Sheppard - From the First Bite: a Complete Guide to Recovery from Food Addiction

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Sheppard, Kay

From the first bite: a complete guide to recovery from food addiction / Kay Sheppard.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN-13: 978-1-55874-754-8 (trade paper)

ISBN-10: 1-55874-754-0 (trade paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-75739-669-4 (ePub)

ISBN-10: 0-75739-669-0 (ePub)

1. Compulsive eating. 2. Twelve-step programs. I. Title: Food addiction 2. II. Title: From the first bite. III. title.

2000 Kay Sheppard

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of Amer ica. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo copying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

HCI, its logos and marks are trademarks of Health Communications, Inc.

Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.

3201 S.W. 15th Street

Deerfield Beach, FL 33442-8190

R-02-07

Cover design by Larissa Hise Henoch
Inside book design by Dawn Grove

In loving memory of
Stuart Brown,
recovery was the desire of his heart;
and Charlott Chaplin,
who was the dearest of friends.

resh out of medical school and in the throes of my internship, I landed my first job as a doctor: assistant medical director to the Compulsive Overeating Recovery Program. Sure, it sounds like a fancy title, but in reality, I was nothing more than an apprentice. Id co-sign charts, write a few prescriptions and perform the obligatory health check with my stethoscope. But mainly my job was to stay out of the way and let the therapists do the real work.

I cant say that I blame management for keeping me in a low-profile, stealth mode. At the time, I had never even heard of food addiction. Consequently, the chances of me making any sort of therapeutic impact were slim to none. So in silence, I observed... and I began to witness miracle after miracle unfold. Men and women, young and old, who struggled with compulsive overeating for their entire lives, found long-lasting recovery. It was amazing! Needless to say, I wanted to be a more integral part of their healing. So I asked the lead therapist, Whats the best way to understand the origins, treatment and recovery process of compulsive overeaters? Her answer was short and sweet: Kay Sheppard. And she handed me Kays first book, Food Addiction: The Body Knows. It changed my life.

Food addiction: The body knows. How very true. But all too often, family, friends, doctors and maybe even you refuse to listen. Yet your cravings are undeniable. Your binges are irrefutable. Your obsessions are a constant reminder that compulsive overeating is not a matter of weakness or willpower. Food addiction is a true disease.

The connections between mood, food and body chemistry are supported by countless studies. Many note a striking similarity to the underlying physiology of alcoholism. (After all, whats alcohol but liquid sugar with a kick?) Other studies reveal a powerful correlation between compulsive overeating and the brain chemistry of mood and anxiety disorders. Still others focus on the psychological powers that food possesses to either simulate or squelch various emotional states. To fully understand the impact and meaning of these studies, you can either spend the next decade living in a library, attending medical school, then specializing in addictionology and eating disorders, as I have done; or you can simply sit back, relax and begin to listen to yourself. After all, the body knows... and so does Kay Sheppard!

Kay Sheppard is the leading authority on helping others overcome compulsive eating. Her writings are required reading within the treatment community. As a successful author, Kay has a talent for taking the complex interplay between mind and body and making it both understandable and meaningful. As an accomplished clinician, Kay has a unique ability to empathize and touch each reader on a personal level. But the beauty of Kay goes beyond her expertise at prose and empathy. It is her gift of truly understanding the life and times of a food addict. For Kay herself has walked in the shackles of food addiction, but for decades now has found the freedom to walk the path of recovery. Join her. Enjoy From the First Bite: A Complete Guide to Recovery from Food Addiction.

Matthew S. Keene, M.D., is the founder and director of Feeding Your Feelings, a multi-disciplinary team of health-care professionals dedicated to the management of compulsive overeating through the development of human potential. He graduated with honors from Georgetown University School of Medicine and received his psychiatric residency training at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. A national consultant, trainer and psychopharmacologist, Dr. Keene is the author of the award-winning book, Chocolate Is My Kryptonite: Feeding Your Feelings: How to Survive the Forces of Food.

eep and lasting appreciation to generous and gracious friends Barbara Caravella, Jan Brown, Brenda Robinson, Gary Broyhill and John Whalen for your major contributions to this effort.

Gratitude to Lanie Reed, Ellen Dominguez, Pat Caron, Elaine Simon, Pete Meeker, Margot Escott, Dede Neufeld, Diane Fulton, Estelle Accalia and Richard and Penny Evans for your contributions, support and enduring friendship.

Many thanks for the thoughtful contributions from Matt Keene, M.D., Patrick Patrone, M.D., Carl Mashek, Diane Kamerzel, Danna Parkoff, Cynthia Kethley, Katy Kusk, Barbara Bird, Caren Glazer, Fran Shelton, Christine Hazelton, Dana Walling, Tebayane Dearth, Amie Taylor, Mert Rosenberg, Bari Bertoia, Yvonne Clark, Bradley Blankman, Patty Brooks, Judy Smith and Marisa Therrian.

To Alan W., Judy M., Judy Z., Robin S., Cynthia C. and Christine B., thanks for sharing the joys of recovery with us.

Gratitude to the folks at Health Communications, especially for the special efforts of Christine Belleris, Allison Janse and Kim Weiss. Boundless appreciation to Peter Vegso, Teri Peluso and Jackie Kozlowski for your many kindnesses and considerations over the past years. Much gratitude to Kathleen Fox, who did a terrific job creating order out of chaos. Thanks, Kathleen.

To all the food addicts who have taught me about this addiction, especially Janet G., thank you from the bottom of my heart. Together we can do what we could never do alone.

Above all, prayerful thanks to the merciful God, who leads us out of addiction.

family member asks, Where is the rest of that cake we had last night? You react with panic. As your mind is creating an answer for your loved one, your gut is grinding with tension. You say, The kids must have finished it, or I gave it away, but you know the truththat you ate it all. Shame, fear and anguish surface as you tell one more lie about your eating.

Millions of people have lost control over their consumption of food. Diets, fasts, pills, purging and weight-loss programs have become a way of lifeall futile attempts to deal with this lack of control. Recent studies show that more than 50 percent of Americans are overweight and 22 percent are obese, despite weight-loss products and services costing thirty-three billion dollars a year. Over three hundred thousand people are dying per year from obesity. The shocking truth is that these studies do not even include those people whose bodies are at a normal weight or even underweight but who cannot control their eating. They are dying, too.