Semi-retired farmer Richard Clegg used to drink up to eight cups of coffee a day, each of them sweetened with a “big teaspoon of sugar”.
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But on January 1 2016 he made a New Year’s resolution to give up the habit.
To this day I have never had another coffee.
- Richard Clegg
“To this day I have never had another coffee,” he said. “I just have weak black tea without sugar or milk.”
The former chairman of the disbanded Tottenham/Tullamore Healthy Town Challenge Governance Committee personally knows the benefits of healthy eating and regular exercise.
“I have lost some weight and feel fitter,” he said.
The Daily Liberal contacted Mr Clegg to ask if lessons learned from the challenge were still being applied.
Tottenham and Tullamore took out the inaugural NSW Healthy Town Challenge in 2015.
The challenge, an initiative of NSW Health and the Heart Foundation, highlights the “important role local communities can play in helping residents eat well, move more and sit less”.
It runs for six months and is open to towns outside Sydney with populations between 1000 and 15,000. Five towns are chosen to take part in the challenge and given $15,000 each to support their activities.
The winner receives $5000 to put towards “improving the town’s community health”. Narrabri won the title in 2017 with 113 participants losing an average 2.3 kilograms.
Mr Clegg said Tottenham and Tullamore joined forces to meet the population requirement. They each scored $5000 with Tullamore investing in fitness equipment and a measured walking track.
The majority of Tottenham’s share of the winnings went towards the establishment of an outdoor fitness park which is “well used by locals and visitors”.
“The combined Tottenham/Tullamore Healthy Town Challenge Governance Committee agree that the program generated positive results, both short and long term, for the benefit of many participants,” Mr Clegg said.
“We would expect that parents would pass on to the younger generation the benefits of healthy eating and living/exercise and in that sense, to some degree creates generational change.”
The 74-year-old father of six and grandfather of 16 continues to remove sugar from his diet. He no longer puts it on his cereal.
“Our society consumes way too much sugar, especially the younger ones, and it is not good for their future,” he said.
