About the author
My name is Sabrina Simmons, I am a weight loss specialist from Portsmouth UK and I am created the ‘Lose For Life’ system because I too understand the frustrations of weight-cycling, emotional eating and self-sabotage, because I used to be morbidly obese and struggled to manage my weight for years until I created this system.
At my heaviest I reached 23 stones 10lbs, and struggled with health issues, low self-esteem, and depression so severe that nearly cost me my life.
I hated the way I looked, and especially hated the way that I behaved around food, but felt powerless to change.
My self-worth was non existent, and I had no confidence in myself or in my abilities to achieve my goals and struggled to work due to my physical and mental health, so I resigned myself to being a single mum on benefits living in a council estate that I hated due to the amount of poverty, depression and crime present.
I found myself locked into a vicious cycle of self-destructive behaviour deeply resenting myself for not having the willpower or courage to take
control of my life.
I would go through intermittent periods of trying to change, and was a reoccuring member of a well-known slimming club to do this. And I would always start off well and lose weight, but could never maintain the results and always ended up back at square one, feeling frustrated and defeated and disgusted with myself yet again.
I would binge and then purge without recognising that I had transitioned from unhealthy eating habits into an actual eating disorder. I was so deep in denial about the damage that I was doing to myself.
At my heaviest I reached 24 stone 5lbs (approx 341 lbs), and was binge eating pretty much every single day, but my reclusive ways meant that I was getting a lot of time to reflect on things.
I was a single mother to two young daughters and had begun to struggle to look after them properly as even just walking short distances left me dizzy and breathless.
My depression and reclusive ways also meant that they lived a reclusive life too, and it started to also affect their mental health.
I had tried pretty much every single diet around, and was always looking for the next ‘miracle cure’, and the more rapid results it offered the better.
This was when I came across diet pills online that offered exactly that- rapid miracle weight loss results. I didn’t even care that it didn’t look like a legitimate pharmaceutical business, I was desperate to lose weight and ordered them.
Within a few days I had started taking them, and I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t even bother to read the information about them.
Not long after starting them I began to feel unwell and was rushed to hospital with an obstruction in my bowel which had been caused by the tablets.
Then during my hospital stay I suffered from a blood clot in my leg. I was in quite a bad way, and all I could think about was how I had done this to myself. I felt so deeply ashamed that I had let myself get this bad.
I decided there and then to make a change, but knew that slimming clubs and dieting were not working for me.
I had been told so many times that I needed to change my mindset, so I decided to learn as much about that process as possible. I read books on psychology and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and started to realise that if I really wanted to change my weight then I needed to change my behaviour around food, which meant looking at the root causes of that behaviour.
I started therapy and used lots of other health practices too. It was a timely process, but I gradually started to recognise that my emotional weight was preventing me from losing my physica weight, and so I focused all of my energy on releasing that weight and rewiring my brain. And I never once dieted or counted calories throughout this process, as my primary goal was my mind, not my body. But regardless of that my weight slowly and steadily began to reduce. I stopped eating for emotional management, and actually managed my emotions by resolving and modifying the triggers.
I began to feel like I was back in control of my life, and it made me feel empowered.
I consistently lost weight, and gained so much knowledge about nutrition and psychology as
I saw various therapists/health practitioners and extensively studied the science and psychology of weight loss, but as much as I respected the process I always used to think to myself, I wish I could have had all of these tools, teachings and practices from one place. It would have cost a lot less, and taken a lot less time if I had.
I started therapy and used lots of other health practices too. It was a timely process, but I gradually started to recognise that my emotional weight was preventing me from losing my physica weight, and so I focused all of my energy on releasing that weight and rewiring my brain. And I never once dieted or counted calories throughout this process, as my primary goal was my mind, not my body. But regardless of that my weight slowly and steadily began to reduce. I stopped eating for emotional management, and actually managed my emotions by resolving and modifying the triggers.
I began to feel like I was back in control of my life, and it made me feel empowered.
I consistently lost weight, and gained so much knowledge about nutrition and psychology as
I saw various therapists/health practitioners and extensively studied the science and psychology of weight loss, but as much as I respected the process I always used to think to myself, I wish I could have had all of these tools, teachings and practices from one place. It would have cost a lot less, and taken a lot less time if I had.
This was when I decided that my future goal was to create a weight loss system that does include all of the various tools and practices that are proven to help with behaviour changes for permanent weight loss results.
I discovered that there were funding opportunities available in my town for single parents on benefits that wanted to return to work or education.
I applied for funding to study as a weight loss therapist, and was fortunate enough to be awarded that funding, which I match-funded by volunteering at my local community centre.
I studied for three years and continued to work on myself throughout that time. By the time I had qualified I had lost over six stones and had overcome my eating disorder.
These achievements led to me being hired as a health trainer where I then qualified in weight management and ran groups and 1-1 sessions for the NHS (National Health Service).
I spent two years working in this role which gave me a good insight into other peoples weight loss struggles, and helped me to understand how insufficient the weight management approach was.This job led to me moving to a new home, and finally feeling happier with my surroundings, and I was grateful for all of the things that I learnt in this role, but felt this role wasn’t suitable for me any longer as the program they expected me to deliver was predominantly food-led, and I wanted to focus more on the psychology of weight loss and to develop a complete weight loss system including the practices and tools that I had used. So I left this role and returned to studying and completed all of the qualifications that I needed to develop this system.
These qualifications included-
I then set to work on creating the ‘Lose For Life’ weight loss system, and I have dedicated my life to this book, as I feel that the weight management industry is failing people with the food-led approach, and feel it is time for a change.
It is my mission to help as many people as I can break free from endless dieting and weight cycling to achieve weight loss freedom for life.