Monday, January 4, 2010

Reading for inspiration

Last night I decided to peruse Amazon.com for diet related memoir type books. Honestly I have never read a memoir on someone’s experience with morbid obesity. The book I found and started reading last night has been interesting. The book, Confessions of a Carb Queen by Susan Blech is the one I have started on first. It is a very honest account of what it is like to be very large ... daily struggles on topics that are personal and taboo … hitting bottom … and rising up and respecting one’s self.


There are areas that I can totally relate … especially the day to day life, social interactions, and the games we play with ourselves. Other things I do not relate to as much …but I am sure that many do. The author is a binge eater … to the degree of hard to believe. Eating many many large meals a day, one after the other, that I cannot really relate to fully. I can certainly eat my way out of a half-gallon of ice cream in a few hours, but not quite in the way that treats food like a drug. Her account is very much of being in a “food induced coma”.

One point of interest … she was not always overweight. As an adult she was actually a “gym rat” and was very into bodybuilding. Another point where we deviate. I personally have NEVER been at a “normal” weight … not since the age of 7 or 8. I am guessing it is a different feeling to know what it is like to be thin … and wanting to re-discover yourself rather than to have always been heavy … and wanting to discover yourself entirely. I fall into the second category.

I’m halfway through. The writing is difficult as the author is not a writer (nor am I for that matter) but I am enjoying the read … and cannot wait to finish this evening. I will say it is brutally honest. I bought the Kindle version of the book. I am a huge dork and cannot bring myself to buy paper books anymore! Check it out if that sounds like something that you are interested in. You will likely see yourself in there somewhere. It is almost like sharing your most intimate secrets and fears with someone. I’ve never had that luxury. Of course now I am talking to myself on this blog, so that is close!

Next on my reading list : Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir by Jenna Fulda.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Allison

1 comment:

Stephanie said...

That book sounds great. As a holistic nutritionist and therapist, I work with many clients with food addictions, and the sugar/carb/alcohol (I consider them all pretty similar) seems to be the most common by far.