'Yesterday for breakfast I had pancakes with golden syrup. Then for lunch I had cheese and potato chips on white bread, my son's unfinished peanut butter sandwiches, two Caramello Koalas and some seaweed crackers with cheese. For dinner I had a large barbecue meat-lovers pizza, six deep-fried chicken wings, a garlic bread and bottle of Pepsi. Dessert was ice cream with chocolate topping.
Today, waking up and telling myself I was going to eat well, I have a bacon and egg muffin for breakfast, and, as I write, I am still licking the oil off my fingers from the KFC I had for lunch. Can't wait for dinner . . .'
For every woman who has ever tried to lose weight and failed, AJ Rochester offers her own unique recipe for success - from someone who looked like the last of the lost causes.
When AJ is singled out for a television show on obesity, she is at first appalled and then resolved. Enough is enough. She vows to change her ways and lose 40 kilos - not because she yearns to become a pretzel, but so she can keep up with her little boy and turn her life around at last.
But after years of trying and failing, AJ needs a miracle to lose half her body weight. So she volunteers to be a human guinea pig and record her weekly progress in front of a camera for a television program on body image.
'Confessions Of A Reformed Dieter' charts the highs and lows of AJ's incredible journey, from her first close encounters with a nutritionist, personal trainer and psychologist to overcoming an early setback - waking up in hospital with a broken leg after downing her first cocktail in weeks on an empty stomach - and the triumph of shedding that first kilo.
The result is a funny insightful and inspiring account of a woman who lost more than half her body weight without losing her sense of humour - and discovered a whole new life.
AJ Rochester is a Sydney-based writer, performer, comedian, film-maker, singer, single mother and goddess. She is also the host of popular SBS series 'Mum's The Word'.
