I was a chubby baby who became a fat adult. My first diet was at the age of 11, with big pink pills that killed my appetite - for awhile. My parents equated food with love (although I'm the only one in the family with a serious weight problem - everyone else is a body type D or E) and so I ate and ate. I managed to get down to 150 pounds in high school and was still wearing a 16. I thought I was thin! A 16 isn't thin! or even close. Joined Weight Watchers for the first time at 17. Have rejoined many, many times; failed every time. Been on every diet out there (or so it seems) and nothing seemed to stick - not even the 6WBMO - until... I discovered that I have an extreme sensitivity to sugar. It permeated and colored my life and explained a lot of the emotional rollercoaster I'd always been on. Always "the fat girl in the corner" I had a beauty queen's face and a fat body. Dates were few and far between and I would think something was wrong with me. Then I'd try too hard and go out with men I shouldn't have been seen in public with - some real losers. Always seeking companionship for the wrong reasons. I hid in my "fat suit" for a long while - it cost me a marriage and nearly cost me a second one. I was convinced I was just no good and that I was defective somehow. I was everybody's friend and nobody's girlfriend. In a last attempt to get something right in my life and weighing my heaviest at 308 pounds, I decided something had to change. A friend recommended me to a doctor who specialized in addictive nutrition. After testing, I was off the chart for sugar sensitivity. When I thought about it, I couldn't remember a day going by that I didn't load up on sweets of one form or another. Artificial sweeteners had nearly the same effect as sugar - I'd use sugar to numb my feelings and get so stupid on the stuff that I couldn't think straight, acted very impulsively and felt awful most of the time. I sweated all the time, even in cool weather, and would do anything to get my sugar. After talking with others who'd had a problem with sugar and kicked the habit, I decided to just do it. Not try. Just do it. I did. It was difficult, but after two weeks, I got out my 6WBMO program (which I knew by heart after a couple of failed attempts) and re-read about my body type and what needed to happen. I got up the next morning, Friday, June 25, 2004 and began the program. I lost 11 pounds the first week, and a total of 22 pounds my first six weeks. I lost the desire for sugar and was on my way to finally getting to my goal, when I derailed somehow. I think it was eating something with sugar hidden in it and it triggered me. I gained up to my current weight of 351 pounds and am determined to not let this get me down. My immediate family has always been supportive and I have really put them through the wringer with one diet after another. My ex-husband was supportive until I gained 80 pounds over the course of 10 years together and he just couldn't deal with it (neither could I, because I didn't know that the root problem was sugar). My current husband is supportive as long as he's seeing results - of course, he has a weight problem too after being bone-skinny for years - but I think much of that may stem from the fact that I've hollered "wolf! I'm on another diet (that I won't stick to)" our entire marriage. Getting honest with him and my family members about my sugar problem was not easy - but this program IS easy, so I'm on my way and can't wait for new doors to open for me!

Calire