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Success of the Month: Hayley
Someone who's had a great success in giving up restrictive diets is Hayley, 24, from Queensland who wrote me this lovely letter last month.As you'll read below, Hayley didn't have immediate success with the ideas in my book The Don't Go Hungry Diet. Moreover, Hayley's weight loss has not been what you'd call fast.
But Hayley doesn't mind one bit! The most important outcome for Hayley is that she knows she's now escaped the yo-yo diet bandwagon once and for all.
From: Hayley
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:10:55
To: Dr Amanda Sainsbury-Salis
Subject: Just a quick thank you
"Dear Amanda,
I just wanted to write you an email to thank you for changing my life in such an important way.
I was an overweight child and obese as a young adult consequently most of my life has been about battling with my weight.
After losing weight with a popular weigh loss group when I was 19 I thought I had solved the problem but I was wrong. Post weight loss I could no longer lead a normal life if I wanted to stay thin.
I would breakdown in tears every time I had to go out for dinner because I knew it would result in more weight gain and I began to exercise obsessively and get furious if anything interfered with my grueling regime.
This abnormal behavior did not help my weight problem though and after a year of gradual gain I began cycles of starving myself, which would inevitably be followed by a binge. This went on for two years with me trying to hide my problem from people. Within 4 years I had gained 8 of the 20 kilos I had originally lost.
A year ago I read your book and at first I thought it must be too good to be true because the only way I had ever known weight loss to happen was through starvation and suffering. Six months later however I decided I had nothing to lose by giving it ago.
The change has been gradual. Firstly I threw out my scales then I started drinking full cream milk (something I have longed to do since I was 12 years old when I was first forced to swap to skim milk because of my weight problem).
After this I worked on being able to gauge when I was full (I never had a problem gauging hunger). This took a long time because I was so used to eating carefully weighed portions.
In six short months, though, the binging has stopped, I no longer have a breakdown at the thought of going out to dinner and I have already lost 4 kilos.
So thank you Amanda, your wise words have given me the courage to change for good and now I know I will never have to be fat again.
Hayley"
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:10:55
To: Dr Amanda Sainsbury-Salis
Subject: Just a quick thank you
"Dear Amanda,
I just wanted to write you an email to thank you for changing my life in such an important way.
I was an overweight child and obese as a young adult consequently most of my life has been about battling with my weight.
After losing weight with a popular weigh loss group when I was 19 I thought I had solved the problem but I was wrong. Post weight loss I could no longer lead a normal life if I wanted to stay thin.
I would breakdown in tears every time I had to go out for dinner because I knew it would result in more weight gain and I began to exercise obsessively and get furious if anything interfered with my grueling regime.
This abnormal behavior did not help my weight problem though and after a year of gradual gain I began cycles of starving myself, which would inevitably be followed by a binge. This went on for two years with me trying to hide my problem from people. Within 4 years I had gained 8 of the 20 kilos I had originally lost.
A year ago I read your book and at first I thought it must be too good to be true because the only way I had ever known weight loss to happen was through starvation and suffering. Six months later however I decided I had nothing to lose by giving it ago.
The change has been gradual. Firstly I threw out my scales then I started drinking full cream milk (something I have longed to do since I was 12 years old when I was first forced to swap to skim milk because of my weight problem).
After this I worked on being able to gauge when I was full (I never had a problem gauging hunger). This took a long time because I was so used to eating carefully weighed portions.
In six short months, though, the binging has stopped, I no longer have a breakdown at the thought of going out to dinner and I have already lost 4 kilos.
So thank you Amanda, your wise words have given me the courage to change for good and now I know I will never have to be fat again.
Hayley"
What our readers say...
"Dear Amanda, On another note, just in case you would like some uplifting words with regard to the wonderful work you are doing - i made a choice last year to stop worrying about food and just eat what i wanted... and was suprisingly rewarded with being 8 kilograms lighter, despite enjoying myself so much! and i have pretty much overcome my lifelong hate for food. So thankyou for your research and for writing your wonderful book. I am slowly trying to put the word out about your book to friends and family who have had a lifelong struggle with their weight, so i'm praying they will have positive results too! Regards, Nikki"
- Nikki, Beecroft, NSW