I believe this started in the earliest time of my life, having a European mother and being born during the war years when food was scarce. We were encouraged to eat everything that was put in front of us. I was a very picky eater and remember in my early school years being forced to eat rabbit pie, which I hated, or I couldn't have my sweets. So started my problem that affected by emotional life and had a great deal to do with my overeating. I believe that the repressed anger that I felt within at being forced to do something that I didn't want to do, has affected my health, social life and emotional well– being over the years.

At around the age of 38 my weight started to pile on, the effects of an abusive marriage. However I was lucky that when I joined weight watchers I was able to control the situation and also not to use food as a crutch to cover the hurt and anger that I felt inside. Instead I walked away from the situation. Unfortunately I was addicted to food from an early age, and now food was in abundance and easy to consume. This started to manifest itself in my health, as I once again started the yo-yo syndrome of dieting to overcome my fat. Eventually this consumed most of the muscle within myself, and I nearly died during this time as I over exercised in my fifties to try and control my weight once more.

My body then retaliated and in my sixties the weight just kept piling on, even though my intake of food was getting less and less. My back prolapsed as it could no longer carry the weight. This was followed by my knees, and excruciating cramps that debilitated me further. I had no alternative but to seek an orthopaedic specialist who refused to do anything for my problem because of my weight. Again the anger came to the fore as I went back to weight watchers, to no avail. I ate all the right things, bought all the right foods and my weight ballooned as I became more and more lethargic. I was now at a stage where I couldn't even bend over and cut my toenails.

Then an angel appeared- a small advert appeared in the local paper asking people with an excessive weight problem to ring. I rang and was invited to join the group by Dr Jill and John Engelmann. Fourteen weeks ago, they were the angels that I had been praying for, who explained and showed me where I was going wrong, not only in my eating but thinking. Today I am 12 kilos lighter and now on my way to losing another 30 kilos. Plus I know now that my life span has been lengthened, and I am now able to bend over, and cut my toenails. I now do not fill my body with loads of prescription drugs, or preservative overloaded foods. I will live a pain free life.