Diary of an Exercise Addict [Hardcover]

Peach Friedman s chronicle of a life with exercise bulimia is the most detailed and honest example of how this disease can enter and take over your life. She exposes every aspect of the emotional, physical, and mental effects this disorder can have on an individual, and with her candidness, I know she can help so many others out there in the world who suffer from this eating disorder." --Jamie-Lynn Sigler, actress and author of Wise Girl<br /><br />Peach Friedman writes with ruthless honesty and a poet's grace about an addiction that is all too common in our fitness-crazed society. Her story will resonate with every woman who has ever confused losing weight with feeling good, and it will give hope to the many whose compulsion to over-exercise prevents them from leading full and healthy lives. --Aimee Liu, author of Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders<br /><br />A very candid look into the world of exercise bulimia--both the daily struggle with body image and the joy of finding recovery. Through her courage to share personal and intimate details of her life, Peach Friedman shows readers how eating disorders profoundly affect every aspect of a person's life." --Tony Paulson, Ph.D., Executive Director of Summit Eating Disorders & Outreach Program, author of Why She Feels Fat: Understanding Your Loved One s Eating Disorder and How You Can Help<br /><br />Peach Friedman writes with ruthless honesty and a poet's grace about an addiction that is all too common in our fitness-crazed society. Her story will resonate with every woman who has ever confused losing weight with feeling good, and it will give hope to the many whose compulsion to over-exercise prevents them from leading full and healthy lives. --Aimee Liu, author of Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders<br /><br />A very candid look into the world of exercise bulimia--both the daily struggle with body image and the joy of finding recovery. Through her courage to share personal and intimate details of her life, Peach Friedman shows readers how eating disorders profoundly affect every aspect of a person's life." --Tony Paulson, Ph.D., Executive Director of Summit Eating Disorders & Outreach Program, author of Why She Feels Fat: Understanding Your Loved One s Eating Disorder and How You Can Help<br /><br />It was an injury that finally stopped me. I developed tenditis in several places, which left me virtually house-bound and in tremendous pain. My body had literally broken from all the pressure I had been putting on it. I was forced to stop exercising and take the whole summer off. I was inconsolable. It was like a withdrawal, and I cried all the time. Then one afternoon, I bumped into a friend and it all came flooding out. I completely fell to pieces in her lap. We went to see a movie. For the first time in what seemed like forever, I found myself laughing and I remember thinking, "This could be okay". I came out of the cinema, questioning everything I'd been doing to my body, knowing that even if I didn't go for a run, the people who loved me were still there beside me, and I was still here. I developed a motivation to be well, and a growing compassion for women and what we put ourselves through to achieve some idea of perfection. Listening to my body was a true saviour. I realised that you don't need to force it. It will tell you when it wants to eat and when it wants to move. When I see pictures of myself from back then, it breaks my heart. These days, I educate women about the importance of nurturing yourself. I'm also a mother now, and the last thing I want is to be a bad role model for my daughter. --Sunday Times Style Magazine, 19th April 09<br /><br />A very candid look into the world of exercise bulimia--both the daily strug --Tony Paulson, Ph.D., Executive Director of Summit Eating Disorders & Outreach Program, author of Why She Feels Fat: Understanding Your Loved One s Eating Disorder and How You Can Help

Peach started off like every other 20-something keen to stay in shape - a weekly yoga class & the odd run before breakfast. But her desire to stay slim - compounded by splitting up with her boyfriend - saw her regime quickly develop into full blown exercise bulimia, which she details in her new book Diary of An Exercise Addict. As a result, Peach's weight dropped below 100lbs, her heart nearly gave way as she obsessively burnt off every one of the 900 calories she "allowed" herself a day. And she isn't alone - experts estimate that exercise bulimia is the fastest-growing dieting disorder among 20-&-30-something women, with one study suggesting that up to 400,000 American women have it. Universities in teh US are becoming so concerned about the growing problem, they've started to ban female students from spending more than 40 minutes on a treadmill at any one time, and gym staff across the US now have a written policy requiring them to report any signs of exercise bulimia, where sufferers obsessively - and often to a health-threatening level - exercise to 'cancel' out calories. Peach was eating under 1,000 calories a day at the height of her exercise addiction, but some sufferers will binge on fatty foods before working out to exhaustion to make up for it. 'Exercise bulimia is more common than people realise' says personal trainer Matt Roberts, who trains Naomi Campbell and Tom Ford, and has studios in London's Mayfair and Hampstead. 'I often get new clients who are eating next to nothing and inappropriately training. By inappropriate, I mean they're taking it further than is healthy. They won't go more than a day without exercising, and forgo nights out to go to the gym to exercise off everything they eat. I tell them straight that if they want a healthy, slim, strong body, they need to eat good carbs, good fat, and cut back on the amount of exercise they do. The trouble with exercise bulimia, however, is that everybody thinks exercise is great. Unlike starving yourself, it's socially acceptable to be in the gym every night - it's applauded even. But an excessive amount of exercise - where your body starts to "run on empty" - has a huge impact on your health. It causes your bones to crumble, puts an incredible strain on your internal organs, and causes nervous exhaustion'. Experts warn that exercise bulimia - much like anorexia and bulimia - can also lead to infertility due to low body fat, and cause 'wear & tear' injuries such as stress fractures and sprains. 'Ironically', says Peach, 'when I was seeing a therapist to deal with my shrinking body, she was unaware of my exercise addiction and actually encouraged me to exercise so that the weight I would hopefully gain would turn to muscle and not fat. "If only you knew" I thought at the time, before thinking "S**t, maybe I'm not doing enough exercise. I was spending several hours in the gym every day at this point. Even now, well-meaning friends will say, " Surely it's good to be addicted to exercise?" But it's just as dangerous as anorexia or bulimia. You starve your body, isolate yourself from friends and family, and destroy your metabolism. ' Peach, who turns 30 this summer, is now fully recovered ('It took years of therapy & a few setbacks') and is a personal trainer in California. 'I don't let my clients obsess over their weight or measurements - instead, I help them see exercise as a way of being healthy & energised, not as a means of punishing your body.' And earlier this year she gave birth to a daughter, Victoria, and adds, 'After everything I put my body through, I felt amazement at the fact I was growing a life inside me. I did struggle a little at the start of my pregnancy with the thought of "losing control" of my body, but I coped fine. I intend to do everything I can to teach her to take care of and love her body for bei --Grazia Magazine May 18th 2009

A very candid look into the world of exercise bulimia--both the daily struggle with body image and the joy of finding recovery. Through her courage to share personal and intimate details of her life, Peach Friedman shows readers how eating disorders profoundly affect every aspect of a person's life." --Tony Paulson, Ph.D., Executive Director of Summit Eating Disorders & Outreach Program, author of Why She Feels Fat: Understanding Your Loved One s Eating Disorder and How You Can Help

In 2000, Peach Friedman, a college senior freshly broken up from her boyfriend, set out to beat the blues by beating herself into shape. Running ten miles a day and taking in as little as 800 calories, she fell from 146 pounds to 100 in three months and was at serious risk of cardiac arrest. What Friedman suffered from was exercise bulimia--a newly diagnosed and rapidly spreading eating disorder that affects some 400,000 American women, and which gyms and colleges across America are beginning to take seriously. In "Diary of an Exercise Addict" Friedman recounts her descent into a life-threatening illness, her remarkable recovery, and the setbacks along the way. With refreshing candor she lays bare her relationships with family, friends, and lovers and the repressed desire that finally surfaced as she found her own way back to health.