Diana (Before and After)

My name is Diana and I have been “dieting” since I was 14 years old. My mother constantly nagged me to be like my sister who was a petite little thing and could eat anything she wanted and still stay thin. I was 5’4” at the time and weighed 135, which was the size of most normal girls, but unfortunately the messages I received led to a lifetime battle with my weight.

So I grew up with a skewed relationship with my body and believed I was just destined to be fat and gross. I finally fulfilled that prophecy after marriage and four children. Over the years, I yo-yoed up and down. I joined Weight Watchers and lost fifty pounds. Then I quit and gained back seventy-five.

Over the years I joined TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), Overeaters Anonymous and Weight Watchers at least three times. At each place I lost the same fifty pounds and once I quit, would gain back seventy or eighty.

Then a friend of mine got me into rowing. I was still very heavy but the Club let me work out with them and soon I was rowing a boat all over Onondaga Lake. I lost a lot of weight. Most days I was working out around five hours. I wasn’t really trying to lose, but the exercise just made it happen.

THEN my body starting giving out, soon both knees and the joints in my thumbs needed to be replaced and that ended my rowing. I started gaining weight in spades. I got up to 350 pounds; probably more but my scale didn’t go any higher. I ended up with adult onset diabetes, sleep apnea and any amount of activity caused me to lose my breath.

In short, I couldn’t do anything. I wanted to play with my grandchildren but that was impossible. Finally, I came to my senses and lost 100 pounds. I started to feel pretty smug about my success when, one day I got on the scale, and had put ten pounds back on. I was frantic; worried that the vicious weight loss cycle, I had experienced my whole life, was beginning once again.

For the first time, I seriously asked God for help. I went to mass, with a prayer in my heart, that He would help me, once and for all, come to terms with my weight. After church I was reading the bulletin and was astonished to read the announcement on the Pray it Off (PIO) group. I called Ellen as soon as I got home and in January of 2008, I became a Charter Member!

Because I had already lost one hundred pounds, the weight loss was slow BUT I didn’t gain any weight. It’s taken me a little over two years to lose an additional forty pounds but as Ellen always says, the time is going to go by anyway and no one has a gun to our heads. What we do at PIO is learn “Why” we overeat and we turn those problems over to God.



I am no longer being treated for diabetes or sleep apnea. I had a run-in with breast cancer that my Doctor told me would have been impossible to detect at my heaviest.

Yes, the progress has been slow but it has been steady and like I said, I haven’t gained anything but good friends and a new healthy outlook on life. I am not done losing but I’ve learned that it will take me as long as it takes me. I will continue on in PIO because I now know that faith is that magic diet bullet that everyone is seeking.

God takes His own time but His plan is ALWAYS what is best for us. It I wasn’t in the right place (church) at the right time (mass) I probably wouldn’t be here today.

Thank you, God.
Thank you, Pray it Off Group.
Thank you, Ellen.