An Apple a Day: A Memoir of Love and Recovery from Anorexia

by Emma Woolf

Overview

A woman suffering from anorexia struggles to understand the cause of her eating disorder and, more importantly, becomes determined to stop starving and start living.

I haven’t tasted chocolate for over ten years and now I’m walking down the street unwrapping a Kit Kat . . .

Remember when Kate Moss said, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"? She’s wrong: chocolate does. At the age of thirty-three, after ten years of hiding from the truth, Emma Woolf finally decided it was time to face the biggest challenge of her life. Addicted to hunger, exercise, and control, she was juggling a full-blown eating disorder with a successful career, functioning on an apple a day. Having met the man of her dreams, and wanting a future and a baby together, she decided it was time to stop starving and start living. Honest, hard-hitting, and spoken from the heart, An Apple a Day is a manifesto for the modern generation to stop starving and start living.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781593765156
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	05/14/2013
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	933,332
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Emma Woolf is the great-niece of Virginia Woolf. After studying English at Oxford University she worked in publishing, before becoming a full-time writer. She is a columnist for The Times and The Daily Beast and also writes for The Independent, The Mail on Sunday, Harper’s Bazaar, Red, Grazia, and Psychologies. She was a co-presenter on BBC Channel 4’s Supersize vs Superskinny; other media appearances include Newsnight, Woman’s Hour, and Radio 4’s Four Thought. Emma’s first book, An Apple a Day: A Memoir of Love and Recovery from Anorexia was shortlisted for the Best Award for Recovery Inspiration. She was also nominated for Mind’s Journalist of the Year. She lives in London.

Table of Contents

Introduction 13

Chapter 1 The Fallout 26

Chapter 2 Love at First Sight? 37

Chapter 3 It's a Family Affair 49

Chapter 4 The Personal is Political 60

Chapter 5 Heartbreak and the Seeds of Anorexia 74

Chapter 6 Things Fall Apart 88

Chapter 7 Confessions of a Travel Writer's Girlfriend 116

Chapter 8 Miracle Cures 129

Chapter 9 On the Road 155

Chapter 10 Right Here, Right Now 169

Chapter 11 Just a Tsunami Inside… 183

Chapter 12 An Inconvenient Truth 195

Chapter 13 Thank You 209

Chapter 14 An Ovary Scan and a Moving Van 214

Chapter 15 Healing 227

Chapter 16 As One Door Closes… 240

Acknowledgments 247

Editorial Reviews

“In this heartfelt look at the causes of her eating disorder, Woolf emphatically states that her anorexia was not the result of striving to look good based on unrealistic media images but rather a mental illness based on her need for control… As Woolf walked through her personal process of self-discovery and change in her newspaper columns, she touched a chord with fellow sufferers, their families and their therapists, whose responses she includes. Her perceptive and articulate account is frank about the mental torment she endured without being morose. Insightful and informative, with fresh insights into the nature of eating disorders.” —Kirkus

"An insightful and fascinating read for everyone, whether they’ve been touched by eating disorders or not." —Booklist

From the Publisher

British journalist Woolf documents her struggle with anorexia. Expanding on her weekly columns for the Times (London), the author chronicles her affliction and her work to overcome it. By her early 30s, she had stabilized after 10 years of starving herself, rising from a frighteningly low weight of 77 pounds to a merely painfully thin 105. She yearned to start a family, and she knew her boyfriend was right when he told her she needed to give up running and start eating more if she wanted to get pregnant. But she just wasn't sure she could do it. In this heartfelt look at the causes of her eating disorder, Woolf emphatically states that her anorexia was not the result of striving to look good based on unrealistic media images but rather a mental illness based on her need for control. She admits that, deep down, a part of her wanted to remain sick: "I needed to be visibly thin; in some strange way I needed the chaos inside my head to show on the outside." Woolf reveals how she avoided food or any social situation at which she might have to eat, while at the same time obsessively exercising and never slowing down. Step by step, she changed her behavior; she frankly discusses which therapies worked for her and which didn't, though she declares herself open to the potential merits of each for other anorexics. As Woolf walked through her personal process of self-discovery and change in her newspaper columns, she touched a chord with fellow sufferers, their families and their therapists, whose responses she includes here. Her perceptive and articulate account is frank about the mental torment she endured without being morose. Insightful and informative, with fresh insights into the nature of eating disorders.

Kirkus Reviews