Carmel - Breaking up with Sugar: Divorce the Diets, Drop the Pounds, and Live Your Best Life

I cant tell you how thrilled I amrelieved, eventhat you found this book. Reading this will be one of the best decisions youll ever make. Bold? Yes. But time is of the essence, my friend, and weve got things to do; bold and brave is our only option. Im in the business of helping you break free from the great abuser in your life.... Sugar, and I take this proposition very seriously.

Now, lets get to you. Lets talk about how Sugar has infiltrated and hijacked your life. I know how much pain, shame, isolation, and suffering this relationship has caused you. I know how hopeless and alone youve felt. I know because I spent many years feeling this way myself, and I now dedicate my life to helping people who know it all too well. I approach this topicand youwith all my heart and my commitment to help you change your relationship with food, divorce dieting, and create your very best relationship with... yourself.

How do you know if this book is for you? Have you ever:

• Reached for a quick cookie pick-me-up at three p.m., only to mow through the entire sleeve?

• Intended not to not finish the pint of ice cream, yet found yourself licking the carton clean again?

• Promised yourself just one bite of dessert, only to find yourself scouring the kitchen searching for more?

• Left your house late at night to get more of your Sugar-du-jour?

• Felt unsatisfied after having a normal portion of cake?

• Had trouble focusing during dinner with your friends because you cant stop thinking about the bread?

• Awoken the morning after a binge feeling sick and full of shame?

• Avoided social situations because you dont feel comfortable in your body and clothes?

• Counted the minutes until your meeting is over so you can get to the vending machine?

• Hidden or lied about how much Sugar you eat?

• Been embarrassed about the range of clothing sizes you have in your closet?

• Had to buy new clothes because nothing you have fits?

• Suffered from insomnia or constantly felt the need to sleep as a result of your eating habits?

• Had a doctor express concern about your healthdiabetes, insulin resistance, high liver enzymes, and the likeand not been able to accept or follow recommendations of decreasing your Sugar consumption?

• Stayed home instead of going out with your friends or family because you just wanted to be alone with your Sugar?

• Gotten into arguments with the people you love the most about your weight, health, eating habits, or relationship with Sugar?

Do you find yourself making promises you cant keep about eating Sugar? Eating more of it than you swear you will? Finding it harder than you think it should be to stop? Do you ever hear the voice of Sugar seducing you back in?

Youre always so good. You deserve it.

Everyone eats treats sometimes. Dont you just want to be normal?

Its a celebration! Everyones having so much fun! Dont be a downer.

You can have a little more, no one will know.

This time it will be different.

Its so good! Dont deny yourself pleasure.

Just a bite or two. Youll get back on the wagon tomorrow.

Youve already screwed up your diet. Who cares what you eat next?

Theres no point in trying to quit; this is just who you are.

Skip the debate, you know youll eat. Lets get on with it.

As you may already know, the voice gets bolder and more convincing over time, and the behaviors more demoralizing. Help is here. I know youve heard that before, but just hear me out. What youre about to read is unlike anything youve seen before. Pinky swear.

This book is about how to set you free in every way possibleso that you can release the weight thats piled on from day-, week-, year-long binges, add energy to your life, improve your health, connect on deeper levels to those around you, and take greater risks. I want to help the light inside you turn from dim to high voltage. And thats just the short list. Freedom in every area of life awaits youand Ive got your back.

Why me? Well, as the old commercial used to say, Im not only the Hair Club president, Im also a member. Your struggle was my struggle, and my passion for helping you to find your solution comes from the deepest and most personal place: as someone who understands the plight of compulsive overeating and food addiction, who couldnt get help because the right kind of help didnt exist. I battled my food and weight disordertipping the scales at 325 poundsfor more than twenty years before I found hope. Much more about this in the next chapter. Suffice it to say, it was bumpy, muddy, and filled with tragedy until finally I was able to piece together a recovery and find a way to create the help I needed. I heard a voice inside my head when I was thirteen years old and attending a weight-loss camp in Connecticut. It said, You should help people. You should make a program that works. So I didamassing degrees, participating in trainings, reading literature, going outside the lines of what traditional fields of psychology, addiction, and nutrition said was right. I opened the doors to my Manhattan clinic, the Beacon, in 2012. Thousands of clients later, Ive never looked back. And now Im here, in a place Ive always dreamed ofexcited, but mostly humbled and honored to be your guide.