My name is Wendy, I'm 36 years old and have three boys aged 13, 15 and 18.

I have been trying to lose weight all my life, but until recently I'd never been successful. I think I'd tried just about every diet out there and none worked for me.
As a child I lived a pretty normal life, but when I hit my teens, things started to change. When I was 13 years old, my weight nearly doubled over the six-week Christmas holiday period. I was seriously big and the doctors couldn't work out what had happened to me. For the past 23 years I've had a constant battle with my weight and my self esteem.

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to do the Healthy Weight For Life challenge that was being run by a Sydney radio station. I had to visit my GP first to be given the all-clear to go on the program, which was reassuring because it meant they were serious.

The structure of the program really worked for me as it combined actually seeing the weight come off quickly, which I hadn't been able to achieve before, with an excellent system that showed me exactly how I could change my habits to make sure I was able to keep the weight off forever.

The program helped me to focus seriously on changing what I was eating and to increase the amount of activity I was actually doing. It focused on getting the portions right and getting organised so eating healthier foods became easy.

Now I am 30kg lighter and have learnt how to maintain my weight with the new skills I have learnt.

I'm so proud of myself and feel so positive that I approached the local video shop (I have been unemployed for a long time) to see if they had any work available and I couldn't believe it — I got the job!

People even stop me on the street to say that I've inspired them to lose weight and ask how I'm going (my story was in the local paper about a month ago). I'm a long way from where I was six months ago and I am never, ever, going back there.

Now that I've lost the 30kg, I can fulfil my dream of going skydiving. I've always been too fat to give it a go (you can't be over a certain weight to go skydiving). So to celebrate my new size and my new life I'm going to do the sky dive I have always dreamed about with my sister and son.

Now that I have finally managed to lose the weight and have learned how to keep it off, I want to let the world know about it and inspire other big people who are struggling with their weight and show them that it's possible, even after being seriously overweight for two thirds of your life. It's important people know that it's never too late.

I want to drop off more kilos to be healthy and live the best and longest life I can.

Wendy's tips for weight loss:

1. Only you can decide when the time is right for you to lose weight and only you can truly motivate yourself to keep going (although help along the way is still important).
   
   So focus on your motivation first. Work out what really motivates you personally (not just looks) eg. to feel in control of your life, having more energy, improving your health or feeling better about yourself. And only start when you are really ready and motivated.
   
   
2. Set short term goals (not just weight loss itself); you get a fantastic sense of achievement when you reach them.
   
   
3. Get your portion size right. Don't just focus on cutting out fat, focus on how much energy you are actually eating and drinking.
   
   
4. Don't diet — make changes that you will be able to maintain forever.
   
   
5. Learn to love walking and do it for fun not just for exercise. Start increasing exercise slowly and build up over time. If you try to do too much too quickly, you will either hurt yourself or give up because it is too hard.
   
   
6. Never give up, if you do fall off the wagon don't throw it all away, congratulate yourself on the things you have achieved, set some new short term goals and get going again.