Review: "It Was Me All Along: A Memoir" by Andie Mitchell
Andie Mitchell does a superb job of documenting her life and weight loss journey. She begins as a young child of five and explains how and why she developed her addiction to food and how it shaped her life. She doesn’t try to excuse her behavior, just explain it.
Some of Andie’s earliest memories are from the wonderful meals and baked goods that her mother made for special occasions. All her good times revolve around food and she is shielded from the fact that her father is an alcoholic. After her father is laid off from his job, her mother works three and four jobs just to make ends meet. Andie is spending more and more time with her father who loves her and tries to be a good parent but he is inhibited by his drinking. She spends more and more time alone with food as her only friend. This sets the basis for the love/hate affair that plagues her.
I found this memoir very interesting. I loved the way that she wasn’t making excuses for her weight problem, she was stating the how and the why. I also found it very valuable that she didn’t glamorize the fact that after she lost the weight that life was all good; in fact, it wasn’t for her and came with its own set of problems to be worked through and conquered.
This book is for anyone who has ever been on a weight loss journey. It is inspiring and helpful to realize that we are all alike and although our demons for why we over indulge may be different, we are basically the same in our reactions. It is inspiring and everyone who reads it will come away with interesting tidbits to help on their own trek.
I have requested and received this book for review from Read it Forward.