The beginning of the story of 41-year-old Danyiel Durrant isn't exactly so different from ours. As early as 10 years old, she already started becoming conscious about her weight, so she dieted. This eventually became her lifestyle for the next 30 years.
However, the constant need to diet and lose or maintain her weight worked to her disadvantage. The Florida woman who works as a paralegal ballooned to more than 350 pounds.
She was so heavy that she changed her lifestyle significantly. She stopped going to parks and concerts because her knees hurt. Every time she travelled, she chose first class so she could have ample seats. But then, she still had to request for belt extenders.
But perhaps the one thing that concerned her the most was the doctor's prognosis: if she didn't change her lifestyle, she could suffer from a heart attack in 10 years.
She believed that her wrong love affair with food was what brought her to such state. Back then, she believed that the only way to get rid of the weight is to deprive herself of food and to constantly diet. If she messed it up by eating something unhealthy, she felt she had failed.
On August 2012, something remarkable happened. Her sister introduced Weight Watchers to her. Intrigued by her sister's success claim, she decided to give it a try herself, and since then, she never looked back.
Over the course of two years, she turned her life around for the better this time. First, she finally realized that losing weight doesn't have to mean food deprivation and that it's perfectly okay to splurge once in a while. She also liked the fact that Weight Watchers plans allow her to eat most of the things she likes although in moderation.
She also gave up on common vices, such as fast food and soda, exchanging them with diets heavier on fruits and vegetables. She also committed herself to exercise every day for the entire year.
Most of all, her level of bad cholesterol dropped for more than 35 points in the first few months of changing her lifestyle, which meant she's on her way of proving her doctor wrong.
If you're interested to follow her weight loss journey, visit her Facebook page called Down with Dani.
