I have been a slim woman my whole life. Having been a long distance runner and eating decent food kept my body in great shape.

But I was teased endlessly growing up. “Lucky legs, lucky they don't snap and go up your ar$#*”. People pick on thin women almost as much as they do overweight ones.

Coming from a background of severe trauma and abuse resulted in other symptoms, but not weight gain in my personal case. Low self esteem, self confidence and poor personal love came as a direct result of the trauma.

However, getting pregnant for the first time, I went through a period of self doubt, loneliness, and hormone overdrive. I was feeding, no gorging, on foods to console myself. At my worst I drank 4-6 litres of coke a day, and not one but two man-size meals every sitting.

I went from a size six to a 24 in five months without even realising it was happening. I had fooled myself into believing this was “normal” during pregnancy. Telling myself that it was “all baby” and when the baby was born it would go too. I was blind to my image in the mirror, and honestly didn't see the damage I was doing to myself.

The significant moment for me was eating at a truck stop McDonald’s and becoming wedged in the booth, unable to get out. Stuck. I was humiliated, sweating, turning red, and increasingly more stressed and hyperventilating. Eventually I got out ( I am not writing this from the booth lol) by lubricating the table and sucking in my breath and a gentle lifting and manoeuvering of the belly by my partner, and sliding down under table and climbing out on my knees to a crowd of people. The look of shock on their faces was a defining moment.

Being broke and not having good emotional support, I had to devise a plan to accomplish safe weight loss while being aware that a breastfeeding mother needs to produce milk. I started working out on a sliding glider machine I picked up from the local trading post for $40. I had it beside my bed as motivation to get on it immediately upon waking and working out for five songs which translates to approximately 20-25 mins. I also had two 1kg dog food cans for weights which I used for toning. I did this morning and night. As well as this I stopped all soft drink consumption, and have not ever taken that addiction up again. I also cut my portion size to one third of what I was eating. It took 10 months to lose all the weight.

I have never gained the weight back, and have stayed the same weight using self hypnosis and self healing. Plus the excellent work done by professionals to clear the trauma and give me back my power, and control over my life and body has been permanent.

I believe this gives me a unique advantage working with weight patients in my clinic. I can speak from experience and genuinely know what it's like to have people point and cat call. I've known the rudeness and the feeling inside.

In my personal and professional opinion I believe that weight gain, obesity, anorexia, and most other symptoms are a direct result of trauma or abuse. The patient is hurting in some way and needs to release the emotions, words or whatever “they” need, to be able to take back control, of not just their weight, but their lives as well.