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Karla began her dieting career when she was just 15 – and then spent the next 13 years on a never-ending diet/binge/emotional eating cycle. This included Anorexia for 1 year, Bulimia for 5 years and Binge Eating for 7 years. Every time she lost or gained weight, she experienced the agony of emotional highs and soul-crushing lows that this style of living and dieting brings. However, all that changed when she stumbled upon a unique non-diet approach, accidentally, while returning from a Weight Watchers meeting.
Wheeling her nine-week-old baby home in his pram on a typically hot and humid Queensland day, the dreaded weigh-in had revealed she had gained weight – again! Karla was so hungry and frustrated with yet another ‘failure’, she reached for the first thing she could find to eat. But after devouring an entire family sized box of Vienetta Ice Cream (which she doesn’t even like!), she had made a decision. A decision that was to change the course of her life.
Full of rage and totally fed up with all the empty promises made by the weight loss industry, she decided that no other person or organisation would ever tell her what, when or how to eat again. She realised that she, alone was the best and most qualified person to decide what she liked to eat and determine when she felt like eating.
That day, the beginning of a non-diet approach to her life was born. Over the next two years – and another baby – Karla continued experimenting and refining her non-diet approach, dropping three dress sizes in the process - going from size 14 down to size 8.
Although initially she never set out to lose weight, that is exactly what happened as a wonderful, and ironic long-term side-effect. Twelve years later, Karla’s size has not changed, which is a small miracle in itself. It's also "proof"of real results. Karla says "Using the traditional diet approach never yielded a stable weight, size or mood for me at any time before in my life. This is my reality and I can give you the tools to make it your reality too. There is no right or wrong way to do a non-diet approach, you are able to make it your own at all times".
Karla founded Life After Diets in 2004, opening her office at The Grange in 2006 to help you enjoy your life after diets achieving your own brand of freedom, your way.
What life after diets isn't…
A weight loss centre. A 'healthy eating' program
A weight loss program pretending to be a ‘lifestyle change’ program.
The focus is not on weight loss – that attitude belongs in diet-land - the focus is always on Your Freedom and feeding your self-esteem.
A gym. A personal trainer. A life coach. A "success" coach and other assorted fanciful job titles.
You won't find any official, important-looking letters after my name. I have never completed any formal training to become a qualified counsellor, psychologist or social worker. That is my point of difference. Instead, I pride myself on being a human being, a hands-on mother, and most of all, a real woman who is using her personal experience to help other women who want to be helped (instead of having it use me). Please check the side bar to your left for details of my professional experience.
We are not an eating disorders clinic. A 12 step Overeaters Anonymous support group. A Lifeline-style counselling service.
And you won’t get a 22-year-old sales assistant who’s never had a weight problem, dressed in a white coat, giving you advice on what to eat!
Herbs, pills, drugs, shakes, blood tests, counting points and portions, scales, tape measures, weigh-ins and empty promises.
“Would you like lies with that?” 
Our mission
To help women transform their relationship with food and weight - freeing you from your weight war
Our vision
In a few short years, millions of like-minded women will turn away in droves from the weight loss industry as we know it, seeking a more honest and holistic approach to an issue that has sucked us dry of our precious time, money and emotional energy for way too long.
These women will be actively embracing the principles of a non-diet approach to their lives. They will truly be living their lives, rather than putting them on hold, until they ‘lose the weight’.
Instead of dropping into their local weight loss meeting for tips on how to diet and deprive themselves, they will be filling up on freedom and empowerment from embracing their new lives as a non-dieter.
Meet the team behind life after diets
This photo of Dean (he's the younger one with the fair skin) taken on the Kokoda Trail, April 2007
My wonderful and unbelievably patient husband, Dean, who has supported me and this business idea every step of the way and managed to turn my crazy dreams into reality.
Our beautiful boys, Ryan now 14, and Nathan 13, who make our world go round - and make it all worthwhile! (This photo to your right was taken when they were 10 and 9... Awwwww....)