Lifestyle coach Mary Black's earliest memory of going on a diet was in the seventh grade. At a size seven, she thought she was overweight. Throughout her early 20s, she survived off of Diet Coke and cigarettes, chasing the illusive vision of a perfect body. Though she said she almost died from an overactive thyroid due to Graves' Disease, an auto-immune disorder that was complicated by poor eating and health habits, it wasn't until she quit smoking in her mid-40s that she made a big shift in her approach.
"I didn't want to gain weight, so I joined the gym, grabbed a magazine and learned about clean eating. From that point on, I quit stressing about what I ate all the time and turned my health around," said Black. "I now help other women easily adopt a healthy lifestyle balance with one simple principle: Be more concerned with the quality of food than the quantity. When you are, the quantity will take care of itself."
