I spent the majority of my teenage years struggling with my weight, body and self image.

I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that none of the available dieting approaches were ever going to work for me.  

And that I was going to be fat forever.

It wasn't as if I hadn't tried to lose weight using the conventional methods. I'd really made an effort to shift those unwanted pounds.

I'd read the magazines, counted the calories and followed the advice of the dieting experts.

Sadly my endeavours always seemed to follow the same story: fleeting short term weight loss, quickly buried beneath further weight gain.

And then just days before my twentieth birthday I had a complete body break down.

I was overseas attending a university conference when my body collapsed. I was rushed back home on the first available flight.

My doctor ordered that I undergo urgent and extensive medical testing.

She wanted to put me on a course of experimental medication. 

But I just felt there had to be another way...

I spent the next few months of my life bedridden. I would sleep for up to 20 hours a day, waking only to be spoon fed by my mother.

The experience gave me a profound opportunity to observe my sick, tired and overweight body.

I started to reflect upon how I had been living my life.

It dawned on me, that I couldn't keep living the way I had been.

What I needed to do was make some new choices...