Four years ago, Dionne Auguste went to her doctor hoping for help with weight loss.
Weighing 117kg and a size 22, she had expected empathy and guidance – but instead received a blunt response.
‘If you take medication like Ozempic, you’ll be on it for the rest of your life. You’re already obese and it’s likely that you won’t be able to come off it,’ the doctor told her.
Dionne hated the idea of injecting diabetes medication to keep her weight down, nor was she comfortable with the thought of being on jabs for life.
But the only alternative offered to her was even more drastic: gastric sleeve surgery.
The doctor told her that if she didn’t have the procedure – in which part of the stomach is removed to reduce appetite and limit how much food can be eaten – she would ‘be fat for the rest of her life’.
The appointment left Dionne on the verge of tears.
‘The doctor didn’t take my bloods or check hormones. He didn’t ask specific questions. It was very black and white. I walked out of that consult and didn’t take his advice,’ Dionne, 43, who now lives in Perth, told the Daily Mail.
At her heaviest, Dionne Auguste (pictured) weighed 117kg and was a size 22. Her doctor recommended Ozempic or gastric sleeve surgery, but she refused both
Instead, she tried to lose weight naturally. Over the course of a year, she lost 32kg and now weighs 82kg (pictured after her weight loss)
Dionne’s complex and challenging relationship with food started from a young age.
Growing up in Essex, England, she was bullied at school.
‘I was constantly judged by the way I looked and how I dressed. Kids would pick on me throughout school and I never felt good enough. It affected my self-worth,’ she said.
‘Bullies at school would spit on me or call me a monkey on the playground. One day I went home crying and asked my dad why I was being picked on.
‘Dad said, “It’s because you’re black. What you need to understand is people will judge you based on your skin. But it’s not a reflection of who you are as a person. Regardless of how others treat you, you need to treat others with kindness.”‘
But she knew her size was also giving ammunition to the bullies. She was overweight and had already fallen into a cycle of yo-yo dieting.
‘Some people are addicted to drugs, gambling or alcohol. My addiction was with food,’ said Dionne.
‘My relationship with food was always challenging and I had a lack of understanding about nutrition. Some days, I would just eat burgers; other days, just salads.
‘I was constantly judged by the way I looked and how I dressed,’ said Dionne (pictured before her weight loss)
‘With emotional eating, there’s a lot of self-loathing that comes from the attachment to food and filling a void. You’re literally swallowing your emotions.
‘It’s also a guilt loop because you’re comforting yourself with bad food.’
In 2012, after moving to Western Australia, Dionne reached her heaviest weight of 117kg. The heat was also a new challenge for her.
‘One day I was walking home, got off the bus and it was a really hot day. I lived at the top of a hill and had the worst chafing on my legs. It was red raw, painful and started blistering. When I got home it hurt so bad that I knew something had to change,’ she said.
Dionne tried the Atkins diet and joined the local gym. She was able to drop a few kilos, which gave her some confidence.
Buoyed by her success, she agreed to join a friend who had decided to climb Everest base camp.
The vigorous training for the challenge helped Dionne lose even more weight. By the time she began the trek, she had reached 90kg – her lowest weight in years.
But she had still underestimated the scale of the challenge. On the first day of the trek, faced with snow and a chest infection, she doubted herself.
‘I remember looking up at hundreds of stairs… I told myself, “I can’t do this,”‘ she recalled.
But in the depths of her despair, something changed. Dionne realised her struggle was mostly mental, not physical, and so pressed on – at her own pace.
Nine days later, she was cheered into base camp by her group.
‘It was such an awakening of how powerful we are, how powerful the mind is. I completed the climb based on sheer determination and believing in myself.’
Upon her returning home, Dionne felt motivated to set even bigger changes for herself – and get down to a healthier weight in the process.
In the background of these achievements, she quit smoking and cut down on alcohol. She also made a concerted effort to fix her diet.
She started planning meals in advance and began cooking almost everything from scratch, using as many healthy and natural ingredients as possible.
‘I’ve always loved cooking and what’s helped the most has been portion sizes. I try to have a big lunch then a smaller dinner,’ she said.
Another key to her success has been limiting snacking. These days, if she’s peckish, she will nibble on carrot sticks with hummus or opt for fruit or a smoothie.
Dionne has lost a further eight kilos since returning from Everest and now weighs 82kg.
And since having excess skin removed from her back and stomach last October, she has now set her goal weight at 75kg.
She’s determined she’ll get there.
‘Whenever I struggle with anything in life, I say to myself, “You’ve climbed Everest, you’re fine,”‘ she said.
Looking back, Dionne is proud she didn’t take her doctor’s advice about Ozempic or surgery, and instead approached weight loss in a natural, sustainable way.
‘For me, choosing a healthy, holistic approach helped me address the root causes, rather than just the symptom,’ she said.
‘It taught me to trust my body, lead with kindness, and make changes that felt aligned rather than forced.
‘This wasn’t a quick fix; it was a lifestyle shift. The changes came from self-awareness and self-respect, which makes them sustainable in the long term.
‘I no longer fill internal emptiness with food. I continue to look inwards and address my emotions through healing instead of abusing my body.’
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