Rosi never had a problem with her weight until she landed an executive role, she explains "I was sitting on my bum all day and got fat. Had a baby and got fatter...and got older." Short-term strategies were used to lose the weight but it kept coming back. Rosi even began training four times per week but "I was exercising like crazy and not losing any weight! Then I thought, this is crazy, something major has to change."
THE STORY
What Rosi was failing to do, was recognise where her skills had reached their limits. Her moment of realisation came when she thought "well how the hell would I know, this is not my speciality?" What Rosi needed to do was apply the problem-solving skills she had developed in her executive role to her personal life. Rosi explains:
"Whenever I don't know the answer I go and ask an expert in that field. Why don't I just listen and see what happens, because that's what experts do? They listen to other experts to get better, which I do religiously at work. You can't be good at everything"
THE SOLUTION
"Do one thing at a time. Let go of multitasking and compartmentalise everything, this is what keeps it all together. It’s a phrase I use a lot, worry about the now/now. So if that happens to be a meal, then that's a meal, if it happens to be exercise, then it's that, but you don't worry about what you are going to do after that."
This is the strategy that allows Rosi to get through ridiculous amounts of meetings and arduous international travel schedules. What is the secret to compartmentalising her life? Her answer, "I book it in." What made Rosi successful was the decision that she would start considering her health more important than a work project.
"I book everything in like an appointment. Massage, hair, nails, walks, training, breakfast with friends, coffee. They all have equal importance and I don't cancel, no matter what. Once a month I book in all my training sessions, then call my friends and book breakfast, lunches and dinner. It's as boring and black and white as that."
Rosi suffers horrendously from jet lag but now uses running to reduce the effects of crossing the globe and to prime her for a week of back-to-back meetings and highly significant presentations.
Rosi: "Recently I met with a business partner who said 'you look 10 years younger. That skincare must be working.' She couldn't remember what size I was. I am in an industry where it's important to look good. So when someone says 'you look younger', that's a good thing.
THE RESULT
Percentage of initial body weight lost
20
Number of Magnum ice creams per week consumed while losing weight
1
Number of years Rosi has sustained her results
5
Rosi's influence can be seen throughout her family. Her husband Tom adopted her eating habits and lost 8kg and Rosi's son Tomas (left) is constantly in the gym or on the basketball court.
When asked what is the number one benefit of losing weight and keeping it off, Rosi explains, "I'm feeling really, really well. That's the number one thing. I feel great and am rarely sick.
I've lost count of the number of people that tell me that I am looking good and it’s a great motivator."