Cruze Robyn - Making peace with your plate: eating disorder recovery

Special Praise for Making Peace with Your Plate

Making Peace with Your Plate is a refreshing and meaningful book to help you or a loved one recover from an eating disorder. What makes this book stand out is its unique format of alternating chapters. There is a story chapter, which chronicles Robyn Cruzes recovery, followed by a therapist chapter, which offers practical tools from seasoned eating-disorder therapist, Espra Andrus. Together this unique approach creates a powerful synergy.

Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD

Coauthor of Intuitive Eating

Making Peace with Your Plate is a refreshingly unique addition to the recovery bookshelf. Robyn and Espra not only provide much hope, but also concrete tools to help make recovery from eating disorders a reality.

Jenni Schaefer

Author of Almost Anorexic, Life without Ed, and Goodbye Ed, Hello Me

I love how clearly this book explains recovery. When I was in treatment, I always asked What is recovery? and nobody could answer that in the eating disorder world. This book will help you define recovery and give you tools for change.

Ashley Hamilton

Read this book. It describes the war that rages inside individuals with eating disorders and common sense therapeutic approaches to intervene in that war. I recommend this book to anyone struggling with internal/interpersonal conflictsregardless of their source.

Kay L. Dea, DSW

Professor and Dean Emeritus

University of Utah College of Social Work

This intriguing new book provides two parallel perspectives on recovery from an eating disorder. At times poetic but consistently grounded in the cutting edge of science and research, Making Peace with Your Plate is a richly human description of how eating disorders can affect the thoughts and feelings at the center of a sufferers sense of self. It is especially helpful in that these profoundly personal reflections are matched with advice about practical skills for managing the challenge of full recovery.

Douglas W. Bunnell, PhD, FAED, CEDS

Chief Clinical Officer

Monte Nido & Affiliates

Making Peace with Your Plate provides a unique and meaningful vantage point. You will feel understood as you read Robyns account of her struggle with an eating disorder, and you will find practical tools in the chapters authored by Espra, an experienced eating-disorder therapist.

Jennifer L. Taitz, PsyD

Author of End Emotional Eating: Using Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills to Cope with Difficult Emotions and Develop a Healthy Relationship to Food

MAKING
PEACE

with Your Plate

CENTRAL RECOVERY PRESS

Las Vegas

Central Recovery Press (CRP) is committed to publishing exceptional materials addressing addiction treatment, recovery, and behavioral healthcare topics, including original and quality books, audio/visual communications, and web-based new media. Through a diverse selection of titles, we seek to contribute a broad range of unique resources for professionals, recovering individuals and their families, and the general public.

For more information, visit www.centralrecoverypress.com.

2013 by Robyn Cruze and Espra Andrus

All rights reserved. Published 2013.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Publisher: Central Recovery Press

3321 N. Buffalo Drive

Las Vegas, NV 89129

18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN: 978-1-937612-46-7 (e-book)

Photo of Robyn Cruze Jim Paussa. Used with permission.

Photo of Espra Andrus Nick Adams. Used with permission.

Publishers Note: This book contains general information about addiction and other self-destructive behaviors, and developing wellness and emotional health. The information is not medical advice, and should not be treated as such. Central Recovery Press makes no representations or warranties in relation to any medical information in this book; this book is not an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider.

If you have any specific questions about any medical matter you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you think you or someone close to you may be suffering from any medical or mental health condition, you should seek immediate medical attention. You should never delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice, or discontinue medical treatment because of information in this or any book.

Our books represent the experiences and opinions of their authors only. Every effort has been made to ensure that events, institutions, and statistics presented in our books as facts are accurate and up-to-date. To protect their privacy, some of the names of people, places, and institutions have been changed.

Cover design and interior by Deb Tremper, Six Penny Graphics.

Love to our devoted families, who urge and support us to have the courage to follow our dreams and share our truth.

We lovingly commit this work to all individuals everywhere who suffer with eating disorders, and to all those who have been tricked into believing the lie that their worth is defined by the size and shape of their body.

Table of Contents

Robyn Cruze and Espra Andrus are wonderful women with much to share. Espra has been a trusted colleague and friend for about twenty-five years. When Espra first came to work with me and the staff at our eating disorder treatment center, I anticipated that we would be teaching her. Very quickly I learned that she would be the one doing most of the teaching. She is an astute and wise professional with a compassionate heart. I have more recently become aware of Robyn through her remarkable story. In this book she shares pieces of the puzzle of her life, which will have meaning in the lives of others whose stories also need to be embraced and told. Her story, and her storytelling, is compelling, touching, and impactful. The commentary provided by Espra completes each chapter beautifully.

These two powerful women have teamed up to bring us a rare and substantial work. Making Peace with Your Plate gives a breadth of knowledge and practical help for the illnesses of disordered eating, but it is also an inspiring story of the resiliency of the human soul. It provides evidence that an individual with tenacity and a willingness to be real can overcome human weakness, adversity, and pain and suffering; find peace and joy in his or her own life; and then extend that gift to others.