CHRISTINE WILLIAMS knows what it's like to be stuck in the revolving door of dieting. In her late 20s, she lost 30 kilograms on the Jenny Craig weight-loss program. She kept it off for more than five years. Then she had two children and the bathroom scales crept up to 113 kilograms.
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"People have different addictions and ways of coping with things, and mine has always been food. I found that I just lost track of myself again. I tried to lose weight but I was up and down doing stupid crash-and-burn diets and I was all starry-eyed thinking I could do it in five weeks.''
In 2010, her children had finished school and she went back to Jenny Craig because it was the only approach that had made a significant impact on her weight. In 12 months she lost 45 kilograms. She is now running marathons and weighs 60 kilograms.
She doesn't see her return to the program as a sign of failure. "There are different stages of your life where other things are more important and you perhaps don't have the confidence to make a stand for you. Jenny Craig didn't lose my weight, I did. The problem with weight and obesity is that people don't realise it's actually about them changing the fixation they have with food. We kind of just give up too easily and whenever I felt tired or stressed … I'd say, I deserve to pamper myself by eating this junk.''
