"Diary of an Exercise Addict"
By Peach Friedman
   

AUGUSTA, GA - Recalling, reliving, and reviewing her own difficult life experiences, Peach Friedman offers a poignant and gutsy glimpse of the destruction of eating disorders in “Diary of an Exercise Addict.” 

A personal trainer and Education and Outreach Coordinator for Summit Eating Disorders and Outreach Program in Sacramento today, Peach Friedman traveled a dark and difficult road of shame and self-abuse following the loss of a boyfriend her senior year in college. A spokesperson for the National Eating Disorders Association, Friedman dedicates her talent to educating the larger society about the horrors of compulsive exercise addictions, bulimia and anorexia. 

In “Diary of an Exercise Addict,” she offers a personal story built on the complications of life dealing with family, friends, lovers, jobs, sorrows, joys and self in a society obsessed with weight and image. Within this framework, she takes a gutsy approach detailing her pain, sorrow and guilt alongside her personal, emotional, and sexual connections to offer a full vision of a life in the process of a constant war between self-acceptance and self-denial.  In this regard, her fall into exercise bulimia reminds readers that such a stark drop into darkness, guilt, shame and pain can happen to anyone. Furthermore, as her progress and recovery — offered in gritty detail, offered with pure narrative strength and exquisite detail — testify, the anyone who falls into this disorder will face tremendous obstacles in leaving the addiction behind. 

Written with tremendous heart and offering a courageous vision of one woman’s struggle with her self confidence and battle with her own body, Friedman offers a testament to the courage and passion necessary to escape a cycle of destructive behavior. Throughout the book, readers will find a person like any other seeking acceptance of the self in a world that is constantly attempting to judge who they are. Furthermore, her ability to transcend the negative enforcement of societal norms showcases the ability of all of us to step beyond the expectations of others into a life that satisfies who we are beneath the image. 

With guts and passion, Friedman offers a powerful journey in the form of a diary that provides a smooth ride through her own hell into a promised land of recovery complete with the necessary and expected ups and downs all treatment requires.  With a stroke of the pen, she offers a lively version of many of the worries families face in the body-conscious and weight-obsessive American culture. 

Friedman, Peach.  “Diary of an Exercise Addict.”  Guilford, Connecticut:  Globe Pequot Press.  2008.  208pp.  $21.95 Cloth.  ISBN:  9780762748969.