Welcome back to another episode of the Better Bloke Project. And on

this one, we got a long time BA member, most notable

for jumping into the comments and helping guys with their weight loss journey. But

I wanna talk about all things maintenance, because he's kept it off for so

long. And a lot of it was done through diet. So Terry Monroe,

he's on the couch. How are we doing, mate? I'm doing awesome, mate. How are you guys? Top

of the world. Always good. Top of the world. Let's

kick it off with a little bit of a bio about you. What's your journey in

Okay, so I had a few ups and downs. So back around 2000, I

was around 154 kilos. I

lost, was it 50, sorry,

143. I lost 54 kilos in 60 weeks. And back then I was actually named

like Australian Joint Winner of Men's Weight

Watch of the Year. Then we had our kid come along and

a postnatal depression hit me. So there's a nice hit for old mental health

hitting me pretty early. I went back to old habits, didn't

give a shit, didn't exercise and then ballooned from

90 kilos over the next 16 years to reach 185.5 kilos,

which as you can see with my old photo, I was quite

a large lad. Hit rock bottom for

the second time and decided if I don't do something, I'm going

to die. Not kill myself, I was going to die because I was just killing myself by

eating too much, not exercising. I did a

search on the internet, found CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet, which

is all just diet, and followed that for two

years, lost a kilo a week, and ended up losing 100 kilos in

two years. And so I reached 85.5 kilos and

been maintaining a healthy weight since then. So that's five

Interesting. I think that's like probably something people struggle

I think that's something that's not really spoken about though more than anything. It's like everyone talks

so much. It's almost like it's like the glamour of losing weight.

but it's never about the hardship of actually keeping it

Maintenance is really difficult because the biggest bit

for me was I had a really terrible relationship

with the scales. So the scales hit me pretty bad because you've

got to remember I was so big for so long and living such a

strenuous life with, I couldn't even sit in an airplane

seat without having, I couldn't put the tray down and

had to ask for the extension belt. And so my

mindset was very much I needed to lose weight to keep going.

I wanted to be there for my kids and be a good example and be healthy

and do all the stuff that I missed out all those years. And then when I

hit the goal, I had gone from having the mindset of

I need to lose this weight, I need to weigh myself. I was weighing

myself daily then and being perfect

with my diet and nutrition. And

then all of a sudden, I've got no goal. I've reached the goal. There's

no more, I need to lose another kilo next week, or my next goal

is, you know, 50 kilos lost, or 60 kilos lost, whatever. So

I had no more, no drive, no goal. So

I went from that to having nothing. So then

all of a sudden, what do I do? I don't have this goal anymore. So

then I would start to self-sabotage. I

realize that now, but back then I didn't realize that I was actually,

you know, probably subconsciously putting on weight, so

then I'd have to lose it. to get that feeling of,

oh, I've actually got that endorphin, that

hit of that progress again. So my

mental state went to being top of the world to

then ending up with a bad relationship with the scale,

which I then had to work on. And it's taken me nearly

five years of maintenance. I think last year, my dietician said,

I need to stop obsessing because I've got a very obsessive personality,

weigh myself daily. If I weighed myself and wasn't happy,

I'd wait until I went to the toilet to be a bit lighter and

then record that weight daily. I'd do

a gym workout, freak out that my weight had gone up, not

knowing that your body weight fluctuates normally. So

I'd end up having a really bad relationship mentally. So getting

through that was difficult, having to switch to non-scale victories,

where I'm not focusing on the scales all the time. So it's been really

complex mindset, mind change, and

There is also like a point, right, where you reach this

goal weight So this diet and you can tell me about that because

I haven't heard of it Sure I assume it puts you in some sort of

calorie deficit, whatever gets your weight down But once you reach

that you have to reassess what you're doing, right? Your diet changes and

all this other stuff must change to maintain What's that process like?

Okay, so with the CSIRO, Total Wellbeing Diet, that's

been created by the CSIRO. They did Wi-Fi, Australian

Science Agency. And it's sold through a

commercial company that does it. I signed up with them and

it's basically a way for you to meet your macros.

Rob, you probably understand macros, because you're doing your fitness thing

Yeah. See, that's the thing with like,

I don't know fuck all about macros or anything like that. I just, Geordie,

I don't read it, I just read the diet that I got given. I go, okay,

Okay, so that's pretty similar. So with the CSIRO one, there's

a couple of different ways you can do it. They'll have a meal plan that you can follow

and I go, you have this for breakfast, this for lunch, this for dinner. I

don't like that, so I created my own meal plan, but at

the root of it, without going into too much detail, you eat so

much meat or protein. If you're vegetarian, you

might have tofu, beans, etc. You'll have this much bread,

carbs, and if you're gluten-free, you might have different varieties, whatever.

So it gives you basically a balanced diet, but

obviously you need a calorie deficit or you're not going to lose weight. The

key to weight loss is for diet, nutrition,

and exercise is a great way to get healthy and have that

other, you know, to build your health and fitness effectively. So

with, I call it TWD, because it's Total Wellbeing Diet,

that does the macros for you effectively. So

I've done a deep dive with my dietician, and I know that if

I want to build muscle, I need this ratio of, you

know, protein and carbs and fat or

whatever it is. But it does it for you automatically, as long as

I reach my targets of how much, you know, breads and

how much protein and how much fats and oils. I

know that I'm in the right nutrition to

be healthy, and I can dial that up a bit if I wanted to gain a

bit of muscle and have a bit of a calorie surplus, because

I want to build up muscle, or like, you know, after Christmas and

holidays, need to tone back a bit of extra fat around the stomach, so

I've dropped it back a couple of notches, so back into a calorie

deficit effectively, but still reaching my nutrition. And

that is the way that I'm able to maintain long

term with my health and fitness where

I want to be. And with exercise,

I walk every day and have done for over

five years, seven years, just walking virtually every

day. Super important. I just do it and I

do the gym four days a week and that started purely

because I knew if I'm bored on a Saturday or a Sunday, I'll

get bored and I'm more likely to eat some bad food, eat

some shit food because I'm bored. Whereas time-wise, it

takes an hour and a half, by the time I drive to the gym, do the gym, come back home. So

it started as that and my son, he started the gym

a few years earlier and he sort of inspired me to get a

bit more beefcake. I'm not Arnold Schwarzenegger yet, but I've

The yet for beefcake. One

thing that you said, which I wanted to ask you about with this, like the

whole maintenance thing is that you mentioned that

you do allow yourself to sort of change it up a little bit. Because

obviously if you are sitting in a deficit,

the fitter you get when you're doing gym, you're going to

be burning a lot more. So like that deficit, Without

it increasing, it sort of is like you're outputting more energy than you're actually

putting in So how do you maintain that when obviously

you start getting more fitter? Did your deficit change

You have to eat less That like when I was 185 kilos,

I was eating a lot. I worked out through the

meal plan bit of the calories that I was eating pre-diet.

And I was eating 3,500 before dinner. I would just eat

dinner, whatever my wife was cooking at that point. So probably doing like,

you know, 5,000 calories with zero exercise. Then

I went to following the meal plan and I would have been doing probably

2,500. And no exercise, importantly, for the first six months,

because when you're that size, it's really difficult to exercise.

So my first exercise was star jumps in the pool, because

that would support my body weight and keep me cool. Living in Brisbane

gets bloody hot. So I was able to get exercise safely

because if you're a big guy, you don't want

to be walking and potentially injure yourself because then it's

just worse. So yeah, there was that big calorie

deficit and then over the years as I was getting fitter, I

would have to drop back a little bit occasionally because your body is

burning less calories because you're smaller. And so

you've either got to up the exercise to keep that calorie

deficit, or eat less.

So eat less or exercise more. So you've just got

to balance it. And I know through the

last seven years of my journey that I can

eat a bit extra protein that I would see in the tracker, because there's an

online tracker with the company. I

know I can eat more and it doesn't really make me put on weight. I'll

put on weight if I eat more carbs because I love my carbs. I

could never do keto, that's just not me. So

I know I've got to be careful with cashews because that's the

healthy oil. Your body needs oil with avocado, peanuts, nuts,

whatever. Um, I could easily eat twice as

much, but if I want to cut back, I need to measure it and

why it exactly. And I know it's 26 grams of cashews is

exactly what I need to, you know, trim, trim myself

So it's very much a discipline thing from you with like, you've

got yourself in that habit now as well. So that's, they sort of go hand

in hand, the habit and the discipline. But you're very strict with

Do you think it's going to get to a stage where you

have such a good relationship and understanding of everything that

you'll just be like, I know roughly the food I

need to eat and I'm not going to look at the scales. I'm going to look in the mirror and I'm going

to see how I feel and have kind of less emphasis

Yeah, so you've nailed where I am right now. So for

the last few years, I know if... So

I'm very structured. I know, you know, because I'm bringing my lunch because

I didn't want to go and get something else for lunch. I can nuke it and eat it here.

That's me being prepared. Because at the moment, I want to get rid of that extra that

I built up because I went to Japan with the family and holidays.

So I got a bit extra around the gut. I want to lose that. So I need to drop back a

bit. I know exactly how much to eat

to put myself in that calorie deficit, to bring

myself back with no extra change in exercise because I'm already doing

the max. I know what I need to eat, but

it's still important for me to measure the cashews because

I'll easily eat more than I should. I eat nightly

ice cream, have since day one. What's life without having ice

cream, for God's sake? Or a beer, if you want a beer, or a

wine, or whatever. You need that indulgence to live

life and not feel like, I can never have those

hot chips again. I can never have ice cream again. It's about everything

in moderation. So yeah, I still measure my ice cream. I

know that two-thirds of the tub of my ice cream will give me 200 calories

of indulgence. food without nutrition. But

I'm a human being and I enjoy it and it's sustainable and that's the

key. Whatever works is sustainable. That's absolutely

critical. I loved the potty with Dane, 160 odd

And it's a completely different journey. Like we've got

very different journeys. He's got very different goals as well. I

know I could never go through the weight loss surgery like he did. I know plenty

of people that did the surgery, but they said, I couldn't do the

diet side. And I couldn't do

what they're doing. But Dana still had to flick his mind

around, which is the tough part. It's one thing to follow a

diet and stick to this, or to have your shakes,

your man shake or whatever. But you've got to get those

strategies to make it lifetime, otherwise you're just going to go back.

Yeah, and this is a conversation we have with a lot of guys that

have struggled with their weight or they've gone through the big loss It's

not about the eating of the food, it's about

the relationship with food and why they're doing it So, obviously

to get up to that 200 kilo mark You know,

you're dealing with something. You don't have a good relationship with food.

I thought you said your relationship's too good with food. That's

It's a very intimate relationship. It's dependency. I don't know what

But then that's kind of why I posed that question just earlier like

now that you do have I

guess the way you interact with food healthier the next stage

To me from my perspective of someone who hasn't lost weight would be

a healthy relationship with food is just kind of

knowing like that Obviously, I don't count calories and stuff like

that But I know not to overindulge, so

that's when it would become even less controlling, I

feel I don't know if that's right because I haven't felt the thing

that got you to that stage Yeah, because every person

is gonna be slightly different but I think we've got a very similar journey like if you're a

I know there's a huge relationship between mental health and physical

health because a lot of people that are

very obese could have had childhood trauma and all that sort of

horrible stuff and then that's the way that they deal with it or

they have control even though it's, I'm eating

more, it's still a way they can control part of their life. I

can't go down that route because that's very different for a lot of people.

I come from a background of, I think, just

over-enjoying food and then making

it worse as I got into it. I

wasn't really a big guy, but then I hit the big time with

personal depression after... Actually, no, it can't be, because I was 143 before

Jack was born. So I think

I just didn't give a shit, to be honest, just like didn't

care, I was still probably late 20s, 30s type

thing, so I didn't really worry too much And then kids make

you think a bit more, but yeah I'd reached 154 before the first child was born,

I'm just trying to sort of see, it just came into my mind

with it. Is weight an

issue throughout your whole family? Or was it just a you thing?

No, it was just me really. My brother, my

sister, nothing really big. We

all get a bit bigger as we get older because we're not exercising

as much. But it's not like my mum was super obese or anything like that. I was

sort of like the big... I wasn't really fat

in school, but a kid picked on me. I was bullied even

though I wasn't fat, which is bizarre to me now because I'm thinking, I would love

to be that size. Yeah, just give

us an asshole, basically. Yeah, exactly. But

I don't really know what got me to that point, even looking back

now. But I know the second time when

we had the child and postnatal depression sort of

triggered me off and depression. I don't know if you guys

have been in depression, but you just don't think. You

don't even know you're depressed. You're just unhappy. Or for

me, it could be different for a lot of people. But it was really just like,

I just didn't give a shit and I'll just eat

my feelings and then I reach rock bottom and I've

Can we dive into the postnatal depression? I don't know if

No. This was something, like

when you said it before, I've really wanted to. Because it

is such a taboo topic for men. And it's so fucking

Yeah. But it's just like, even

myself, like being a father, When I hear postnatal

depression, my automatic brain response goes, the

mother, the mother, the mother. I work in the fucking

bloke space. And my brain goes, the mother. So

this is a really, really important discussion to have because it's- We don't talk

What was your experience going through that? Oh, you're gonna get me cuffs. And

what have you learned about men actually being affected by it? So,

yeah, sorry, it's a bit deep here. You all right, brother? Give it to

Let's have a hug, bro.

Hey, like, so, you

know, most babies, you're also getting older now, you've

got a kid that doesn't sleep, that's pretty hardcore, you've got to get back to

work, your wife might be breastfeeding if she's lucky, she might not be

breastfeeding, so then you might have the, you know, her

guilt of she can't breastfeed. So there's that guilt, sorry,

once again. So yeah, you just get hit with

everything. And then the kid might, you know, go

to sleep and you've got to get to work the next day. It just hits you big time. So

I remember lying on the ground in fetal position

at one point, but didn't think I needed help.

So I can't even think, I think eventually went on to the happy

pills, which sort of helped, and then slowly built it

up. And it's really funny because As the kid got

older, he slept more, which then meant that I was able to

function more. So it's sort of like this whole cloud

started to lift. But then, you know, boys can

be really tough when they're two years old and just, once again, go

through all those issues. The second one, he

was a much better sleeper. I just sort of got through it.

I don't think I can go back to the mental state

that I was in, but... Yeah, thanks for that, Ron. That's really

Is this anything that you've unpacked before, or is this

I haven't really talked about it as much. It's

Did you think at the time, like you said you're in the fetal

position, feeling like there was nothing wrong? Didn't know what to do.

Did you think that, you know, it was your job to

be strong? Did you think there was a stigma attached to

I haven't even talked about it until now, like really. I've talked about other stuff but

not that. And it's an important thing I wanted to bring up at the

podcast, which I mentioned it in my, reached out to you guys like, hey, personal

depression or all those other things that go with it. I think

I can share my story about motivation and mindset with the

losing the weight, but I don't think, like you

said, Rob, like guys don't talk about P and D. No,

And it is something that like every father,

if they're, Like if they're an active

good father and like so many people come in like,

everyone's good. No, not everyone is a good father. If you have

to question whether you're a good father, you're probably a good father. The ones that can

comfortably go like, fuck you, I'm the best dad ever. Good

chance you're not, you're lying to yourself. Like it is, but

every single father will have those doubts in

their mind of like, am I doing a good enough job? Like all of

this stuff and like everything that you've felt

every good father has felt. So it's not

an unnormal thing for that. It's just the levels, the

And dads just want to fix things. And if

you can't fix your kid because he's too young, because he's crying, what

do you do? You know, your

mind goes, I want to do this, but you go, I can't do that. Cause then I'm not

safe for the child. Like it still goes through your head. And then there's

a line of like, no, you can't do that. You just have to walk away. Let

the kid cry himself to sleep for a while. And it's fucking hard. It's one

of the hardest. Absolutely. Absolutely,

like we had the, I think the thing that got us through was, any new

dads out there? I don't know why I'm looking at the microphone, but any new dads out there?

Yeah, like seriously, I didn't want him to get into the habit of needing

that to fall asleep, but that got me through a few nights where I would have just

Even like the old car trick, you just put them in the car and go for a drive. So

many, so many. You just

figure it out. But I think that as

hard as it probably is for you to sort of like go back into that,

like I think it's really, really important that like

we discuss it and sort of like your feelings in it

and what you did to get out of that because there

might be drugs and I wasn't the glass Barbie it was like

you know going to the doctor and saying hey I've got a problem yeah and getting your

magic happy pills how did you feel about going to the doctor to

You're going back 30 odd years, 20, 22 years, 20 years,

something like that. I don't really remember, but I think

I just had to, it's almost like you've got to suck it up. Like if that's what

you've got to do to keep the family together and have a safe child

and then go back for a second one, because that's what we do. One's

not enough. You just have to do it and just accept

that there's no stigma attached. I think we're

much better now with, you know,

the Are You Okay Day and that sort of stuff, which of course, if

you know, it's only one day a year, I know we should do that constantly. But I

think we're better at accepting that

it's okay to not be okay, that sort of stuff. And Better Blow

Project, awesome. You know, that's just we need to

get around that stigma and understand that

mental health is just as important as physical health. And they're so interactive. My

mental health has improved much more that I'm healthier and fitter because

I can do all those things I never did. Getting back to kids,

one of the biggest things for me was just going

on a water slide with my kid because I was too fat. I never

did it. And I did a blog post like virtually every week when

I was losing the weight. It was really cool because I was like, picture

me on the water slide. I was still a big bloke, but to

me, I'd been the guy that was always the fun, happy guy on the

corner, having a laugh and always self-deprecating. But

too fat to, you know, feel comfortable on the beach, too fat to

go down a water slide, to go on a water slide. And then when I reached

like 80 kilo loss, one of my big things was I went to Dreamworld

and did like roller coasters. And I could actually sit in them and

put the safety bar down. To move

from being in that state of not being

able to participate with your kids... ...to going and enjoying

yourself and doing Dreamworld and going on a water slide. That's

A hundred percent. I remember when Dane came up for the podcast. We

flew him up from Sydney. And it was the first time he'd been on

a plane since he dropped the weight. And he was like... I'd

better fit in this chair, like. And at the time

he was like 115 kilos, he was pretty much normal. But

Absolutely, because, you know, it's a pretty shit feeling

to go, excuse me. Because I'd ask them

quietly at the front to say, can I have an extension? Can I

have an extension, pal? Whispering, because you don't want to, you know, everyone

Yeah, because it's something like, and that's what I was just thinking. I'm like, you're whispering it,

but you're standing there like they know. That's right.

Absolutely. I'd say,

let's not go to that restaurant. And not tell my wife that I'm afraid that

I'll break those chairs. I used to take a chair with me and

go to my brother-in-law's place. That just sits

in your mind all the time. And then you sit there and you

get your meal and the

tray is at a 45 degree angle. So you say, oh, buddy,

to my son, can I just... Yeah, mate, it's all good. So I'd have to like

eat with it over there because my tray

table couldn't go down. And then, you know, to finally go in there and not ask

for the extension belt and have that embarrassment and not

being able to eat with the tray table down and to now jumping

out of planes. I don't know if you've seen that video but like my

biggest reward to myself was jumping out of the plane. So I've

always wanted to do, you know, like a

parachute. So I'd had two years of maintenance, so

I was four years in, so nearly three years ago. Family went

to Queenstown and I booked myself in to do a

tandem jump. And I don't know if you're Queenstown, but Queenstown's just like

the most beautiful spot in the world. And I'm on this plane and

we just jump out and I just got the video, paid the extra

for the guy to video me jumping out as well as the handheld. And

it's just, it just brings a smile on my face because I was, Three

years ago, I couldn't even put the tray table down. Now I'm jumping out and

living life to the fullest. It's a huge transformation, which

is just a really, really important thing to do. That's

so cool. It was awesome. I want to do it again. We

went to New Zealand a year after. I did two more jumps.

It's not as good as Queenstown, but it's still

really cool to just live life and just have that adrenaline buzz

Changing gears, so within the Blokes Advice Group, I've seen that photo

on your shirt pop up quite a few times. I need to do more, I've been a bit slack. So,

there's a lot of blokes asking for advice or sharing their weight loss journey.

A lot of big boys, when they get motivation, they

take the selfie in the gym and say, I'm getting after it, which is awesome.

He's a local bloke in Queensland as well. Yep, lives up

Helped us out a lot with our barbecues too. I missed the last barbecue. I've got to make sure that I gouge in

We have been so unfortunate with weather. Go Queensland!

It has been a rough last two months.

There was one at Redcliffe or Cleveland on the day of the cyclone. So

we didn't do that. Back to the group. So you've been

popping up for years giving advice and stuff like that So

I'd like to talk about what your advice would be to a

guy at the start of their journey Like you said, it's very hard to

get into heavy exercise But that's sometimes what we

see because guys get all hyped up on testosterone I'm gonna hit the gym

What's your advice? Okay, so the big thing to remember is

diet is critical. And by diet, I mean the food we eat, not

diet as in restriction. We still got to make sure that we are

effectively in a calorie deficit. And that really doesn't matter

whether you do keto. I couldn't care less. It's fine what's

sustainable to you. So here's a little biggest

tip. The best diet

for you is the one that's sustainable to you. Whether that's keto,

whether that's intermittent fasting, whether that's a CSIRO, toe-lobbying diet,

whatever it is, make it sustainable. Because if you go

off it, you're going to go back to your old habits. So number one, pick

what's sustainable to you. And there's many different ways you can do that.

And the same with your exercise. You need to do what's sustainable.

When I started off, like I said, I was doing star jumps in the pool and then

it was getting too cold because, you know, pools get cold in April.

I started a walk and I did a small walk, just like probably

10-15 minutes. I was still probably 150 kilos. big

bloke to be walking, so do like 15, 20 minutes, slowly

build up, might do 20 minutes, couple weeks later do 25, start to

reduce heels, all that sort of stuff. So slowly building up, of

course you've got to make sure you don't damage your ankles. For food, look,

you don't have to spend a lot of money, you can get MyFitnessPal, you

can get meal plans online, you can do a Google

request, artificial intelligence request, give me a meal plan,

many different ways you can do it without spending money. Big tip, if you

have health insurance, check to see if health

plans are covered in that or gym memberships are covered in

that because health insurance can actually help

a lot of times if you've got a job and you can afford it

or the rest of it. There's free ways to do it as well. Exercise

is a great way to build strength and to build

up your fitness, but diet is the big thing. What

I loved about the CSIRO, Total Wellbeing Diet, is their

core is high protein and low GI. Now

high protein means that you feel fuller for longer, And

low GI means your blood sugar doesn't spike. So if you have something

like my ice cream at night, my sugar will spike up, my

blood sugar will spike up, then drop quickly. And I go, I

want more, because I've been triggered. But if I have white bread,

similar sort of thing, not as bad as ice cream, of course. But if I have

whole grain bread, it'll go up slowly and go down slowly.

So you don't get those sugar spikes. So high protein to help you

feeling full longer. and low GI to get rid of those spikes.

Now, the protein is also really good, especially for blokes, because

less likely to lose muscle mass. When

you're losing weight, you will always lose fat and muscle. But

if you're having high protein, which your fitness

dude would have done, Rob, Yep, you'd be having high protein because

he doesn't want you to lose your muscle mass It's really hard

to build muscle so you don't want to lose it It doesn't matter,

I'm 58 It doesn't matter how old you are, if you're young or

old, you don't want to lose muscle So by having high protein, you're

more likely to keep your muscle I did a DEXA scan

as a way of my journey And you can see

medically that I've lost very little muscle mass I

lost a bit, but nothing compared to the fat. The fat loss was just

Correct. And I wasn't even doing gym back then. If I

was doing gym, I probably would have kept a bit more. Because resistance training

will help you build muscle mass and

also maintain it. So the short version is high protein, low

GI. cardio to just burn those

calories and get fit. And if you've got the time as well, do

the gym. It can be resistance bands. It can be gym.

You don't have to spend a fortune. If you can do that, you're hitting

everything perfectly. And be patient. The big

thing is to make sure, you know, hey, remember, it's taken you

years, decades to get to this point. It's not going

to fall off overnight. A bloke can lose

weight pretty quickly, ladies take a long time unfortunately, but

guys lose it quickly. Accept that

it takes time. The other biggest tip would be to get an

app called Me360 to do your measurements. When

I was a big guy, Don't know how to, how can

I hold the, you know, the thing there for my, you

know, my arms and my gut and whatever. Is it the same spot? I

could have three different measurements, I've lost four centimeters, because it's in the wrong spot.

Me360, it's a freebie app, it does a scan, you've

got your measurements, and you go, oh, I've gone down two centimeters. Hang

on, the scales didn't go, the scales went up, that doesn't make sense. If

I was going by the scales only, that would trigger me. and

I'm glad you mentioned that because that was sort of, you said about your battle with

the scales like early on and I'm sure a

lot of guys would, well there is, I speak to like a ton

of boys in BA that they're like, oh today like

I've put on 500 grams or yesterday I dropped 500 and it's

like Do you have any tips to like maybe not jumping on

It took five years of my dietician telling me not to

jump on the scales every day. It took me that long.

So literally, you need to focus on non-scale goals

and non-scale victories. Scale is great, and

it's an important part to monitor how you're going, but there's

no nuance. If you haven't been to the dunny, you're

going to be heavier. If you had more carbs the day before, you're

going to be heavier. If you've been on the booze last night, you're

going to be heavier. Not because of fat, because of water.

I've got the email trail with my dietician. Penny,

love my dietician. Penny, I can't understand it, I've done this workout,

I've been perfect on my carbs, and I've put on 200 grams.

And I was mulling her every day, this poor woman. And

she basically said to me, Terry, okay, you need to like

I'm surprised she didn't tell you to stop emailing daily

She's a legend, I love Penny. But it really got down

to, I wasn't understanding the body process. I

was basing everything on the scale. And that led to my self-worth. Like

I said before, I was getting back to going for self-sabotage.

But by going back to non-scale victories, going

by measurements, they didn't have me 365 years

ago. So I had no idea that my body may have been changing. I

was going by the scale, one reading. She explained to

me, if I go to the gym, you do a workout, part of the process is

your body is going, hey, this muscle sore, I need to, you

know, it's swollen, I need to put more water around it to rebuild it. Hello?

Water retention? I'm 300 grams heavier.

That's got nothing to do with fat. But if I was doing my measurements,

I would have known that I'm not putting on weight.

Oh, sorry, I would have known that I'm getting fitter, not

heavier, very, very different. And when you have focused

for five years or seven years on the number on the scales, setting

yourself worth to that, that's a huge thing. And

just leading into another mental challenge, that then got

me into, what is it when you don't

believe you deserve the reward? Impostor

syndrome. Bingo. I'd set myself up,

I've lost 100 kilos, blah, blah, blah, huge achievement.

And that was like, that was my goal to myself

and to reach that. Even to get under 100 kilos was, I

cried, like, it's awesome. But then to go, I've lost

100 kilos, that's, you know, I was carrying, you

know, you're a tall bloke. Do you know how heavy you are? About 90. Okay,

so add another 10 kilos to you. I was carrying you on my back 24 seven,

that's a lot. Huge achievement. But then

I'd start wondering, shit, I've

put on 5 kilos. I haven't lost 100 kilos. That

means I can't tell people to lose weight. I can't tell people that I've been successful.

That's bullshit now. But back then, imposter syndrome, how

can I tell people I've lost 100 kilos when I've only lost 95? You

know, so that messes with your mind. So then I've had to go, I've

had to change all my things. So, you know, I lost 100 kilos in two years, which I

did, and now maintain a healthy weight and I have. You

know, does it matter if I put on 5 kilos, 10 kilos, 15 kilos, or whatever? Well,

yeah. Switch your mind from the

negative to positive. So I've put on 5 kilos. Well,

hang on. You've still lost 95 kilos. And you've probably got better

fitness because you're doing more of the gym. You've got better muscle tone, et cetera. So

my mind has had to go away from the scales to non-scale victories,

which is a huge change. And your non-scale victories can be like

my pants fit. It's not just measurements from a hands fit. Oh,

big thing, the gym. If I can do an extra 2.5 kilos

this week for an extra rep, that's progress. If I

can do an extra 5 kilos on the calf press, that's a

gain. You know, it's got nothing to do with the scales, but I

know my body is getting fitter. If I jumped on the scales, I'd

be heavier, because I'm building a bit of muscle, and I've got a bit of water in my body.

So that's a huge, big tip. Don't focus on the scales. They're

important. My biggest tip to people now is scales

one week, next week measurements. Scales the next week, measurements

the next week. So then over two weeks you're seeing your weight

change and your measurements change as well as am

How about setting reasonable expectations for what

is possible? Because we've spoken to different guys. Braden

that you mentioned earlier, I spoke to him at the start of the year and

it just seemed like a nice number. Could he lose 50 kilos this

year? Yeah. Dane is a bit

of a savage and he was younger dude as well. Before surgery,

I believe he lost 80 or 90 kilos in nine months. Just

It's a lot. But what what is that number? How

Well, I think everyone's gonna be different So love Dane absolute freaking

legend, but very different journey. So and he's

got different goals He's also different age and stuff to like now he

wants to get into the bodybuilding. I'm past that shit You know, I just want to

be healthy and fit and be around to annoy my kids and wife. That's my

goal in life and So, for me,

I wanted to be healthy. A healthy weight. I

probably wanted to get under 100, because that would be the magic double figures.

And I don't think back then I probably had a goal of

X kilos and X weeks, but as I could see consistently

losing a kilo a week, for a guy, is fairly

achievable, and I was still eating a lot. Like I wasn't

in an aggressive calorie deficit because without

going too much into the CSIRO total well-being diet,

but you can have as many veggies as you want. So as

long as it's not a potato or sweet potato, which track as a

bread because they're that type of veggie. I

could have as much corn or tomato soup or whatever is

possible as I wanted, because it doesn't really count for your, because

they go on units. Calorie wise, I would be over

on that, but there's not a lot of calories in veggies. I

wasn't in a hugely aggressive calorie deficit, but

I was still losing a kilo a week. I could probably have

lost more if I was focusing on the calorie intake, but

life's too short to feel like I'm starving. If I'm starving, I'm

more likely to go stuff it, I'm going to have some

extra carbs, I'm going to... It's that sustainability you were talking about.

Absolutely. Whatever you do, make it sustainable. That is 100% the

number one thing to do, make it sustainable. So for

me, I sort of realized I'm losing a kilo a week. Oh, that means I can lose four

kilos a week. It means I can lose five kilos in five weeks. And

then I started setting goals, which if you're a big bloke, going

back to your question before about if you're a big bloke, what can you do?

I was setting myself little constant goals as

in to get under 180 kilos was a huge goal. It

was like 6 kilos for example, right? And then I go, then I

can lose 10 kilos. So that was sort of like swapping in

between. So every couple of weeks I was looking at a new goal. I'd

be, then I'd lose, oh, I've lost 10% of my body. So I had another goal,

percentage of weight loss, the magical marker

of getting under 170 kilos, 160 kilos, and another

marker of how many kilos I'd lost. So I was able to celebrate in my mind

every couple of weeks, which you need to go. When you're a big guy,

you're going, I'm still 170 kilos. This is

gonna take forever. Well, no, no, I've just reached a goal. Some

of my best photos ever was me holding a bag of dog food. It

was like week three or four or something. I'd lost eight kilos. I went and

picked up an eight kilo bag of dog food. The smile

on my face, over the moon. I've lost this much. A

bag of dog food. Nothing compared to what I lost now. A

Yeah, and then I was getting, holding up three,

was it 15 kilo bags of pool

salt. I think there's a photo of me holding up 45 kilos, I'd lost 45 kilos.

And best one ever was my son, I think he was like 36 kilos when

he was 10 or whatever. I'd lost as much as my son. It's

like, hey, look, this is what I was carrying around all

day. So if you can look at how you can progress and

make that a milestone and make it something to celebrate, huge achievement. I've

lost as much as my son or my dog or this

20 kilo bag of cement. If you're a brickie, that's a

bloody heavy. Hey, you were carrying that around. And when you've lost

40 kilos, pick up two of them, mate. Walk around for five minutes. Tell me how tired

you are. You've been doing that all the time. 100 kilos, I

was carrying around five 20 kilos bags of pool salt. That's

insane. All the time, 24-7, walking upstairs. I

was, I never actually was diagnosed

as diabetic or I never had a medical thing

go say this is an issue. It was just sort of like I realised like I'm

going to kill my, I'm going to die if I don't do it. But yeah, think

about how much you've lost and then convert it to bags

of salt or whatever to help you keep that motivation and that in

And another thing that sort of with, with like the

weight loss journey that you've had, and it's, this is sort of something that I've

had conversations with just in the last six months of me starting to

drop a few kilos, not to the extent that you've done it, but

you don't need to lose a hundred. Yeah. I don't, I don't have

a hundred to lose now, but so. When

you were a big unit, and you've dropped this weight now, did you go

through any body dysmorphia where in

your head you were like, I'm still big, but physically you were

Not really, I don't, I think I dodged that bullet. And

that's hard, I think I've just embraced it so much and celebrated

the journey so much that I think my body has, my

brain has moved with it and it was more the opposite as

in don't put on the weight. I think I

dodged that bullet, but I know that would be a body dysmorphia would be

a big thing for a lot of guys I think it

might be different if you did surgery because you

lose it faster And you're more likely to

get loose skin when you lose it faster. You're more likely to lose

to get more loose skin I'm really lucky like I should have massive

bingo wings like I've got to lose under kilos. I I've

had no surgery and I'm very lucky. I'm

not sure whether that's part of the genetics You

Yeah, I had collagen. Actually, I was getting the blood from babies. Yeah. Oh,

cool. Eating fetuses. Yeah, of course. The

skin on your face looks healthy and good. Yeah, exactly. But

I'm really lucky. I've got very good skin. I drink shit loads of

water, probably four kilos, four liters of water a

day minimum. I think that might be part of it. But

I've got a bit hanging down, but I'm really lucky and my

brain's pretty good with dysmorphia. That's good. I

freaked out because after Christmas and holidays and

etc and injuries, injuries is a big thing as well, I've got

the extra around there and it was sort of like my mind had

to kick in and go hang on, those pants are getting tight, so

you need to drop it back a notch, go back to my plan, okay I need

to go to here, I need to tweak this instead of 30 grams of

peanuts and I have 26 grams of peanuts instead of you

know this amount of bread I dropped this much amount of bread so it was just

really tweaking the diet to my circumstances to

get me back to where I am and you know I'm losing weight because

I do weigh myself sometimes now and losing centimeters so hopefully

in June where I'm back to seven years I'll be back to my

healthiest Which, you know, centimeter-wise, that

would be... I was the strongest, I was able to push that a little bit more,

and my centimeters were a bit less, so the pants would be actually loose rather than just sort

of snug. So, yeah, that's the key to making

It's been a good chat, but we're just about out of time. So,

I could talk for hours, I've got a... I could listen for hours. You

My kids can't listen to me. They get annoyed like hell. So this,

I don't know if the camera can see that. So this here is a

five pound block of fat, anatomically accurate,

even with fake blood vessels in there. So Matty, have

Mum, if you're watching this, do not Google girth master. No. So how

heavy is it? So that's 5 pounds, 2.2 kilos.

Yeah, so even if you're 10, 12 kilos overweight, imagine

5 of them lined up on your stomach. That's heavy. I

And I was carrying that around, like you've got a 24-7, you just don't think of

that. Like, and my pants, I don't know

Well, I did, but I was... What size are these? They're a hundred and...

Is it a hundred and twenty? No. A hundred

and fifty-seven stout. So

Stout. He doesn't have long legs, he's just wide. That's an actual

So I actually met the

scientists. Jump in the mic. Sorry. I

actually met the chief scientist that worked on the CSIRO, Total

Wellbeing Diet, actually at the CSIRO, I think it was January last

year, and I got a photo of me and her standing in

those pants. So it was really cool because, you know, it's a

commercial diet, but you still think like, Yeah, is it real? Well,

yeah, I actually met the scientist who works at the CSIRO person

to person. She was interviewed on, you know, the TV channels

and whatever. And I actually was interviewed by her and she stood in those pants and

So good. Thanks so much for coming on. Thank you. We'll drop the links to your socials.

So people can check out what you're doing and all the links to our

socials will be there as well. You can jump on the website www.betterblokeproject.org where

we list the events that are upcoming as well as all our old podcasts

so you can check out some more good discussions. Check out the one with Dane

if you are interested in this weight loss journey. You can

also donate to us so you can help us continue with

our cause of fucking off suicide as a leading cause of death for Aussie blokes.

And I'm not going to say it yet because we haven't said our bloke of the week. You

We are. So I had a big plan for

a bloke of the week here. I've got it on my phone, and I did a whole bunch

of research. But after this conversation we have just had, my bloke of

the week is changing it to this man sitting beside us, Terry Munro. The

chat that you have just had and the emotion that you showed, fucking

amazing. So because of that, you deserve every

Thank you. Guys, be better. That's it in a

nutshell. Like, you know, I discovered your party, I've gone through every single episode, just

like, be better. That's it in a nutshell. Mental health,

physical health, it's all related. Just, you know, we can be better blokes