Amanda Woodward, 48, Husband Craig, 49 and Children, Daniel, 16, George, 13.
With Amanda, our main priority for her personally was to cut out all sugar and gluten as she suffers from inflammatory conditions and cutting these foods out can drastically help with this. So we decided to make sugar and gluten removal the first steps initially, and then alter her program into a more lower-carb plan over the remaining weeks. I advised her husband to follow the same diet but add in an extra snack/ more protein, and with the kids I added more fibre into their diets and cut out a lot of sugars.
Zoe Michele, 30, Mum Leonie, 58, and Aunt Trudi, 55.
As for Zoe, catering to her having Type 2 Diabetes and PCOS, we decided a low-carb plan would work best to help reverse and manage these blood sugar regulation conditions. It was great that she'd already gotten used to eating this way throughout her weight less journey so she adapted well!
Her mother Leonie and aunty Trudi are following a very similar plan as they are all of similar body weights and this type of eating is a very maintainable, satisfying and healthy way to eat.
Elena grace, 37, and Children Mariah, 9, Ebony, 7, Calvin, 11.
Elena wanted to try something new - a totally plant-based/vegan diet! She also wanted to reduce her carbohydrate load, so I constructed a plan for her that incorporated both, maintaining some carbs but excluding refined carbohydrates.
I advised her kids to follow the same diet for dinners, yet recommended eggs and wholegrain toast for most breakfasts, with similar lunches to Elena or wraps filled with salad and chicken/ ham, and sugar free, low GI snacks for their lunch boxes.
Watch Elena's video diary and find out how she is feeling as she takes on Week 1 of New Idea's 6-week Family Health Challenge.
Elsa Tesi, 35, Husband Joh, 41, and their Daughters Suliana, 11, Leilani, 9.
As Elsa and her Husband are of similar weight, and her husband can’t do much activity, I recommended that they consume a similar amount of food.
I set their intake to below approx 1700 calories a day, including the option for a healthy dessert to be consumed (such as 2 squares of dark chocolate or other sugar-free recipes I provided), as I wanted to allow them to continue their habit of enjoying something sweet after dinner. It’s all about the healthy swaps!
The kids were advised to follow the same dinners, but consume regular pasta and rice in place of the cauliflower rice and zoodles I suggested to Elsa and John."