Fat Girl: One Woman’s Way Out - Hardcover

O’Garden, Irene

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062507273 ISBN 13: 9780062507273

Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994

Synopsis

For every woman who's ever felt sad, bad, blue, and mad about being "overweight", a sharp, Lily Tomlinesque monologue on one woman's triumph over guilt. In poetic prose, line drawings, and calligraphy, O'Garden traces her journey from ascetic eating regimens, Weight Watchers, and overeating programs to liking herself as she is. Line drawings.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

GET READY TO SCRATCH LOSING TEN POUNDS OFF YOUR LIST OF THINGS TO DO AND START LOVING YOURSELF INSTEAD.

This is not a diet book, a how-to book, the latest findings, or a new theory. It is the intensely personal, delightfully eclectic story of one woman's triumph over the food and body issues that affect us all.

The ideal image of happiness, sex appeal, and fulfillment for women is everywhere: size 8, with every bulge and blemish airbrushed away. Accompany this pervasive image with a lifetime of subtle and none-too-subtle dictates from families, friends, and lovers about what it means to be a good girl, and the result is millions of women who think they'll be happy and worthy when, and only when, they manage to tame, trim, subdue, and shrink their biggest enemy: their body.

Every woman who has ever felt sad, bad, blue, or mad about her weight will find a kindred spirit in this poignant, funny, and liberating account. Through passionate, revelatory prose and line drawings, actress and artist Irene O'Garden shares her roller-coaster story of food- and body-related guilt, shame, and pain; her journey through ascetic eating regimens, support groups, and yo-yo-like gains and losses; and ultimately, her exhilarating and triumphant tale of self-acceptance.

With warmth, wit, and hard-won wisdom, O'Garden narrates her 'revolution from within.' The realisations that ended her battle of the bulge – feeling worthless twists perception like a funhouse mirror; do nothing until you are good and ready; losing weight has more to do with what you think of yourself than what you eat; loving yourself is more fun than dieting – will enlighten and encourage all those struggling to make peace with their bodies and get on with their lives.

"The point of this book is not to tell you what to do or how to be.
The point of it is to:
· Let you know you are not alone in what you feel and how you have behaved around food
· Share things that have helped me with this issue
· Help you and me see that feelings will not kill us, that they are a source of tremendous creative energy, that we can love ourselves no matter how bad we think we are bad is a useless label to apply to ourselves"
IRENE O'GARDEN

Synopsis:

An account of one woman's triumph over food- and body-related guilt, inadequacy, the pain of family disapproval and anger at our thin-obsessed culture. In poetic prose, drawings and calligraphy, the author traces her journey from ascetic eating regimes to liking herself as she is.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0062507273
• ISBN 13: 9780062507273
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96