I had always enjoyed food for as long as I can remember, and it became a "hobby" from childhood, a way of getting my rocks off. Unsurprisingly, when you are eating for reasons over and above sustenance, you are likely to put on weight. I was pulled up in a routine school health check as a child and confronted with my obesity, and promptly lost quite a lot of weight.

However I was alawys struggling to keep it down and was always overweight although to a lesser degree right through into younger adult life. Around 1990 I went on a very strict diet and exercise regime and dropped to 10.5 stone, and was for the only time in my life the correct weight for my height. From 1992 after lay-preacher training, and then especially in 1993 after my first child was born, I was caught emotionally unprepared and started comfort eating again.

In 1995 when my second child was born I coped even less well. In 1998 I had a minor nervous breakdown and took voluntary redundancy, and retrained to be a teacher. A family crisis in 2002 led me to abandon any kind of nutritional control at all and by 2005 when I gave up teaching I was 16 stone and a 44" waist.

I struggled to drop a stone over the following year but then levelled out at a portly 15 stone. It was in 2007 when I had the opportunity to train as a hypnotherapist and have myself treated at the same time that I finally overcame the mental aspects of my problem and I dropped to a more reasonable 12.5 stone in six months, so by the time I was qualified and launched my own hypnotherapy practice, I was my own best example of what hypnotherapy can do.

However I was still encountering a mood problem, getting either severely cranky or severely fatigued and depressed when hungry. With no time or resources to employ anyone to help me formally, I listened to all kinds of advice and got no universal answer. finally after experimentation I discovered being on caffeine when hungry made me severely cranky, so I cut it out at work. However when I attempted to reduce calories, I then got exhausted and severely depressed.

Finally on a hunch I took strong doses of caffeine with reasonable amounts of food and felt better than I had in years! After a lifelong struggle I now have an understanding of my problem - I have a physical metabolic imbalance as well as an emotional dependence on food. To maintain my current weight thus requires a regime of mental and physical exercise and to keep an eye on calorie consumption. I also have to take stimulants with food during the day.

The story is still not over! I want to find a way to get to 10 stone without becoming either a zombie or a psychopath, but at least right now I can keep a reasonable weight and stay happy, motivated and confident. I have kept under 13 stone for over a year now.