If you want to weigh up what change can do, take a look at Mely Scheidegger and Allan Slater. Both have lost weight thanks to INEOS' Energy Station.
Allan lost 14st (89kg) in three years; Mely shed over 3st (22+kg) in just six months. “We are proud of both of them because change takes grit, determination and perseverance,” said John Mayock, who founded The Energy Station.
But Mely’s goal was never to lose weight, despite being about 15st (96kg).
“I had been thin when I was younger, so I had no problem being fat,” she said. “I felt fine the way I was.”
But her mindset changed after a disastrous trip to Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains in Peru with her daughter and nephew.
“When I got there I realised how unfit I was,” she said. “It was so bad, I almost had to pay to be flown back down to Lima.”
It was the wake-up call she needed. At 63, and with plans aplenty for once she’d retired, she realised she needed to be fitter.
Energy Station coach Bram Boeve, who also now works for INEOS Football SA, stepped in to help. “It was as though the stars were aligned,” said Mely and Bram. To blame was Mely’s lifestyle.
Although she didn’t smoke, rarely drank alcohol, and didn’t snack throughout the day, she was simply eating too much – and too much of the wrong foods at the wrong time.
“I didn’t use to bother with breakfast and then I would eat food that was quick and easy once I had got home from work,” she said.
Bram gave her tips on how to balance her diet: cut down on the amount of carbohydrates such as pasta and mashed potato, eat fewer proteins and choose more greens.
She also worked out three times a week for 30 minutes at the INEOS gym in Rolle, Switzerland, where she is a senior financial accountant for INEOS Group.
The advice and exercise programme, put together by Bram, worked. Within weeks Mely stated to crave healthier food instead of pasta, and was buying, cooking and enjoying fresh food from local farms, sharing her findings with anyone who would listen..
Other benefits followed. Her health, fitness and outlook on life improved, and old clothes, which she’d worn when she was slimmer, had come back into fashion. “Her transformation has been amazing,” said Bram.
Meanwhile, Allan embarked on his quest to lose weight in 2015. First he looked at how much he was eating and decided to cut out salt and sugar.
But he did not join INEOS’ gym in Grangemouth, Scotland, where he works in engineering support, until late 2017 because he feared he was too heavy to do any exercise.
“I actually thought exercising at that point could have been far more detrimental to my health,” he said
Today, both Allan and Mely are shadows of their former selves – and much happier.
