The Steam Room

Food Addiction

The Steam Room welcomes Shelly Bell, a fellow Michigan romance author, who is here to talk about her new release, A Year to Remember, and her struggle with compulsive overeating.

In my debut book, A Year to Remember, the protagonist, Sara Friedman, suffers from the disease of compulsive overeating. It affects every aspect of her life, both professionally and personally, although she refuses to see it. Compulsive overeating is not about willpower. It’s not about vanity. It is merely a symptom of the disease of addiction. It takes different forms:

• obsession with body weight, size and shape
• eating binges or grazing
• preoccupation with reducing diets
• starving
• laxative or diuretic abuse
• excessive exercise
• inducing vomiting after eating
• chewing and spitting out food
• use of diet pills, shots and other medical interventions to control weightin
• ability to stop eating certain foods after taking the first bite
• fantasies about food
• vulnerability to quick-weight-loss schemes
• constant preoccupation with food
• using food as a reward or comfort 

Not every obese person suffers from the disease. In fact, many people who maintain a healthy weight may still suffer, only they are able to hide it. Losing weight doesn’t cure the disease and that’s why diets don’t work for everyone. Until the individual deals with the addiction, he or she will continue to suffer.

Since 1960, Overeaters Anonymous has provided support to those with the addiction. Based on the Twelve Steps, it is similar to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). In fact, those in OA use the Big Book, which is actually an AA book. The steps and the principles are the same. OA is not a diet, although the average person loses forty-five pounds.  Attending meetings o fOA and practicing its principles in all your affairs results in many positive changes including daily functioning, relationships, physical health, mental health, and spiritual connection. If you answer “yes” to three or more of the following questions, you may have a food addiction.

1. Do you eat when you’re not hungry?
   
2. Do you go on eating binges for no apparent reason?
   
3. Do you have feelings of guilt and remorse after overeating?
   
4. Do you give too much time and thought to food?
   
5. Do you look forward with pleasure and anticipation to the time when you can eat alone?
   
6. Do you plan these secret binges ahead of time?
   
7. Do you eat sensibly before others and make up for it alone?
   
8. Is your weight affecting the way you live your life?
   
9. Have you tried to diet for a week (or longer), only to fall short of your goal?
   
10. Do you resent others telling you to “use a little willpower” to stop overeating?
    
11. Despite evidence to the contrary, have you continued to assert that you can diet “on your own” whenever you wish?
    
12. Do you crave to eat at a definite time, day or night, other than mealtime?
    
13. Do you eat to escape from worries or trouble?
    
14. Have you ever been treated for obesity or a food-related condition?
    
15. Does your eating behavior make you or others unhappy?

Before I joined OA two years ago, I answered “yes” to all fifteen questions. Not anymore. I’m free from the compulsion, although I still have days when that voice in my head telling me to overeat won’t shut up. Luckily, writing has helped me quiet it. For more information on compulsive overeating, visit www.oa.org.

If you want to contact me with questions, you can contact me at shelly@shellybellbooks.com. My website is www.shellybellbooks.com.

Blurb

When her younger brother marries on her twenty-ninth birthday, food addict Sara Friedman drunkenly vows to three hundred wedding guests to find and marry her soul mate within the year. After her humiliating toast becomes a YouTube sensation, she permits a national morning show to chronicle her search. With the help of best friend Missy, she plunges head first into the shallow end of the dating pool. Her journey leads her to question the true meaning of soul mates, as she decides between fulfilling her vow to marry before her thirtieth birthday and following her heart’s desire. But before she can make the biggest decision of her life, Sara must begin to take her first steps towards recovery from her addiction to food.

Excerpt

Plunged into darkness as the door closed behind me, I couldn’t find the light switch. I hit my knee against a chair and groaned from the pain.The door opened and someone entered the room. I assumed it was Missy coming to rescue me once again.

“I can’t find the light switch, Missy. Do you know where it is?”

Without warning, someone yanked me tightly against his warm, solid body. I heard his slight intake of breath and then he kissed me .I know I should have fought against it, but whoever he was, he kissed sinfully well. At first, his soft lips whispered lightly against my own, seeking permission. When not only didn’t I stop him, but made a little moan of approval, his tongue caressed my lips until I opened my mouth. Only then did he allow his tongue to touch mine, first tentatively exploring the hidden depths of my mouth, and then hard and passionately, as though he’d never get enough of me.

He tasted like a heavenly combination of whiskey and cake. His tongue teased mine in sweet caresses, heating my blood to a fevered pitch. Desperately needing to learn the identity of my mystery man, I lifted my hand to touch his face. He grabbed it away, nibbling on each fingertip then gently brushed his fingers across my cheek. I licked my lips in preparation of more kisses, but instead of kissing me, he spun me around in circles, confusing my sense of balance. As the world tilted on its axis and I tried to regain my bearings, he silently left the room.

For a few minutes, I stood rooted to the spot, attempting to recover from the encounter and craving more from my mystery kisser. Blushing from my response to him, I knew although I never saw his face, I would have made love to him if he asked. Before him, no one in twenty-nine years made my body burn that way.

Suddenly, I remembered the room’s two floor lamps. I floundered around the room until I smacked into one. After finding our coats, I left the synagogue with Missy.

Ending the evening of my twenty-ninth birthday with a kiss from my mysterious suitor should have thrilled me. Instead, I wondered why he (as drunk as I was, I was pretty sure I would have noticed if it was a woman) didn’t unmask his identity.

Was he married?

Self-conscious?

Fifteen or eighty-five years old?

Or even worse, embarrassed to be discovered kissing me?  

A Year to Remember buy link for Amazon Kindle