Life Beyond Your Eating Disorder

Life Beyond Your Eating Disorder
Johanna Kandel

Do you wish you could be happy with yourself, just the way you are?Get rid of the voice in your head that tells you that you’ll never be good enough? Make peace with food and your body? There is life beyond your eating disorder—and you deserve to enjoy every minute of it. Johanna Kandel, Founder and Executive Director of The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, struggled with her eating disorder for ten years before finally getting help.Now fully recovered, Kandel knows firsthand how difficult the healing process can be. Through her work with The Alliance—leading support groups, speaking nationwide and collaborating with professionals in the field—she’s developed a set of practical tools to address the everyday challenges of recovery.Life Beyond Your Eating Disorder is your ultimate guidebook for the journey back to health, filled with the hope, insight and tools you need to:· Stop self sabotage and sidestep triggers· Quiet the eating-disordered voice· Strengthen the healthy, positive voice· Let go of all-or-nothing thinking· Overcome fear and embrace change· Stay motivated and keep moving forwardComplete with inspiring true stories from others who have won their personal battles with eating disorders, this book provides the help you need to break free from your eating disorder and discover how wonderful life really can be. Johanna S. Kandel founded The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness in 2000, a nonprofit organization dedicated to eating disorder prevention that provides essential resources to those struggling with an eating disorder.An active member of The Eating Disorder Coalition and National Eating Disorders Association, Kandel speaks frequently nationwide, and has appeared on NBC Nightly News and The Today Show, among others.

PRAISE FOR LIFE BEYOND YOUR EATING DISORDER

“A truly inspirational read. Johanna’s book is packed with sophisticated but practical advice on how to recover from an eating disorder. Most important, she offers hope to those who are struggling with these lethal illnesses.”

—Craig Johnson, PhD

Director, Laureate Eating Disorders Program, Laureate Psychiatric Hospital Past President, National Eating Disorders Association

“Johanna brings us an inspiring personal account of how her struggles with eating disorders impacted her life. In detailing the trials and tribulations she faced during her journey from illness to health, she forges an alliance with readers who suffer from eating disorders, offering them hope and helping them to become more amenable to seeking treatment.”

—David B. Herzog, MD

Endowed Professor of Psychiatry in the Field of Eating Disorders, Harvard Medical School

Director, Harris Center for Education and Advocacy in Eating Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital

“Johanna’s warm, conversational tone invites the reader to join her as she openly shares her inner world, and the struggle and triumph of her recovery process. Compassionate, humane and wise, her inspirational story should not be missed. Life Beyond is a must-read for anyone, anywhere, along the journey of recovery from an eating disorder!”

—Wendy Oliver-Pyatt, MD, FAED, CEDS

Executive Director, Oliver-Pyatt Centers

“Finally a refreshing new voice speaks out about full recovery from eating disorders! I am proud to be on the same team as Johanna Kandel. If your life has been touched by an eating disorder in any way, you must read Life Beyond Your Eating Disorder.”

—Jenni Schaefer

Author, Life Without Ed and Goodbye Ed, Hello Me

“Johanna Kandel provides eating disorder sufferers the inspiration to believe in a future beyond recovery. Her exquisite use of metaphors, such as learning to use ‘all the crayons,’ ‘opening the middle drawer’ and the importance of ‘floaties,’ are so vivid that readers instantly understand what actions to take to move them into new spaces. She has indeed choreographed a dance of hope for all who read her book.”

—Susan Kleinman, MA, BC-DMT, NCC

Dance/Movement Therapist, The Renfrew Center of Florida

Past President, American Dance Therapy Association

“Whether you are struggling, in recovery, recovered or helping a family member or friend through this difficult time, this is an amazing resource for you. Johanna’s story gives each of us hope that not only can we recover from these illnesses, but each of us can help someone who may be struggling to find their way back to health and happiness.”

—Allison Kreiger Walsh

President and Founder, Helping Other People Eat (HOPE Inc.)

“Johanna has taken a brave step forward to reveal her journey through an eating disorder and recovery. Not only will her story shed light on this devastating disease, but her tireless work to make sure all people are aware of the effects of disordered eating is truly commendable. Being a recovered bulimic I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I salute Johanna for her tenacity to keep the switch on.”

—Kathy Kaehler

Trainer

Author,

Teenage Fitness

Ambassador, the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness

“This book is an excellent navigational tool for the journey toward recovery from eating disorders. With fierce enthusiasm, numerous insights and boundless encouragement, Johanna carries the recovery torch high, illuminating pathways so others can find a life beyond their eating disorder.”

—Anita Johnston, PhD

Author, Eating in the Light of the Moon

Life Beyond Your Eating Disorder

Reclaim Yourself Regain your Health Recover for Good

Johanna S. Kandel

Founder and Executive Director, The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness

Foreword by Adrienne Ressler, MA, LMSW, National Training Director, The Renfrew Center Foundation

For all the amazing women in Monday Night Support Group.

You are my biggest inspirations.

Quand on veut, on peut. (When you want it, you can do it.)

—ROSALIE BELILTY, MY GRANDMOTHER

(MY HEALTHY VOICE)

Contents

Foreword by Adrienne Ressler, MA, LMSW

Preface: My Mission

Chapter One: Food Fight

Profile in Recovery: Allison’s Story (#ulink_0178613b-508a-596b-b989-51de810bbd5c)

Chapter Two: Give Up the Guilt and Reclaim Your Power

Genetics—At Least Part of the Answer (#ulink_8d917473-3eeb-5390-85d4-d165af742d08)

Make That Information Work for You (#ulink_f4a458cc-5d96-5712-a4b5-e1486ac51bb0)