Book Review: It was Me All Along by: Andie Mitchell
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Book Review: It was Me All Along by: Andie Mitchell
It was Me All Along is a memoir of a woman and fellow blogger Andie Mithcell’s journey with being overweight child and finally losing the weight as an adult.
Andie grew up in a difficult household. Her father was unemployed and an alcoholic and her Mother worked multiple jobs to provide for them. She watched as her father slept through the day and drank all night. Andie’s book describes some bad fights between her parents before her Mother finally chose to leave her father. Her Father never recovered from his addictions and died. Andie used food to comfort and stuff down her feelings. In the book, she describes an amazing Sour Cream Fudge Cake recipe her mother made from scratch (the recipe is provided at the end of the book) and gave a detailed description of how it made her feel while eating it. She describes the pleasure of each spoonful of the batter and icing and each bite of the finished cake in a way I can relate to.
If you have never struggled with a weight issue it will be hard for you to relate to her addiction to food. That is exactly what it is, an addiction. I know this because I have the same feelings for food that Andie describes in her book. Food for some can push down the bad feelings and make you feel amazing, at least for a little while. It is like a drug where you feel high and happy only to crash back down to earth and feel tremendous guilt.
Andie’s book is a little slow in the beginning. She goes into extreme detail of how she grew up and her relationship with food. There is just too much detail so I became bored with it quickly, but at the same time understood she did this so you can understand her addiction to food more and maybe even the reasons why she chose food as her vice. She speaks about being ignored by and made fun of by others due to her weight. The teasing from boys and the realization that no boy wanted her because of how she looked.
Andie reaches a point in her life where she starts to make slow but steady changes in her diet and starts to exercise. A trip overseas seemed to be the real turning point in her life where food stopped being a source of comfort and seemed to instead become a celebration. Andie loves to cook and she learned to cook amazing fresh meals and lost 135lbs! She shares with you how strange it was to no longer be the “fat girl” and trying to get use to this thin person she saw in the mirror.
I felt there was so much of myself in this book. We are the same height and her starting weight is my current weight. Years ago I lost over 65lbs and gained it all back and then some but I remember those thin days when I still thought I saw a fat girl in the mirror. I never truly saw the thin person I had become. It wasn’t until I gained all the weight back that I truly saw how thin I had been.
I love that Andie didn’t go on some crazy crash diet or pop weight loss pills. Her journey wasn’t easy by any means but she has shown through her story it is possible to lose a lot of weight and keep it off. She has also shown me there is hope to have a positive relationship with food.
I think this book is a good read for anyone who understands the addictive relationship one can have with food and wants to feel inspired or feel hope that weight loss can be a reality for you when you read Andie’s journey to not only her weight loss but her inner peace she found with herself and that in turn changed her relationship with food.
Andie grew up in a difficult household. Her father was unemployed and an alcoholic and her Mother worked multiple jobs to provide for them. She watched as her father slept through the day and drank all night. Andie’s book describes some bad fights between her parents before her Mother finally chose to leave her father. Her Father never recovered from his addictions and died. Andie used food to comfort and stuff down her feelings. In the book, she describes an amazing Sour Cream Fudge Cake recipe her mother made from scratch (the recipe is provided at the end of the book) and gave a detailed description of how it made her feel while eating it. She describes the pleasure of each spoonful of the batter and icing and each bite of the finished cake in a way I can relate to.
If you have never struggled with a weight issue it will be hard for you to relate to her addiction to food. That is exactly what it is, an addiction. I know this because I have the same feelings for food that Andie describes in her book. Food for some can push down the bad feelings and make you feel amazing, at least for a little while. It is like a drug where you feel high and happy only to crash back down to earth and feel tremendous guilt.
Andie’s book is a little slow in the beginning. She goes into extreme detail of how she grew up and her relationship with food. There is just too much detail so I became bored with it quickly, but at the same time understood she did this so you can understand her addiction to food more and maybe even the reasons why she chose food as her vice. She speaks about being ignored by and made fun of by others due to her weight. The teasing from boys and the realization that no boy wanted her because of how she looked.
Andie reaches a point in her life where she starts to make slow but steady changes in her diet and starts to exercise. A trip overseas seemed to be the real turning point in her life where food stopped being a source of comfort and seemed to instead become a celebration. Andie loves to cook and she learned to cook amazing fresh meals and lost 135lbs! She shares with you how strange it was to no longer be the “fat girl” and trying to get use to this thin person she saw in the mirror.
I felt there was so much of myself in this book. We are the same height and her starting weight is my current weight. Years ago I lost over 65lbs and gained it all back and then some but I remember those thin days when I still thought I saw a fat girl in the mirror. I never truly saw the thin person I had become. It wasn’t until I gained all the weight back that I truly saw how thin I had been.
I love that Andie didn’t go on some crazy crash diet or pop weight loss pills. Her journey wasn’t easy by any means but she has shown through her story it is possible to lose a lot of weight and keep it off. She has also shown me there is hope to have a positive relationship with food.
I think this book is a good read for anyone who understands the addictive relationship one can have with food and wants to feel inspired or feel hope that weight loss can be a reality for you when you read Andie’s journey to not only her weight loss but her inner peace she found with herself and that in turn changed her relationship with food.
