Diet Secrets of a Former Fat Girl

What's the difference between a "fat girl" and a slim woman? Everything, according to Lisa Delaney, author of Secrets of a Former Fat Girl (April 2007, Hudson Street Press). In another lifetime, the 46-year-old woman was 5'4", 185 pounds and absolutely miserable, having failed at every diet she tried. Unhappy with her job, her love life and her weight, Delaney found herself drowning her sorrows in a gargantuan portion of ice cream one night. She ate and ate until she became physically ill.

"I felt so weak and so out of control," Delaney recalls. "I didn't know what was driving me to eat that way and to stuff myself like that. I had to do something about it. I didn't think about what I was going to do. I allowed myself to see myself as I was. I was a person giving into these cravings. I was so out of control of my appetite and everything. I was really at a place in life where I didn't know what I wanted to do next."

After catching a reflection of herself looking bloated, pale, weak and out of control, Delaney vowed to stop running in circles and to change her way of life once and for all. What Delaney realized right off the bat was that before she could change her body, she needed to change her mind. Too many times she had made weight loss about the "how" and not about the "why."

Are You A Fat Girl?
While some people might find the term "Fat Girl" offensive, Delaney is quick to point out that label has nothing to do with weight. It's not about the pounds at all. Instead it's the way of thinking that comes with the weight. A Fat Girl is someone who hides behind food or tends to have a "give, give, give" personality.

"The reason I refer to Former Fat Girl and use capital letters is because it's about the mentality," Delaney says. "It's about being able to stand up for yourself and say, 'I'm not going to have another piece of cake because you want me to.' It's about not living life for the affirmation of other people. It's about doing what you need to do for yourself."