Mosley, my blood tests, not for diabetes but for liver function with a diagnosis of Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, have improved over 2 months on the 800 Fast diet to the point where the specialist has told me that no further tests or investigations are necessary which has come as a tremendous relief.

My Top Tips for Successful 800 Fast Dieting

I have another 4kgs to lose, so, with a brief week-long hiatus whilst I was in Italy (who can resist an Italian gelato?) I am straight back to my regime of 800 calories a day. I know some of you have joined me on this journey and others may be thinking of trying it, so here are my top tips:

1- Read Mosley’s explanatory book the fast 800 before you begin. I actually read it twice and am still dipping into it when I need a boost.

2- Essential in my view are the accompanying recipes in Dr. Clare Bailey and Justine Pattinson’s Fast 800 Recipe Book - all my meals come from this and most are delicious.

3- Motivation is key. Mine was powerful: I had a bloated stomach and random unexplained pains, aches and discomfort in my tummy which scans and blood tests showed had no obvious cause. This diet has cured all of those symptoms.

4- At the start, I measured myself (waist/stomach/hips), weighed myself and had a ‘barometer’ pair of trousers which didn’t do up. I didn’t want to start neurotically jumping on the scales all the time, so I found the trousers and the tape measure were my reassuring friends - my middle area started going down like a punctured balloon, and those trousers gradually became comfortable to wear.

5- Make every meal you eat really delicious and slowly savour every mouthful. Yesterday I had a full bowl of apple with strawberries and blackberries topped with a half a small pot of full fat Greek yoghurt for breakfast, a big mixed salad (lettuce/tomatoes/cucumber) with a small tin of tuna, dressed with 1 tbsp of olive oil and 2 tsp balsamic vinegar for lunch, and then for supper I had sea bass fried in oil and butter with a huge pile of mixed green vegetables. 

6- I also drink masses of water and 2 cups of black tea every day which prevents constipation. I try to have no extra liquid calories but do have a small tin of Fever Tree Mediterranean low-cal tonic water as a very small treat most days.

7- Hunger settles down after about 10-14 days, which were probably the toughest (but also when my motivation was sky high). I rarely wake with hunger in the night any longer, but if I do I just drink some water and this seems to trick my stomach into feeling full.

8- I am also doing Mosley’s recommendation of TRE or Time Restricted Eating. I aim to finish my main evening meal by 7.30 pm and eat my breakfast 14 hours later at around 9.30 am. I feel that resting my digestive system for that time has really helped with the tummy problems that were plaguing me before I started the regime.

9- If you want even more encouragement to follow this low carbohydrate, high protein and high fat way of eating then watch the excellent documentary Fat Fiction on YouTube. This starkly illustrates why the USA has developed an obesity and diabetes health crisis in the past fifty years - something we are rapidly emulating on this side of the Atlantic.

I was petrified of going on a formal ‘diet’ like this one. I have long associated restricted eating regimes with a form of bulimia in which I would see-saw between starving and bingeing. The difference this time is both in the method and the motivation. The high fat intake seems to satisfy both my body and my brain and my skin is also loving all that olive oil! And my motivation is to lose the visceral fat from my stomach and liver, places where they can wreak havoc inside an ageing body like mine. I also feel confident that I know how to eat to maintain my target weight once I get there, hopefully by the end of this month.

Last September I was asked to give a eulogy at the memorial celebration of a 67 year old friend who had died just six months after his diagnosis of cancer. I found this quote from Maya Angelou which felt apposite: “If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased.”  My brilliant friend had touched many lives and left the world a richer place as a result, and the same is so true of Dr. Michael Mosley. 

Rest in peace dear Dr. Mosley. You may have died in tragic circumstances at the comparatively young age of 67, but your legacy is both significant and profound in the vast number of people who are leading healthier and happier lives thanks to your teachings. I am one of them. Thank you.

Link to Just One thing on BBC Sounds and Michael Mosley’s final interview on June 14th at the Hay Book Festival here

Tricia x

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