It Was Me All Along: A Memoir
Andie Mitchell, 2015
Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony
249 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780770433246
Summary
A heartbreakingly honest, endearing memoir of incredible weight loss by a young food blogger who battles body image issues and overcomes food addiction to find self-acceptance.
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. (From the publisher.)
See Andie Mitchell's TEDx Talk.
Author Bio
• Birth—January 25, 1985
• Where—Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York
Andie Mitchell is a writer, recipe developer, and lover of cake. Her popular blog, CanYouStayForDinner.com, shares the inspiring story of her successful weight loss and continued passion for good food. She lives in New York City, where she is the social media director for ShriverReport.org. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
In a moving new memoir, It Was Me All Along, Andie Mitchell describes how her life became a prison of calorie-counting, cravings and self-consciousness until she found a comfortable weight.
Daily Mail
A charming memoir about weight loss and self-discovery.
People
The book’s biggest surprise is how relatable it is: Beneath the extreme eating scenarios Mitchell describes some universal truths about how women connect and clash with food. …It Was Me All Along is the perfect book to read in January, because Mitchell’s total bluntness will inspire you to have a more honest year.
Glamour
Anyone embarking on New Year’s resolutions of eating healthier and losing weight will be humbled by reading Andie Mitchell’s memoir, a poetically written, honest account of her struggles with binging, obesity and the traumatic childhood that led her to seek solace in food.”
StyleBistro.com
[T]he strikingly honest story of one woman’s long journey to self-acceptance. It’s a must-read memoir for anyone who has used food to numb the pain rather than nourish the body.
BookPage
A young blogger shares the story of how she overcame a lifetime of bad eating habits....a symptom of a far deeper problem.... [S]he had to learn to love herself and her body, understand the meaning of life-balance.... A candid and inspiring memoir
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, use these talking points to help get a discussion started for It Was Me All Along:
1. Does any part of Andie's experience mirror your own struggle with weight? Are there any parallels? If so, which parts of her story do you relate to?
2. What are the ways in which you both connect and clash with food?
3. To what degree is food an addiction? Or is over-eating, especially bingeing, more a matter of self-control?
4. Talk about Andie's depression after her huge weight loss. What does she discover about herself?
5. What role did Andie's particular family dynamics play in her over-eating? What about your own early years?
6. Should society be more accepting of heavy people? Are we wrong to place so much emphasis on food consumption, appetite control, and slender bodies?
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)