By Vicky Masterson of City Desk 

A SELF-CONFESSED chocoholic has lost almost a stone and a half and started a new life in Australia selling fitness equipment after starring in a new weight loss DVD produced by celebrity hypnotist and life coach Ali Campbell.

At 5ft 3in tall Claire Horn was 11st 4lb and looking for a new career challenge when she volunteered to be a live case study for The Slim Girl's Box of Secrets, a new weight loss system that Ali says allows anyone to achieve a permanently slim figure and incorporates the secrets he has perfected to help clients from rock stars to royalty achieve their goals.

Eight months later, Claire was (and still is) living her dream of working and living in Australia.

"I definitely had a sweet tooth for most things, but chocolate was one of my favourite treats - and when I was in the mood, it was sometimes hard to stop!" Claire says. "Now I feel great, I look good, I have more confidence and I can take or leave chocolate, bread, pasta or whatever it was I used to crave.

"I love the sense of adventure that I feel out here, the feeling of flying by the seat of my pants and knowing that I can do anything I want at the drop of a hat. That's something Ali helped me realise."

Early last year, 25-year-old Claire from East Kilbride was filmed taking part in live coaching, hypnosis and fitness sessions with Ali and Personal Trainer Alba Feely.

The live sessions Ali filmed with Claire demonstrate many of the secrets of eliminating cravings, switching off 'must have' foods like chocolate and dealing easily with stress. These feature on one of two DVDs that are included in The Slim Girl's Box of Secrets alongside a 240+ page book, two audio CDs and a specially designed style guide with tips such as what fashions and colours suit different body shapes and skin tones.

The book and one of the audio CDs both contain specifically designed language designed to be used daily for what Ali describes as weight loss without dieting.

Having learned the techniques in her sessions with Ali, Claire says she now feels totally different about food.

"If I do have a craving now for something like chocolate pasta or bread, I can overcome those cravings very quickly using the techniques I learned making the DVD," she says.

“You're are in control of how you feel about food, so rather than finish a whole chocolate bar, you might just want one square or decide you don't want it at all. I'm eating what I want to now, but just not as much rubbish."

A maths, statistics and finance graduate from Strathclyde University, Claire was in her third year working as a statistician for the Scottish Arts Council in Edinburgh when she started the 'Slim Girl's' process. But she had always harboured an ambition to go to Australia and the sessions with Ali gave her the boost she needed to take the plunge. She now loves her new job down under marketing exercise equipment on behalf of a manufacturer - a role she feels her fresh interest in fitness naturally drew her towards. The job so far has taken Claire to Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane to exhibit at shows.

"The coaching with Ali got me more focused on what I wanted to do and helped me overcome any obstacles or challenges that might have been facing me in getting here," Claire says. "It gave me the confidence to bite the bullet, leave a stable job and my family and finally come over. Being here is helping me to appreciate the things that I once took for granted back home. I'm developing a different way of looking at things in that I've realised, no matter where I am, life is what I make it - anything I want."

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