"I wake up every morning with a bounce, skip and a hop, and I now look in the mirror and see a young woman I’ve never seen before in my life."
Isn’t it clever how a brave face and a good sense of humor can mask an insecure and deeply wounded soul? This and the comfort of food was how I survived the majority of my childhood. However, sometimes it takes just the perfect storm of events to realize a lifestyle change and a lifetime achievement!
It all began when I was around six years old and I developed an addiction to food. My parents were always active and trying to set a healthy example, but this did not stop me from secretly gorging on large amounts of food. Being so young, I was unable to understand the impact this would have on my health.
As the years went by, my addiction sent my weight out of control, making me vulnerable to bullying. I developed a deep insecurity with my body and suffered low self-esteem. The bullies won! I believed I was ugly, fat, no good and unlovable. To “feed” this insecurity, I would turn to the one thing that gave me comfort and made me feel momentarily happy, unwittingly entering a vicious cycle.
In 2008 I was at my heaviest, completely lost in my own body and completely petrified to step onto a scale! I estimate I was around 210 pounds. I didn’t even know who I was. My turning point happened when a family in Hawaii offered me a live-in nanny position, which I didn’t hesitate over.
It was on the lush beaches of Hawaii that I saw all the beautiful, fit bodies I had only dreamed of. This, on top of the fact I had never worn a bikini or a pair of shorts in my adult life, made me feel yet again like the ugly, fat, unlovable person I thought I had left behind in Scotland. Two months into my Hawaiian adventure, I met Brian, my wonderful now-husband, who cared for and loved me so much that he encouraged me to embrace the happier and healthier individual I longed to be.
Then, one glorious day of August 2010, my mom introduced me to The Eat-Clean Diet®. I read The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged, and Tosca managed to explain the missing links in a simple and straightforward way. At 196 pounds I began my Eat-Clean Diet journey! Within just a couple of weeks I felt like I was on top of the world! I was oozing with energy, my pimples had cleared up, I gained color in my cheeks, I was alert and felt confident. Most importantly, I understood the context of my food addiction.
I wake up every morning with a bounce, skip and a hop, and I now look in the mirror and see a young woman I’ve never seen before in my life. I see a face and body that are so defined and chiseled, it doesn’t even look like the person I’ve known for the past 23 years!
Tosca is right when she says The Eat-Clean Diet really isn’t a diet at all. It’s something so much more valuable than that. It has opened so many doors in my life, and has filled my new world with hope, confidence and beauty. Tosca, The Eat-Clean Diet, The Kitchen Table and Oxygen magazine have inspired and motivated me in every way imaginable, and made me believe that anything is possible.
This is not the finish line; this is only the beginning of the rest of my life. My newfound knowledge enables me to enrich and inspire others with wisdom. I have already signed up for a certified personal trainer course, and I placed 5th in the bikini division of the biggest bodybuilding championships in Hawaii on November 18th!
There were days when I believed I was just conditioned to be fat. However, having lost 49 pounds in just 11 months by Eating Clean, I can laugh at that now! I was in the habit of using my sense of humor as a way to protect myself, but now I use it as a way to motivate and make other people smile! My 23-year-old fat girl ghost is always waiting to get out of the closet and haunt me, but this time I have the door padlocked tight!
Maria Maciocia
Honolulu, HI