YOUR HOST'S JOURNEY

Deborah J. Wright was a long-time yo-yo dieter and emotional eater.  She started her first diet, very energetically back when she was in seventh grade when TAB was the choice of diet drinks.  It seemed if she wasn't losing weight, she was gaining it and never in that infamous "maintenance" stage for more than three months. It took a toll on her physical health but more importantly, her emotional and mental well-being.

Years of struggling sent her in and out of bouts of depression wondering why she couldn't just "get" it like some people.  Fear of being destined to be fat often sent her to the food in abundance figuring there was no point in fighting it anymore, but these binges only served to send her deeper into sadness and despair.  Then in times of apparent "strength," she would pull herself up and (less energetically than her seventh-grade "TAB" diet) start a new diet in hopes this would be the one diet that would finally be the magic that she longed for.

What she would discover after many more years of ups and downs in her weight and her life, was that there was no magic that she could find in a diet, program or pill, and there were no promises in life that we'd have a smooth passage.  It was easy to focus on losing weight and a diet when there were no stressors in life, but when trying or challenging times came along, she lost that focus and went back to using food as a source of comfort, strength or stability.  Inevitably that weight would creep back on, and she'd find a new set of reasons to hate herself and what she was putting her body through.

After going through one of the most difficult times in her life when several of her immediate family members turned their backs on her and narrowly denounced her or her husband's (boyfriend at that time) existence, she left home and moved several hundred miles away with only her boyfriend and two cats by her side leaving the only support system she'd ever known in her short 25 years . . . behind.

Heartbroken and forlorn, and though all her beliefs, ideas, dreams and even her faith were being tested, she was determined to make a fresh start, meet new people and prove she could do it on her own, but shortly after she and her boyfriend married, infertility struck, and the next several years would prove to only compound the pain she had been holding in deep inside. 

Now, with the fear after test after test, and failed treatment after treatment that she may never become a mother and not having those she used to think she could always count on there for her to express her deep pain and grief over the thought that she may never be a mother, she went to the only constant she'd had in her life . . . food.  This, as you can imagine was like putting fuel on an already roaring hot and painfully depressing fire inside her.

When finally the dark clouds broke and a last ditch attempt at becoming a mother through IVF (invitro fertilization) looked very promising, things started to change within Deborah.  Not much action was taken until after the news came that, yes, she was in fact pregnant, but seeds were beginning to grow in her head and her heart.

Suddenly, life was beginning to take on a new meaning.  She would be responsible for someone other than herself, and because it had been such a monumental effort to get pregnant and would very likely be her only pregnancy, she wanted to do everything right.  The one glaring issue in her life that she did NOT want to saddle her future child and she had not yet mastered herself was the challenge with weight and food.  She knew she wanted to spare her child the depressing cycle she had been on for all of those years.  Something had to change, and it wasn't going to happen with a diet, program, pill or any other external source.  It had to come from Within.

Deborah read books on self-help, healing the heart, and taking control of your eating as well as talked with others and attended hypnosis sessions.  She was hungry to learn ways to heal herself from the inside and take control so that no matter what happened in her life, she had the internal tools and resources necessary to deal with it, so the food was just that . . . food and not a resource.

After giving birth to her daughter, the external work began as the internal healing continued.  It was an interesting battle, but the approach was clearly different this time, and she knew it.  Her daughter didn't make it easy on her, either, because as an infant, she was colicky and would scream until she'd spit up if she wasn't being held. 

In the past, this would have been reason enough for Deborah to just give in and wait until the baby was older or even until she was a toddler and could walk, but the determination to finally make this a lifestyle and not a program of convenience kept her trying to find very creative ways to get exercise in her day even with a baby in hand. 

It also meant finding ways to address the stress and frustration without going to the food and learning  how to forgive those who had hurt her in the past, which was a major challenge in and of itself, but when she made practicing calling on her internal self-help guide and desire for reciprocal understanding a choice instead of a hope, it slowly became easier.  She learned new ways through introspection, talking with others, reading and really being open to these changes and absorbing all that was available to her. 

When the weight finally was gone and the emotional transformation had a very solid foundation, she began successfully teaching others and showing them how they could conquer their internal and external weight issues.  Along the way, Deborah heard of a program that would help her reach more people and decided to bring The Hungry Heart program to Middle Tennessee.

Her desire to reach out and connect to an even broader and larger base of people in need, led her to begin speaking to groups, appearing on a local talk show and making regular guest appearances, but it didn’t stop there.  When she was presented with an opportunity to change more lives and reach even more in need by hosting her own internet radio show and partnering with other groups and agencies to create revolutionary fitness transformation challenges, she did not hesitate.  She knew this was a great chance to make a positive impact on an increasingly overweight and undervalued society. 

Deborah has a Bachelor's Degree in English Communication, is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, a Nutritional Counselor, and AFAA Certified Personal Trainer with years of experience in helping and healing others as they too make their final journey to peace, health and wellness.

Join Deborah and all your friends every Thursday morning at 11:00 CST as she strives to help heal and inspire you from the inside out with a wide array of expert and personal guests, so that you too can begin,

Becoming Thin Within!

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Please note:  You should always check with your physician before starting any weight loss, diet or exercise program.  Neither this site or the Becoming Thin Within show are substitutes for your physician's clearance to exercise.