By:  Susan Young

When I embarked on my first diet I was a sophomore in high school, 15 years old, 5’8″ tall, weighed 155 pounds and wore a size 12.  I wanted to weigh less than 130 and wear a size 8 like my friend Nancy.  I tried a diet of my own creation which I called the ‘Life Saver” diet because instead of eating lunch I sucked on a candy Life Saver.  Don’t ask me how I came up with that plan but it worked, somewhat.  I lost five pounds  About this time, my mother became concerned that I had not outgrown my “baby fat” and took me to a diet doctor who prescribed diet pills.  There were gray pills for in the morning, pink pills for afternoon and white pills for in the evenings.  Fortunately, just one of the gray pills kept me awake for two days and I quit taking them after only a few days.  I am grateful that I valued sleep enough to not get caught up on this path.

Now, 45 years later, I weight over 200 pounds and have until recently worn a size 20.  During the 4 1/2 decades since my first “diet” I have been on dozens of diets.  Some good ones (Weight Watchers, Atkins), some horrible ones (the lemonade diet, the Carbohydrate Addicts diet).  I have lost 5, 10, 20, 30, even 40 pounds and gained back 10, 15, 20, …yes 50+ pounds.  .   The two things they all had in common was 1) I lost weight and 2) I gained back more than I lost. 

Sometimes I was able to keep the weight off for months, even a year or two, but eventually it started piling back on and I did not stop gaining until I weighed even more than what I did before I started the latest diet.   It became obvious, at least to me, that dieting made me even fatter that not dieting.

So the solution seemed to be be:  NO MORE DIETS

Last Spring, through Paul McKenna’s television program “I Can Make You Thin,” I discovered I could eat when I was hungry, eat whatever I wanted and lose weight.  I bought McKenna’s book I Can Make You Thin and  I  quit getting on the scale every morning. I vowed to never start another diet.

I’ve lost weight since then but can’t tell you exactly how much, over 20 pounds.  I  know this because my size 20 pants fall off my hips now and that I am buying 16′s and they fit quite nicely.  I’m not a size 12 yet and will never be an 8 but I will never diet again either.

 

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