Mark Cupples: the business of being slim

The weight loss industry is big business. Chances are if you’ve spent money joining a program to lose weight, you’ve probably tried a couple of other methods too.

You’ve probably eaten low fat, no fat, gluten free, dairy free, paleo, high protein, low calorie or fasted. You’ve also walked, lifted weights, boxed, run, practised yoga, done a million aerobics classes, joined bootcamps, hiked or cycled in a bid to shift a kilo or two. Whatever you did probably worked for a while, until it didn’t.

First time Brisbane author Mark Cupples believes big companies want us to be fat. His book Slim Businez is about making it our business to be slim.

On losing 30 kilograms

Cupples has written about what he knows, losing 30 kilograms in recent years, but that’s after losing 20 and putting it back on more than once.

“It’s a lot of life experience.  I tried and failed, I tried and succeeded then put the weight back on quickly.  I tried and succeeded and put the weight back on slowly,” Mark says.

“I had enough of listening to ‘experts’ disagreeing about the simplest of things when it came to diets and food.

“It is obvious to anyone who has a look into diets and the food industry that a lot of money is spent keeping people in ‘all’ of the supermarket aisles,” he says.

“It’s hard enough to lose weight without being given the hardest way to do it and the wrong information about how your body processes food.”

Applying business techniques to the discipline of weight loss

Cupples is a father of two teenagers and works as a Chief Financial Officer for a local charity. With a Masters in Business Administration and a lifetime struggle with weight, he believes taking a business-like approach to the task is critical.

He writes that, “with a(n) MBA I was able to critique, research and look for logical answers to my weight problem.”

“But logic is only part of the deal; people’s feelings and emotions play a big part in life, and so I have put together a flexible system to help as many people as possible – a system for the real world.”

Along with advice about the best sort of foods to eat and getting your mind focused on the task, each of the book’s chapters ends with a summary and a list of tips he calls Keys to Success.

Suck it up

The book is somewhat repetitive but by design. Some might think it’s also a little harsh, but again Cupples says, “you may need to just suck it up.”

It’s a phrase that came straight from the mouths of his daughters Isobel and Victoria.

“This means stop complaining and get on with it,” he says.

“I did design this book towards being more brief and to the point. To be effective requires retention and/or re-reading and who reads a 300-page book twice? I wanted the book to give answers, not waffle like ‘maybe this and maybe that’,” Cupples says.

“I do build up the summary at the end of each chapter until finally it’s all there in a summary at the end.

“People learn through repetition … and if you forget what you read in a week what’s the use? I have read a few diet books from cover-to-cover but cannot bring myself to read them again for the bit I missed.”

It’s a business-like approach that might just work for those looking to take control of their weight loss journey.

Cupples’ top 5 weight loss tips:

1. Choose whose side you are on. Experts are forever disagreeing about food and diets. If you don’t pick sides, the diet you start Monday is no good on Tuesday when the next expert comes along;
2. Weigh in every day;
3. Know Food – understanding protein, fat and carbohydrate increases your chance of weight loss success;
4. Try walking every day and set a goal of 10,000 steps;
5. Get a black belt in “Go” and “No” – go to the bar, restaurant and dinner party but say ‘no’. Most people are social, and hiding away won’t last for long.

You can find out more at www.slimbusinez.com or connect with Mark on his Facebook page. Slim Businez paperback (printed in Australia) for $29.95 including postage. The Kindle version (in colour) is  $8.95.