Jane Dillon has been a dancer all her life. But like many dancers, she’s struggled with her weight.
In her life, she’s been a size eight and a size 22. She has, combined, gained and lost 224 pounds.
She’s been dieting since she was ten years old.
Jane said, “One of my earliest memories is of going on a diet. I was only ten and I have spent the rest of my life from that day forward battling to stay slim.
“It’s heartbreaking to think I have wasted so much of my life obsessed with dieting. I’ve spent more than twenty years on a diet and I am only 31. That’s most of my life. I want to urge young women not to make that mistake.”
When she dieted at the age of ten, she got down to a size eight and weighed 130. By the time she was in her late teens, she was a size 18.
“It was the biggest I had ever been and I hated it. I knew what it was like to be a size 8 and people treated me so differently.”
She decided to be a nightclub dancer, and slimmed down to a size 8 again.
Fad dieting helped her lose the weight, but then it was almost impossible to maintain.
“I would skip breakfast, live on coffee and carrot sticks and tins of tuna and drink energy drinks before dancing.
“I became terrified of carbs and avoided them at all costs. It was almost like a phobia.”
She went up and down in her weight for years, until finally, her metabolism was so out of control that her body stopped responding to dieting.
Though she worked out four hours a day and ate small meals, she still gained weight. She realized the damaged she’d done.
She decided she’d finally stop the cycle of dieting, and just treat her body well.
Now, she’s 5’4”, 148 pounds, and maintains a dress size between 10 and 12.
“It was like as soon as I stopped letting [my weight] define me and treated myself kindly by eating more, my weight stabilized and has remained healthy,” she said. “Everything is now in moderation. I don’t starve and I don’t binge, I just eat healthy meals regularly and treat myself when I feel like it.”
Her advice?
“Life is for living, not dieting. I hope my experience helps save another young woman from falling into the diet trap.”
