MAKING IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE

Shelli Johnson shares how she made a commitment to herself to save her health.

- SHELLI JOHNSON

That single question started my final weight-loss journey at age 39. For over 20 years, I’d been on what I call the diet-go-round, jumping from one diet to the next, hoping this next one would be the answer. It never was. I always lost the weight, sometimes 100 pounds at a time, but then I’d always gain it back again in short order after I stopped following the diet. During those decades, I also struggled with eating disorders, primarily bulimia and binge eating. At my heaviest, I weighed 304 pounds and wore a size 26.

I wrote that question in my journal because, after all those years of dieting and learning about nutrition, memorizing calorie counts, measuring food, and eliminating entire food groups, I still could never keep the weight off. I knew there had to be something else going on, and I was determined to figure out what it was.