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Review: “It Was Me All Along” by Andie Mitchell

By Diana Cole Sandy Springs Dunwoody Macaroni Kid Publisher October 24, 2014
I am going to give you another one of my confessions.   I don’t like Non-Fiction.   I like books that are trashy.   Yes, you know the ones.  I like the books that you can forget about your life and just live vicariously through the characters.  

I received “It Was Me All Along” by Andie Mitchell in my bag of treats from Mac Kid Meet up.    I though the picture of the little overweight girl on the front cover reminded me of myself at that age.
The back of the book, sounded interesting.  

The following except was taken from Amazon.  All her life, Andie Mitchell had eaten lustily and mindlessly. Food was her babysitter, her best friend, her confidant, and it provided a refuge from her fractured family. But when she stepped on the scale on her twentieth birthday and it registered a shocking 268 pounds, she knew she had to change the way she thought about food and herself; that her life was at stake.   It Was Me All Along takes Andie from working class Boston to the romantic streets of Rome, from morbidly obese to half her size, from seeking comfort in anything that came cream-filled and two-to-a-pack to finding balance in exquisite (but modest) bowls of handmade pasta. This story is about much more than a woman who loves food and abhors her body. It is about someone who made changes when her situation seemed too far gone and how she discovered balance in an off-kilter world. More than anything, though, it is the story of her finding beauty in acceptance and learning to love all parts of herself.
As you all know I have a weight issue.   Since I have been 8, I have been the fat girl.   After my mother died, it got worse.     When I was twelve, I was sent by my Dad to a Sport Camp aka “Fat Camp”, aka “The Farm” My wedding dress was a 26-28, but sized down to an 18-20.   

I started to read the book and minus the father figure it sounded like me.    I read the book and I kept nodding, yes I did that as a kid with food.   I would hoard and binge on food.   I would hide food from my Dad and Grandparents.  I used food as a substitute for losing my mother.  
 
Andie examines in her way why she was a food addict and the journey it took her own while losing over 100 pounds.   It examines her feelings, most inner thoughts, the difficulties, the good n bad battles, but most importantly her strength.   I feel inspired by Ms. Mitchell to lose the remainder of the 40 -50 pounds I need to get my skin removal surgery.    

This book is not just about weight loss.  But I feel it’s more about facing your battles and succeeding.