Adro Sarnelli The New Me Interview

Adro Sarnelli The New Me Interview

Adro Sarnelli, Australia's leading weight loss expert and former fatty is celebrating losing 4119.1 kg by opening a new weight loss rehab centre exclusively for guests weighing over 100kgs.

"Unless you weigh over 100kg you're not welcome at The New Me" says the Biggest Losers first winner Adro Sarnelli.

"I've found in four years of running it as a retreat that unless you're a serious heavyweight the weight loss commitment that I need just isn't there. We've had a 100% success rate with people over 100kg and lost a total of 4148.8kg from over 500 guests! Amazing but true!" continues Sarnelli.

"We've recently moved The New Me from Mt Eliza to the Dandenong Ranges in the outer suburbs of Melbourne and like alcohol and drugs are a disease so is obesity which is why The New Me is now called an Obesity Rehabilitation Facility as we become even more serious about what we do here."

"I'm so serious about weight loss. Not only are under 100kg guests banned but also we only accept 10 guests at a time to the facility so that they receive totally focused and personal service" concludes Adro.

Adro Sarnelli entered the inaugural season of Channel 10's Biggest Loser weighing 136.5kg and lost an incredible 51.3kg to become the show's first and most memorable winner. Adro has maintained his weight for the past 6 years and his commitment to weight loss and healthy living compelled him to launch Australia's only over 100kgs specific weight loss retreat "The New Me".

The retreat boasts over 4 acres of private lush forest with private and shared cabins, cosy log fires and amazing mountain views. The training studio is fitted with up to date commercial equipment and the personal trainers, practitioners and staff are qualified, and trained to work specifically with dangerously overweight clients.

The New Me aims to provide a safe, educational, motivational and private haven for individuals who feel they have little option left to make the necessary life changes to lead healthy, happy and fulfilled lives.

Adro says: "The New Me Program has been developed from everything I have learnt during my weight loss journey and it incorporates all the significant lessons and experiences that I have lived through. I will never forget where I've come from nor ever lose who I am now and my program encapsulates all of that."

Adro's 3 golden rules for weight loss are "Eat smart, move more and think thin!"
www.thenewme.com.au

Interview with Adro Sarnelli

Question: Why does the The New Me only take guests weighing over 100kg?

Adro Sarnelli: The only reason we take guest weighing over 100kg is to make a defining line between the people that we are helping and the people that are able to seek help elsewhere (gym, standard personal trainer). The reason why I choose the 100kg mark was because I felt that BMI was a very primitive and unsubstantial method of gauging as my BMI sits between 29 and 31 which puts me at overweight to obese depending on where I'm at and I'm clearly not overweight. The reason why we only help the bigger people is because my goal is to be the person who can assist and help people who need it the most, mainly to be the person I could have got help from when I needed it at 150kg.


Question: What should a guest expect heading into The New Me facility?

Adro Sarnelli: It is really quite simple because they already know what they're looking for in the sense that they need help and intervention and that's where we come in. Being that we are an Obesity Rehabilitation Facility our goal, regardless of what the person feels they are looking for, is to make that difference. What a guest can expect is a whole lot of education, psychological workshopping, one-on-one information and I take classes providing information on cooking, reading food labels, eating out, ordering takeaway, modifying recipes and counting calories. There is also a whole heap of training; we have them exercise up to 26 hours a week including a variety of different intensities.


Question: What is a typical day like for a guest at The New Me facility?

Adro Sarnelli: We have two types of typical days; we have a work day and a rest day. On a work day they can expect to exercise anywhere between 4 and half to 7 and a half hours depending on where in the program the day is and the education on that day is cooking classes which is how they eat breakfast, lunch and dinner as we don't provide meals, we provide the food and the guests have to make the meals themselves.

On a standard recovery day or an incidental day they will have a variety of different sessions including a two hour psychologist workshop and various food awareness classes.


Question: How does The New Me teach guest to lose weight but most importantly maintain the weight loss?

Adro Sarnelli: The way I developed The New Me was with one goal in mind and that was to be as close to a real life home environment as possible. I didn't want it to be resort-like or to have a chef wait on the participants or they be spoon-fed because most of the time the reason they're here is because they have been spoon-fed the wrong lifestyle and the wrong information. The main element that allows them to obtain success is because they live in this environment that is real and they do have to cook all of their own meals and meal-plan. From the meal-plan they have to dedicate and work on a shopping list although they don't have to go and do the groceries we order the food on their meal plans. Everything they do is very practical.

In week 2 we spend one afternoon cooking for the rest of the week's food and they are educated with the element of pre-making food and we just received feedback saying thank you for that element as their family calls it a "take away shop freezer". We teach them to create their meals and then put them in portion controlled size containers and throw them in the freezer to create their own microwave meals that are all healthy, low carb, low calorie and high protein meals.


Question: Can you tell us about the new clinic in the Dandenong Ranges?

Adro Sarnelli: The new location is absolutely fantastic, it's almost surreal. When we first opened up we had a couple of things in mind including wanting a place that had a beautiful energy and a great location. The Dandenong Ranges is a fantastic spot with beautiful walking tracks that provide a surreal and serene environment with quiet hills. The Dandenong Ranges is the perfect place to grant the perfect energy to allow these people to come and hopefully have the perfect experience to achieve their goals.


Question: Is it true you haven't eaten carbohydrates in six years?

Adro Sarnelli: If you'd have asked me that three weeks ago the answer would have been yes. I have eaten some carbohydrates in the form of green vegetables but I hadn't eaten much bread, rice, potato and pasta since my time on The Biggest Loser, as an example I probably had eaten one bowl worth of pasta and rice in six years. In the last three weeks I have been changing my diet which has been a lot more psychological work than it has food as I am training to go to Kokoda so I had to incorporate carbohydrates.

Question: What do you supplement carbohydrates with previously?

Adro Sarnelli: Depending on the meal there were a variety of options. We make wraps using eggs and a little bit of protein powder or use a piece of lettuce as the bread component of a wrap. I grind down cauliflower to add to sushi in place of rice and make a cauliflower mash instead of potato which is beautiful. If you can imagine that you're not replacing the rice but introduce a new food - that's the best way to look at it.


Question: In terms of exercise; what is a typical day like, for you?

Adro Sarnelli: Some days I train with The New Me program. I do boot camp three mornings a week and I've been doing five hour hikes on weekends to train for Kokoda. Fridays are my biggest days, I do my hour boot camp and then I go to the beach front for an hours run or I'll go to the 1,000 steps in the Dandenong Ranges as we're only ten minutes from there. I do a variety of different things from boot camp to boxing and running.


Question: So far the guests have a combined weight loss of 4119.1 kilograms; what is the average weight loss of guests at your facility?

Adro Sarnelli: The average weight loss in a fortnight for a woman is 5-7% and for a man it is 7-10% which does depend on weight. We had a weigh-in on Saturday where six people lost a combined total of 38kg so the weight on the website will go up again! The results are amazing and it is very rewarding. I am very grateful to be able to pay it forward because without my experience and my weight loss I wouldn't have been in a position where I could do something like this. My experience is a card we can draw on because others can realise that they are able to do it too as it's no different to the fact that I did it. The program that we run is the constant and the only variable is the guest as the program works!


Interview by Brooke Hunter