I want to tell you my story. I want to talk to you about my food dependencies. I want to talk to you about my body, because ever since I was little. I have been trapped in this fat that has been such a burden to me. I want to tell you about my road to freedom. I want to talk to you about my regained femininity. It’s the story of my life: happy one moment, unhappy the next, but one thing I always was, was fat (overweight). At 6 I was a cute little girl but after an operation that required general anaesthetic, my life changed completely and a nightmare started that was not to end until I was 50 !

For 44 years I struggled with myself… in this body that I despised.
I played the clown so that people would look at my face rather than my deformed body.
My relationships were false because my body was not in tune with the world around me.
I wasn’t in control of my emotions.
My bad moods were evidence of my inner struggle.
My happiness was contrived.
My soul was slowly drowning.
I wanted to die... I had lost my inner self.

Of course all my family are fat (overweight).
Of course I’m hereditarily linked with them. But I didn’t want to be like them.
And now I’m proud to have defied this heredity.
At 14 I went on my first diet.
I went to a miracle doctor out of town who gave out little magic potions that made you lose weight whilst eating. Not surprising though - they were amphetamines !
It wasn’t long before the dependence kicked in.
After two years I weighed only 57 kg … but it didn’t last long.
Once the amphetamines were withdrawn from the market, the kilos soon returned:
up to three kilos in a weekend.
Then I started to swallow any pills I could get that reduce your appetite and even strong doses of thyroid extract.
I lost a few kilos.
I knew nearly all the slimming doctors but none gave any real results.

I turned to homeopathy and phytotherapy.
I went to a clinic that specialised in obesity.
I went on a 500 calorie-a-day American diet and injected myself in the knee every day.
As soon as I went off the diet, and I ate normally again, I started to put weight back on.
I also consulted an iridologist and several endocrinologists, without success.
In the midst of all these painful undertakings, I met a doctor who told me to work on my metabolism.He treated me for two years with a ton of medication and food supplements which was very hard going.I took the famous Chinese herbal remedies.
Thank goodness I didn’t end up needing dialysis.
I underwent several kinds of local treatment, like endermology and mesotherapy.
It was in a centre where they rolled me up in bandages soaked in camphor.
It was terribly cold and not humanly possible to endure for a whole hour, three times a week.I lost a few kilos but as soon as I went out to eat I would suddenly put on loads of weight, as if by magic.Then I went to a doctor in Paris who worked on the basis of cellular memory with filters and a tuning fork. I became more serene, less nervous… but that was all. Paris was way over budget for me.

I then tried kinesiology for a year and a half to rid myself of my food dependencies and ended up with a series of ethnomedicine sessions.
I forgot to tell you that I have read over 30 books on the subject.
I’d really had enough of all these different treatments that didn’t give any long-term results. Then I decided to go and find treatment in a health resort, away from my everyday life where I was doomed to fail.
I underwent thalassotherapy and it worked ! for as long as I stayed there.
As soon as I went back into my daily routine, the kilos just piled back on.
As soon as I saw an advert on the tv selling the latest slimming product, I went out and bought it – with increasingly disappointing results.
Then I went to see a series of dieticians who put me on diets that were so strict I couldn’t possibly stick to them.
I had tests done using a specialised machine by a food kinesiologist who discovered that I was allergic to gluten which prevented me from losing weight. From then on I only bought gluten-free products ! And then, without any real success, as my weight still fluctuated between 75 and 80 kilos despite the amount of medication I took a day, I decided to visit a psychotherapist to try and understand why I was so overweight.
This therapy didn’t shed any light either.
I took part in a series of rebirth sessions, took a course in NLP and in transactional analysis, and bought the Louise Hay method on K7 (disk?). I read Albert Glaude’s two books and had several of the catharsis therapy sessions he advocates.
In the end, I decided to give up all my futile and useless efforts.
I wanted to become master of my own body and learn to love it.
For this I had to lose 35 kilos and step out of this swathe of fat I no longer wanted.
Alone, this was impossible to achieve.
I had to seek help from a specialist - no matter who or where.

Two years ago, while I was at the hairdressers, I heard talk about the insertion of a gastric ring. Then I met several people who had had the operation. The results were spectacular and they made me want to have it done too.The people who had undergone the surgery before me were so supportive and encouraging throughout the whole procedure and I would be very happy today to offer you in turn all the necessary support and encouragement.The operation went very well and without pain. I was on my feet very quickly and full of energy. Almost immediately I lost the need to eat so much that had tortured me before.
It was the first time in my life I had felt like that.
Even the liquid food I had to take during the first two or three weeks wasn’t a necessity to me. Then I moved on to semi-solid food. I learnt to eat again, just like a baby.
I felt reborn. My first cottage pie was delicious. The taste of the mince and mashed potato was so different to how I remembered it.

How happy I was to be able to savour the real taste of food again !
As the days passed, I ate more and more new things.
Cheese was so much better without bread. No more need for bread ! Me, who ate almost nothing but bread ! And as for pasta, something I loved so much, I still enjoy it but in small quantities. I just don’t know myself anymore.

Today I have become a real gourmet.
I no longer need to stuff myself with just anything to feel good.
I have become selective.
The word 'diet' has forever been dropped from my vocabulary.
Everything went very smoothly, and for the first time in my life, without sacrifice.

After the operation, it is important to learn to eat slowly, to chew your food more thoroughly, and to set aside time for a meal as you would do for something you like doing.

I feel sated, nourished and completely full with a small plateful.
I don’t ever feel hungry. What a joy it is to eat !
I savour each mouthful. I feel so light…
I can express myself naturally and spontaneously in my new body.
My body reflects the real me.
I am me at last.
I’m living a new life.
I feel like a woman again.
I want to celebrate my new-found happiness with you.
I’m not suffering anymore.
I have been set free forever.
At last, I am thin.
Chantal.

Chantal.